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LOVE IT

• Researchers at the U.K.’s Aston University have confirmed that the five-second rule is real: food left on the floor for less time does indeed get exposed to fewer bacteria.

• Colin Powell shared a mirror pic from the 1950s on social media: “I was doing selfies 60 years before you Facebook folks.”

• Google has removed the underlines from its search-result links. In related news, it is no longer 1996.

• Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall is trying to turn the hit ’90s rom-com into a Broadway musical. Here’s hoping it fares better than Legally Blonde.

THE DIGITS

52.7

Median age of Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show audience, down from Jay Leno’s 58.4. Those numbers outyouth Kimmel (56.2) and Letterman (59.2), but Late Night With Seth Meyers is attracting the spry (49.8) crowd. Watch out.

FLEX TIME

You may not be able to see Belarusian gymnast Katsiaryna Halkina’s head in this photo, but we promise it’s still there–tucked behind her torso as she demonstrates her superior stretching abilities during a ball routine at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup, held in Debrecen, Hungary, on March 16. Halkina took home a bronze medal.

VERBATIM

‘Twilight … is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship.’

SHAILENE WOODLEY, star of the sci-fi drama Divergent (adapted from a young-adult book series), which has drawn comparisons to Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga

QUICK TALK

Alyson Hannigan

Hannigan has spent nearly a decade playing faithful friend Lily on How I Met Your Mother, but the party’s almost over. The show’s finale airs March 31 on CBS. Here, the 39-year-old actress–also known as Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer–talks to TIME.

–LILY ROTHMAN

How do you feel about the crazy-high expectations for the HIMYM finale?

I would have been worried about it before I actually knew how the show was going to end. The script was amazing and wonderful and happy and sad and all of the above.

There’s a fan theory that we’ll discover that the mother has been dead all along …

We could all be dead. Who knows? I love that even though it’s only [two] episodes left, people are still trying to figure out the end. As Barney would say, “Wait for it!”

You clearly don’t share your character’s inability to keep a secret.

If there is a secret, I’d definitely be able to keep it. With the sleep deprivation of the last five years, I’d probably just forget it anyway.

Will you ever give your kids a how-I-met-your-dad talk?

I could show them, when they’re old enough. I can say, “This is [husband Alexis Denisof’s] first episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and this is the prom episode where I realized I really liked this guy, then Mommy freaked out and we didn’t date for a year.”

I just heard that overalls–your Buffy wardrobe staple–are coming back. Willow was ahead of her time apparently.

I’ve seen them. Don’t think I’m not tempted.

Between that and her tech savvy, she’d be really cool now.

The whole show, if it had been on now, would have been much bigger. That’s why I feel like there should be a retroactive Emmy category.

Yes!

Like, “Sorry we forgot you while you were there. Ally McBeal was really shiny back then.”

“ON MY RADAR

Any music picked by HIMYM co-star Josh Radnor

“He used to make us Ted’s Tapes at the start of each season, a CD with some of his favorite songs.”

STAR POWER

Earlier this month, Jared Leto won an Oscar for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club. But he’s also a rock star–seen here performing with his band 30 Seconds to Mars in Moscow on March 16–and, sometimes, a political activist. At a performance in Kiev, Ukraine, just days before the show pictured above, Leto told the crowd that he supported the country’s distancing itself from Russia.

ROUNDUP

Words of Wisdom?

Bored with the stuff in Scrabble’s official players’ dictionary, Hasbro is turning to the Internet–specifically the Hasbro Game Night Facebook page, where visitors can nominate Scrabble’s first legal new word in nine years. Users are allowed to submit ideas through March 28, after which the list will be whittled down for bracket-style voting. We sifted through hundreds of recent nominations–yes, twerk and selfie are in there–to find six wacky favorites.

[The following text appears within a diagram. Please see your hard copy for actual diagram.]

TWUG (n.)

A hug delivered via Twitter

T[subscript 1] W[subscript 4] U[subscript 4] G[subscript 2]

SWEEVIL (adj.)

Simultaneously sweet and evil

S[subscript 1] W[subscript 4] E[subscript 1] E[subscript 1] V[subscript 4] I[subscript 1] L[subscript 1]

EMOTYPO (n.)

The misuse of an emoticon

E[subscript 1] M[subscript 3] O[subscript 1] T[subscript 1] Y[subscript 4] P[subscript 3] O[subscript 1]

QYJOZIX (n.)

A Scrabble rack full of letters that you will never be able to play at one time

Q[subscript 10] Y[subscript 4] J[subscript 8] O[subscript 1] Z[subscript 10] I[subscript 1] X[subscript 8]

CINEMUCK (n.)

The nasty, sticky coating on the movie-theater floor that makes your shoes sound like Velcro

C[subscript 3] I[subscript 1] N[subscript 1] E[subscript 1] M[subscript 3] U[subscript 1] C[subscript 3] K[subscript 5]

BRODEO (n.)

A gathering consisting predominantly of men

B[subscript 3] R[subscript 1] O[subscript 1] D[subscript 2] E[subscript 1] O[subscript 1]

LEAVE IT

• Lady Gaga was voluntarily puked on during her set at South by Southwest. The so-called vomit painter, Millie Brown, said she was trying to “create something beautiful.”

• San Francisco radio station played Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” for 72+ hours straight. Hey, at least it wasn’t “Blurred Lines.”

• Los Angeles–based ice cream shop is offering a four-day cleanse that requires eating nothing but five pints of ice cream a day. Sounds healthy.

• James Franco is releasing a collection of his poetry, because apparently being an actor-director-artist-student is not enough.

FOR TIME’S COMPLETE TV, FILM AND MUSIC COVERAGE, VISIT time.com/culture