It's a question that has divided legions of epicureans. It's a debate that has scorned time itself and ravaged the camaraderie that oft forms over the dinner table.

Yes, the question that has defied a straight answer since the Folgate Silver Plate Company of England manufactured this strange creature in the late 1800s: Is the spork a spoon?

So pondered Adams residents in a fiery e-mail battle that echoed the recent "Is the wrap a sandwich?" debate. Get the dish after the jump.

Some approached the matter very simply: "No. If a spork were a spoon, we would just call sporks spoons and the word spork would be entirely foreign."

But others were less convinced. In a far more complex, teleological approach, some argued, "There is nothing a spoon can do that a spork cannot. Thus, a spork is a spoon." Indeed, "The spork is the love child of the spoon and the fork. It's like asking if a mule is a donkey." In fact, some stated, the spork is but a "damaged" spoon that has been "purposefully altered"—but still retains its inherent spoon-ness.

But one Adams resident quipped in response, "I do not think that is how sporks are manufactured."

Frankly, we at FlyBy don't really care whether a spork is a spoon or not. As long as a utensil holds our food up and successfully carries it into our mouths, we won't really create a huge hoopla. But we do have one question: why aren't we discussing whether or not a spork is a fork?

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons/Jmb at en.wikipedia