Soda Pop
Since the football map was such a hit, I thought that I'd follow it up with this gem: a map showing the word that people in different parts of the US use to refer to carbonated beverages in general. The big three are pop, soda, and coke. I was born and raised in pop-territory and was shattered as an adult when I moved deep into soda-territory. It just felt so wrong, so filthy. I still can't get used to the folks down south who call all carbonated beverages "coke". How is that possible. The most shocking thing on this map, to me, is that Milwaukee is soda-territory. And I'd like to know more about these "other" names. What do they say up in Lake-of-the-Woods Minnesota? And why just there?
posted by Delany Flushboy @ 3:26 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
Not all southerners call all carbonated beverages 'coke'. I usually refer to them generally as 'soda' or by the individual brand (coke a cola, A&W - my favorite! - pepsi, sprite, you get the picture), for a specific one.
- Just South Of Atlanta, GA
(also in Sarasota, FL, I believe it was usually 'soda')
My parents are originally from Buffalo, New York, and Cinncinnati, Ohio - I think it was usually a 'soda' there too. (also 'soda-pop' and 'tonic')
Whoa, there, South of Atlanta, Buffalo is "pop" country and nothin' but!
In Bflo, soda is something you put in the fridge to get rid of the odor of leftover chicken wings. Pop is what you drink to wash down the wings.
Well put, Sean!
For the curious, you can access (by state or province) the "other" votes. Most seem to be more reflective of the sense of humor (or general nastiness) of the person filling out the survey than of any interesting alternate names (inerestingly, 2 votes for "gworf" in Indiana).
Sean: Why would anyone want to mask the smell of wings? But seriously, I think you could always just crack a Genny and leave it open in the fridge to take care of that. Thanks for pointing out he access to the "other" votes. It does look like it's mostly just joke answers. The exceptions seem to be "soda-pop" (reasonable), "sodie" (new to me and hard to say without giggling, but not surprising), and "tarzan slam" (WTF? This shows up surprisingly often). And then, Beat Authority listeners, there are the nine folks in Puerto Rico who answered "refresco" (only nine out of 145?).
Delving a bit deeper: I just googled "tarzan slam" and virtually every hit is a reference to this map. (It's fascinating to see how many blogs have had threads nearly identical to this one.)
So Hypothesis A: Somebody got the brilliant idea to flood the survey with false responses claiming that "tarzan slam" is something that people call pop.
Hypothesis B: The people who made the survey (guess that would be Matthew Campbell and Prof. Greg Plumb of East Central University in Oklahoma) included the "tarzan slam" response in order to see how fast and far the "tarzan slam" meme would spread, the study of which is actually the true goal of their survey.
Funny, I had the same reaction re: tarzan slam. I was afraid to google it in the fear that is was another "dirty sanchez" type reference. I'm better off ignorant.
My impression, though, is that the "other" responses are write-ins, not choices provided by the surveyors. If so, that means there is a conspiracy of several folks in several states (and a few Canadian provinces) involved.
Curiouser and curiouser.
I think I originally came across this at the Strange Maps blog. It's been around.
Wow, that Strange Maps blog rocks. Thanks, Sean!
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