What's In A Name Anyway?

There are more significant issues in the world today than the subject of this blog entry.

But hey.. it's Friday. Reason enough to tackle the soda or pop debate.

When I was growing up amid the vast cornfields of Indiana, a soft drink was known as "pop".

Or maybe just a Coke.

Yep. Even if it wasn't a Coke.

There were a few renegades who called it soda.

But they were the outsiders.

As I grew up and moved around a bit, I discovered calling it pop would make YOU the outsider.

They called it soda.

So I was converted.

And to this day I'm a soda guy.

Who knew a study of the phenomena would be done by professional researchers.

Too much time on their hands?

Here are some of the results:

COKE: this generic term for soft drinks predominates throughout the South, New Mexico, central Indiana and in a few other single counties in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. ‘Coke’ obviously derives from Coca-Cola, the brand-name of the soft drink originally manufactured in Atlanta (which explains its use as a generic term for all soft drinks in the South).

POP: dominates the Northwest, Great Plains and Midwest. The world ‘pop’ was introduced by Robert Southey, the British Poet Laureate (1774-1843), to whom we also owe the word ‘autobiography’, among others. In 1812, he wrote: A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn. Even though it was introduced by a Poet Laureate, the term ‘pop’ is considered unsophisticated by some, because it is onomatopoeic.

SODA: prevalent in the Northeast, greater Miami, the area in Missouri and Illinois surrounding St Louis and parts of northern California. ‘Soda’ derives from ‘soda-water’ (also called club soda, carbonated or sparkling water or seltzer). It’s produced by dissolving carbon dioxide gas in plain water, a procedure developed by Joseph Priestly in the latter half of the 18th century. The fizziness of soda-water caused the term ‘soda’ to be associated with later, similarly carbonated soft drinks.

And if you want to see a detailed map of the results of this study click this link:http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/308-the-pop-vs-soda-map/

But first, grab a SODA, POP it open and enjoy your Coke.