"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Friday, June 20, 2008

Soda, Coke Or Pop?

A map plotting the usage of these words across America, represented by yellow, red or blue, respectively. I say coke myself but I grew up in the South; and it's all soda out here in California, so I guess this map is pretty acurate. If you live in the US, is your area of the country correctly mapped?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a rational, free thinker I would expect that you would see the error in what you were taught as a child and succomb to words like "soda", "soft drink" or "carbonated drinking beverage".

I'm disappointed in you, James.

JBW said...

Dude, I said I say coke. Sounds like someone's been drinking some Haterade...

Anonymous said...

I wonder....you're a self-proclaimed intellectual elitist, yet you show us a map of soda pop terminology. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

JBW said...

Just didn't want to talk over your head there, amigo. This blog is for the great unwashed masses just as much as it is for myself.

Seriously though, as an anthropologist the study of the everyday or mundane or lowbrow is a large part of what we do. Trust me, there are PhD. candidates out there sussing out the different levels of monster truck fandom and how they relate to the number of teeth people still have or some other shit like that.

Even elitists (see my post on how elitism has been demonized in this political season) have to mix with the flotsam of society and learn what we can from them. To paraphrase: I don't enjoy watching Nascar, but I could watch Nascar fans for hours. That's entertainment.

Anonymous said...

Bullshit I say! Drop a word like flotsam in there and you think you're being all high society (like Lindsay Lohan). I know you grew up in Texas. I know you pick your nose when nobody's looking (not that there's anything wrong with that). You didn't post the map in hopes of discovering deep insights about the American psyche, you just liked the idea of making fun of southerners (not that there's anything wrong with that either).

JBW said...

Dude, how is pointing out that Southerners say coke instead of pop making fun of them; if anything, I think saying pop is totally gay, so I'd be making fun of Midwesterners (not that there's anything wrong with that either).

Besides, there are so many other, more entertaining things to make fun of Southerners for. I think you have an Alaskan-sized chip on your shoulder. And don't even pretend like you didn't have to look up what flotsam means after you read it...bitch.

Anonymous said...

I agree. The Midwesterners deserve every last bit of "cleansing" they've got coming to them. They should not be able to enjoy the same freedoms as you and I do.

Anonymous said...

Actually flotsam was in the script of a musical which my lovely wife was in years ago. Since I looked it up then, I didn't have to look it up this time. Boom.

Soda is gay. Pop is gayer. Soda pop is gayest. I prefer using the brand name. If I'm having a coke, I'm having a Coke. Not Pepsi or even Risk (which would actually be a Natty Lite).

Now let's talk about this "bitch" comment. That hurt.