Englanders call it Pop.






And we're right.

It's always been "pop" to this Ohioan...

"Soda" just sounds too formal and bland somehow... It only evokes the image of soda water, which is clearly not the main ingredient of the pop of today... What is the main ingredient? Sugar, of course!

And I'll never understand the whole "they're all called Coke" thing...

I fully grasp the concept of the stand-out name brand becoming the iconical moniker for all other similar products (the aforementioned kleenex and xerox), but this only works when all of the products it covers are basically the same...

It's not so in the world of soft drinks... A Coke is nothing like a Sprite, aside from having carbonated water and sugar... A kleenex is a kleenex, no matter what company or variety it is... They're all the same tissue...

But pops are all different, with widely varying flavors, colors, smells, sugar content, etc...

So I see no reason why anyone would turn Coke into an umbrella term...

You can get away with asking for a "Kleenex", or saying "I need you to Xerox this" or "I want some Jello"... You'll get the same result no matter what brand or variety of those products is used... There's no difference between them...

But if you just say "Coke" you get a Coca Cola, unless you tack on what kind you really mean... In which case, you might as well have just said "I want a Sprite"...

Waaaaaater sucks! It really, really sucks!

Setting my comedic geniousness aside for a moment, I always get picked on when asking for a soda from my relatives in Michigan. I'm not sure if I picked up soda in Maryland or Florida, though.