You may also like
Last night I was the guest speaker at the College of Information Sciences and Technology’s IDEAS dinner. This is a forum for […]
The psalm assigned for today’s Morning Prayer is 102. Powerful, poignant, and a reminder both of the importance of lament in our […]
You all may have seen this, it is a very old story, from January 26, 2005, but it is a wonderful story. […]
Taken at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)


4 thoughts on “Do you want a coke, soda, or pop?”
Speak for yourself, Grasshopper.
When I ordered Coke, it was not a generic thing. Coke was, and remains, my Cola preference.
I mostly said Soda for a generic, but after living in a mix of blue/beige/yellow, I have taken to either ordering directly… or ordering “Soda Pop.” Honestly, though, ordering a generic softdrink just leads one to have to ask “which type?” so I have found ordering the specific is better (and water is best.)
One can never get over the experience of ordering a “Coke” down south, and being asked (before the proliferation of variants of Coke) “Which type?” (and LOVING the fact that “Orange Nehi” could be a valid response.)
You will notice the light beige up in northeast Massachusetts. The reason for that the preferred term up here was not one of the choices. Around here, one orders a “tonic.” It is just once of the new ways of saying things I have had to learn.
Once I was at a grocery store up here and the cashier asked me if I wanted a carriage. I was unaware that horse and buggies were still used up here. It turns out, however, that a carriage is their term for a shopping cart.
And while working at Home Depot, a guy came in and asked if we sold bulkheads. (By the way, “bulkheads” when pronounced with a Boston accent is completely unintelligible.) I told him, of course, that we didn’t sell parts for boats. I later learned that in New England (and apparently nowhere else) a bulkhead is a leaning door that goes into a cellar.
Coke all the way baby!
Go Texas!
POP!!!!!
But I’m a Pittsburgh girl 😉