Monday, September 03, 2007

maps (how I love thee)

I can honestly say, thank goodness someone did the research to figure this out. This is a map of which regions of the country generally say 'soda', 'pop' or 'coke' when ordering a soft drink.

This question was quite the hot topic during my first week of college -- and now we have the data! I confess, coming from a strong soda county, I grew up thinking that "pop" was primarily an old-fashioned term from the '50s and earlier -- i.e. I take my baby down to the corner and I buy him a (soda) pop. Apparently, I was very wrong - we're badly outnumbered. The map also clearly shows the nefarious regional influence of the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola company.

Anyway, the map comes courtesy of mapsforus.org, and their hilariously inarticulate spokesperson.

In a somewhat different vein, this map is pretty interesting too (provided you buy their methodology). Perhaps someone should write a memo to the Democrats.

3 comments:

thetaaquarii said...

Great, thanks Tim. There goes my productivity for the morning. =)

LeahC said...

ha, we had the same argument in my dorm freshman year. I'm a 'pop' person as was my roommate. She told the soda girl on the floor tat it had to be pop because when you opened the can, the noise that it made was not "soda" but "pop". Thought it worked as an argument.

t said...

Hi Eric - I'm sure at least one of the maps on that page has a passing relevance that you can use to justify your time. That's what I do =)

Hi Leah - That is indeed not the sharpest argument I've heard, although I did suddenly get an image in my head of a can whispering "soda" when you open it.