Pop

That's what we called it growing up. Then I left the Buckeye State for the big-@$$ city, only to learn that people had other names for it. My years of innocence were lost forever. Now, Matthew Campbell and Professor Greg Plumb, of Oklahoma's East Central University, have completed a detailed study of one of the burning issues of today's culture wars.



Thankfully, all of Ohio steadfastly refers to the elixir of life as "pop," as does much of the Midwest (except for the Saint Louis region, which has never been explained), while most of the ostensibly more "civilized" Northeast insists on calling it "soda" (a term which my son adopted at an early age, despite all my attempts to dissuade him). That the Deep South would refer to it as "coke" can be understood as a parochial support of one of its greatest exports, as well as an effort to steer vulnerable youth away from the dangers of cocaine.

A more detailed analysis can be found at the research team's "Pop vs Soda" website.

(Thanks, Icarus. This has bothered me for years.)