Pop is a Sound
Thanks to Kevin McCullough, I now have data to support my theory that the US is irredeemably polarized on the Great Questions of the Day, one of the most important of which is "what do you call a soft drink in your neck of the woods?"
Some yahoo is soliciting input via a website devoted to the issue, tabulating the results in a database, and providing a county level map showing the results.
It's exactly this sort of thing that God had in mind when He invented electricity and the HTTP protocol.
Oh...my answer? Well, I grew up calling them "cokes" (in the generic sense), but I've evolved in my understanding of the whole sweet fizzy water ethos, and now I refer to them as "soft drinks."
[BTW, this is a bonus post. MLB is stuck at the office (on her day off, no less!) trying to deal with a project deadline. I'm, as they say, all dressed up with no where to go. So -- what the hey! -- how 'bout blogging?]
Totally off topic. . .
Saw this story linked from Drudge, and thought about what you were writing about earlier this month re: Midland.
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/3369257/detail.html
Posted by: TulipGirl at June 5, 2004 11:21 AMMy wife and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to this survey site. We talked about what we called things growing up, and how today it's different. We followed the links to the original survey of 120+ question about pronunciations of various words (mayonaise, aunt, et cetera). Thanks for the interesting link. The world wide web is truly wide.
Posted by: John C at June 6, 2004 05:59 PMAbout the publisher
Random Abbye photos...
Angry Clouds
I am Curious Llama
Ganglia & Brain Cloud
Cabeza del Diablo
Aurora Moreorless
Be careful Who you plagiarize
Coming Attractions
All Thorns, All the Time
Hitchin' a Ride
"...the flower fades..."
Finding meaning in random events
Random Thursday: The Thanksgiving Edition
A Matter of Perception
Reason #21 to wear shoes in West Texas
The Neighborhood:
West Texas Blogs:
[Midland unless otherwise indicated]
Other Texas Blogs:
The Business:
The Church:
The World:
It's not surprising that researchers at the CALIFORNIA (emphasis, mine) Institute of Technology would reach such a nutty conclusion.
Notice their conclusion is not "Users of the term 'Pop' answered this survey via the internet more than users of the terms, 'Cokes' and 'Sodas'." The conclusion they reach has nothing to do with population demographics, statistical probabilities, or anything based on the study's data.
No.
The conclusion scientific researchers in CALIFORNIA (emphasis, mine again) reached has to do with "coolness", which had nothing to do with their initial objective.
Typical California flakiness.
I can only imagine the sort of learned refutation we'd get from researchers at Berkeley.
"Dude, the bennys at CIT totally schnarfed their conclusion. It's way not-happening, man. What kind of hodad would think 'pop' is cooler? They gelled that one so bad."
Posted by: Mr. Freen at June 5, 2004 01:36 AM