I was flabbergasted to hear that people called soda 'pop'. Considering pop has other meanings and soda is a unique term, it almost makes me mad. I still don't understand. I'm from California, and as you can see from DJs map this is 'soda' country. Unfortunately, prior to seeing that, I would have said that the whole country would be yellow save for Michigan and the Great Lakes states. They want pop dontcha know.
So that map is depressing.
Also, I find that people that refer to ... a Sprite, or Pepsi, or any soda that isn't a coca cola, a Coke, ignorant, lazy, or retarded. There's a difference if you want a Coca Cola and you ask for a Coke and all they have is Pepsi. You don't turn around and say this Coke is good.
The proper term if you would like to say coke as a general term would be Cola.
"I would like a Cola. A Pepsi Cola, a Coca Cola, an RC Cola, I don't care. Just some sort of Cola"
I have been known to say "I need a carbonated drink" because that is indeed the kind of drink I wanted. I cared not for specifics. It could be ginger ale, cola, or tahitian treat.
