Elephant Town Chapter 12 (pages 10-11)

I've had occasion to use some of my sky photos as Zoom backgrounds; sometimes one just wants an uncluttered blue gradient without working too hard on it.

Theadora

Plus the less classy version - gut rot!

I have SO MANY sky photos, including one of literally just blue sky, because... BLUE and that is a GREAT sunset, worth it

Minzoku Bokumetsu

They were all fizzy drinks when I was a kid.

Fergus Maximus

The term "soft drink" was originally used to distinguish them from hard liquor, as I understand it.

Dean Reilly

My aunts all called it "tonic." And they said it with Boston accents, making it doubly so.

Andy Ihnatko

Don't confuse tonic with tonic water. Originally from Salem NH and throughout the Merrimack Valley it's called tonic.

Pop where I grew up in Minnesota, but I married someone who says soda and liked that more. People seem to process a second around here when I ask what kind of diet soda they have. In Vancouver, a waitress at a bar/restaurant did not get what we were asking as we went through pop, soda, soft drink, etc. Never saw the waitress crack a smile about it, but our B&B owner was pretty sure they had to be joking, as they knew all of those. - - Neal

NJGR

Yeah I feel like carbonated liquid is ANYTHING but soft!! Like the term "soft drink" was meant to be facetious! (Growing up in rural Maryland, every soda was a Coke.)

Danielle Corsetto

Well, gosh golly gee, miss, that sounds swell! :D

Douglas Appelt

Glad you are feeling better! I grew up in the DC area and always thought of it as "soda". Once when I was very young, when we were up in Harrisburg, PA (where my mom's family lived), someone asked me if I wanted a "soft drink" and I didn't realize it was a soda until I took a sip. I really didn't like carbonation at the time and remember being quite disappointed...

Hugh Eckert

"Would you like a *gulps, sweats* a... beverage?"

Danielle Corsetto

Classy!

Danielle Corsetto

I'm with electric_claire, where are you again, Tim? My family from Maine never called it tonic, that I recall! (Though I don't remember what they DID call it...)

Danielle Corsetto

Where in New England are you calling it tonic? Lived in New England my most of my life in a few different states and never heard anybody call soda "tonic". Tonic is a separate thing with bitters in it.

electric_claire

I grew up in Michigan, so I *used* to call it "pop", but then I joined the Army. Once Basic Training was over, and we moved on to our specific job training, where we were allowed to leave the barracks area and allowed to buy junk food, I made the mistake of saying one night, "I'm going down to get a pop, anyone want anything?" And this kid from California jumped up and loudly exclaimed, "Pop?! It's called SODA." Within a few years, I noticed pretty much everyone said "soda", so I started calling it that, and now that I'm in Chicago, it feels very hard to say "pop", so I tend to avoid saying either. :D

Douglas Appelt

Here in Australia, we call it "soft drink".

Dean Reilly

Glad you're up and about! BTW I am obligated to say that here in New England we call it "tonic." ;)

So glad you are feeling better

Laura J Testa-Reyes