I agree with Polar Bear's mother, the taste of pop and soda differs from the container it comes in. Cans taste like aluminum, bottles taste like plastic, and restaurant drinks all taste different depending on how it's setup in the restaurant and the mineral content of the ice they use.

My question is what are they calling it in all those green areas?

I quit drinking any sort of soda 6 years ago. The caffeine was making me wired and the sugar was adding calories I didn't need. If I have to have any sort of soda I pick diet no matter whether it is pepsi or coke.

However, my mother is a soda nut but there are rules to what she will and won't drink: 1. if it comes in a can, it has to be diet coke 2. if it comes in a bottle, it has to be diet pepsi 3. if she's in a restaurant, it can either be pepsi or coke but it has to be diet 4. if it isn't polar iceberg cold, she refuses to drink any of it. I've always made fun of her soda issues but she presists it all tastes different. Whatever!

I travel through several states. It is very regional on the names. Up in the Minn I hear Soooooda at times. The nasal long "O" from up that is a hoot.

When I visited a cave last, the tour guide said the acids found in carbonated soft drinks are the same ones that carved out all of the caves there. Scary, but then again, I probably won't be alive in thousands of years to see if the acids have done anything similar to me that they did to all of that limestone.

The generic term is pop. At a restaurant if I don't notice whether they serve Coke or Pepsi I will either ask "Coke or Pepsi products" or just say Coke. If they ask if Pepsi is ok I say no. I usually drink Mountain Dew. I sort of envy Dr Pepper drinkers. They have their drink of choice no matter where they go.