September 10th, 2008 GregDDC
I’m sure you all have seen this before, it’s been everywhere on the tubes. But I think it’s interesting so you get to see it again. Isn’t it curious that Oklahoma is one of the most divided states in the nation (along with Florida, South Carolina and New Mexico)? Another interesting item of note is that a lot of the areas of influence center around a large city, look at Chicago. ‘Sodas’ awash in a sea of ‘Pops’.
From Strange Maps:
When on a hot summer’s day you buy a carbonated beverage to quench your thirst, how do you order it? Do you ask for a soda, a pop or something else? That question lay at the basis of an article in the Journal of English Linguistics (Soda or Pop?, #24, 1996) and of a map, showing the regional variation in American English of the names given to that type of drink.
The article was written by Luanne von Schneidemesser, PhD in German linguistics and philology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. And although there might be weightier issues in life (or even in linguistics) than the preferred terminology for a can of soft drink, there’s nothing trivial about this part of the beverage industry.
“According to an article last year in the Isthmus, Madison’s weekly newspaper, Americans drink so much of the carbonated beverages sold under such brand names as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and 7-Up that consumption averages 43 gallons per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States,” Von Schneidemesser begins her article. “The Statistical Abstract of the United States (1994) confirms this: 44.1 gallons per person in 1992, compared to the next most consumed beverages: beer (32.7 gallons), coffee (27.8 gallons), and milk (25.3 gallons).”
It must be that ubiquity of soft drinks that has made this pop vs soda map the single-most submitted map to this blog, sent in by over 100 contributors. The map details the areas where certain usages predominate.
- coke: this generic term for soft drinks predominates throughout the South, New Mexico, central Indiana and in a few other single counties in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. ‘Coke’ obviously derives from Coca-Cola, the brand-name of the soft drink originally manufactured in Atlanta (which explains its use as a generic term for all soft drinks in the South).
- pop: dominates the Northwest, Great Plains and Midwest. The world ‘pop’ was introduced by Robert Southey, the British Poet Laureate (1774-1843), to whom we also owe the word ‘autobiography’, among others. In 1812, he wrote: A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn. Even though it was introduced by a Poet Laureate, the term ‘pop’ is considered unsophisticated by some, because it is onomatopaeic.
- soda: prevalent in the Northeast, greater Miami, the area in Missouri and Illinois surrounding St Louis and parts of northern California. ‘Soda’ derives from ‘soda-water’ (also called club soda, carbonated or sparkling water or seltzer). It’s produced by dissolving carbon dioxide gas in plain water, a procedure developed by Joseph Priestly in the latter half of the 18th century. The fizziness of soda-water caused the term ‘soda’ to be associated with later, similarly carbonated soft drinks.
- Other, lesser-used terms include ‘dope’ in the Carolinas and ‘tonic’ in and around Boston, both fading in popularity. Other generic terms for soft drinks outside the US include ‘pop’ (Canada), ‘mineral’ (Ireland), ‘soft drink’ (New Zealand and Australia). The term ‘soft drink’, finally, arose to contrast said beverages with hard (i.e. alcoholic) drinks.
August 7th, 2008 GregDDC
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This is great. I think they should turn this into a commercial for KFC and Pizza Hut. Also, this link was recommended to me by the lovely Jamie Sue. Thanks dahlin’, you’re swell.
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A New York man who pleaded guilty to murder in Oregon in exchange for buckets of fried chicken will get calzones and pizza to go with his life sentence.
Tremayne Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder — but only if he got a break from jail food.
Tremayne Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder — but only if he got a break from jail food.
Tremayne Durham, 33, of New York City, admitted last month that he fatally shot Adam Calbreath, 39, of Gresham, in June 2006. Durham wanted to sell ice cream and ordered an $18,000 truck from an Oregon company. He later changed his mind, but the company wouldn’t provide a refund.
The would-be ice cream man came to Oregon and killed Calbreath, a former employee of the company, while looking for its owner, authorities said.
Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder — but only if he could get a break from jail food. The judge agreed and granted Durham a feast of KFC chicken, Popeye’s chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake and ice cream.
After Wednesday’s sentencing, Durham was to get the rest of the deal — calzones, lasagna, pizza and ice cream, his defense attorney confirmed. They will pay the tab.
Durham also got married Wednesday in a civil ceremony at the Portland courthouse. The wedding to Vanessa Davis, 48, also of New York City, was not part of the plea deal that will give Durham a chance for parole after 30 years.
Deputy District Attorney Josh Lamborn said Multnomah County Judge Eric Bergstrom made the right call in allowing the unusual plea agreement because it saved the expense of a trial and possible appeals.
July 24th, 2008 GregDDC
Doug sent me a messed up video about honey, give it a watch.
Isn’t that the most messed up thing you have seen in a while? I think watching cakefarts or even puddingfarts(both are not even CLOSE to SFW) is better than that. What does it feel like to be the girl who only sings backup? Did she cry herself to sleep when she didn’t get the lead role in the commerical? So I, of course, bought some Maharishi Vedic Organic Honey for Doug because I am irresponsible with money. It’s on the way buddy. Save some for me!
From the item description:
This zesty yet sweet taste will satisfy the most discriminating palette. Produced from August to October, with influences from Simha Rashi (Leo) and Kanya Rashi (Virgo). Has a nourishing effect on the:
• optic nerve and the sense of sight
• sense of taste, facial nerve and facial expressions
“Captures the lemony freshness of early fall.”
“Like a bouquet of flowers.”
June 16th, 2008 GregDDC
I bought what could possibly be the coolest shirt ever made. I just feel bad for the rest of you because it sold out. Shirt.woot is truly the greatest website ever.
May 5th, 2008 GregDDC
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Jake and I went to CAPE! 2008 this Saturday in Dallas. CAPE! is an annual comic convention that is every May 3rd (which is Free Comic Book Day). To get an idea of what it was like there are a few flickr collections you can look at: here, here and here. The event was sponsored by Zeus Comics that was right next door.
The event is basically 4 or 5 large tents lined with comic book writers and artists. Almost everyone had a book they were selling and a lot of them were doing comissioned sketches. It was a good chance to chat up some intersting people and to see lots and lots of talent.
Jake and I each got a sketch from Josh Howard and a print from Ivan Flores. They’re pretty awesome. Many free comics were had and other sketches were commissioned. Other people are talking about it too!
Afterwards Jake and I raided Majestic Liquors and bought most of the New Belgium products they had in the refrigerator. It is delicious and tasty.
May 2nd, 2008 GregDDC
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We are getting another hibachi-style restaurant in Norman in between Red Lobster and Saltgrass. The name of this establishment is Yamato.
I thought this was an interesting choice in names considering the history around the Yamato class battleship and the namesake flagship, the Yamato. It turns out that Yamato means quite a few different things in Japanese culture. The main usage for the word Yamato is as a name for mainland Japanese. That’s what the name probably means, but I set out to write an article about the history of the Yamato battleship and I plan to do just that. Got it‽
The Yamato class battleship and the namesake ship the Yamato were launched and commissioned near the end of 1941. The five proposed Yamato class ships were designed to out-class any ship the Americans could possibly build (The size of our ships was limited by the width and length of the locks at the Panama Canal). At 460mm her guns were a full 2 inches wider than the largest Allied guns. That’s big. Real big.
From there it doesn’t look so good for the Yamato. She lost her flagship status when it was given to her sister ship the Musashi. Then she spent the next two and a half years being added to or fixed with no real combat seen. She was hit by a torpedo shot by the USS Skate. The next battle she saw was during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in which her sister ship the Musashi was destroyed by American airpower.
Her final mission was a suicide mission. On April 6th 1945 she sailed against more than 1,000 American ships. The plan was to drive her ashore at Okinawa making herself an unsinkable gun battery. This plan was not realized, far from it. She was detected leaving port by US submarines and had no aircover during this mission. The Yamato put up an impressive display of firepower with no real results, the American airplanes began strafing runs with follow-up bombing runs at 0830 April 6th, 1945. The aircraft were able to easily cut the Yamato’s defenses and drop the bombs from 500ft about her deck saying that, “at this distance a miss was impossible”. Torpedo planes were launched and drove the attack to only one side of the ship (port) causing her to list and capsize. Around 1400 hours the command was given to abandon ship. Only 280 of the 2,778 souls aboard were saved. Only 10 American aircraft and 12 airmen were lost to the Yamato. Naval gunfire took no part in Yamato’s demise.
This marked the end of an era for Japanese military superiority, served as a death knell for the Japanese war effort and punctuated the fact that the, “battleship had been supplanted by the aircraft carrier as the queen of the sea”.
It’s a real shame that a ship with such great history could be represented by such a lacklustre restaurant. Then again, it probably is called Yamato because that’s another word for the Japanese people. I like my version better though, you can taste the defeat.
February 26th, 2008 GregDDC
Jake, Michael and took part in a century egg taste test this weekend. I say taste test because ‘eating’ is not the proper word. We did manage to get our respective eggs in our mouths but they didn’t make it much further. I believe that the combination of the strong smell of ammonia, the sickly looking egg color and unfamiliar flavor caused our troubles with eating these. I think I’ll try these again in the future, see what comes up. Until then my next egg-based strange food will be tea eggs. Bring it!
Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and thousand-year-old egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of egg from around 9 to 12 or more.[1] This chemical process causes an “inorganic version” of fermentation, which breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats into simpler, flavorful ones.
Here is a video of Mike (not Michael from the above tale) being a greater man than all three of us combined. Then he washes it down with The Dew. Beastly.
