"Pop" goes the weasel

Another monumentally dumb idea from National Review’s Augean stable of bloggers -- John J. Miller highlights a reader’s objection to the proposed soft drink tax and suggests dubbing wingnut “tea parties” “pop parties” instead:

These people don’t know shit about branding or regional language differences. The whole “tea party” thing is supposed to invoke the Boston Tea Party, taxation without representation, coiled snake flags, etc., right?

If you call it a “pop party,” not only do you junk the historical references, none of the repressed drag queens in Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Patriot Clubs get to dress up in tights and tri-cornered hats. Total buzz-kill.

Also, unlike Miller’s self-admittedly smelly correspondent, many people in the country don’t even call soft drinks “pop.” According to this unimpeachable source, “soda” edges out “pop” in many places, and “coke” (used in the generic sense) dominates Dixie:

[Click here for better look at detailed map.]

As someone who might say I’m going to the store to buy “cokes” when I actually intend to purchase Mountain Dew, I can tell you that “pop” grates on my ears like a buzz-saw on a banjo. Judging from the amount of ridicule I encountered for calling generic soft drinks “cokes” during my brief time living in Boston (where they call soft drinks “tonics,” of all things), I think the feeling is heartily mutual.

So go ahead, call it a “pop party.” We non-teabaggers will sit on the sidelines laughing our asses off as the regional soft drink terminology gap causes you to explode into internecine civil war like so many Mentos in a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke.

[Cross-posted at Rumproast]