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Don't touch that dial: Test Pattern tunes into television, movie, music and pop culture links, as well as gossip and idle chat from around the Web.

Every week, msnbc.com entertainment producers Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, Denise Hazlick, Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser and Anna Chan weigh in on topics ranging from TV commercials to movie hype to the latest celebrity blunder. We're not ashamed to admit our love for bad TV or reveal what's on our iPods, and invite you to join the conversation via your comments.



Multi-link Monday: The pop vs. soda debate rages on

Posted: Monday, August 06, 2007 4:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:

Here's our weekly roundup of intriguing, time-wasting Web sites, also known as Multi-link Monday.

• Reader-submitted link: I know I've linked to this before, but I still love it. The Pop vs. Soda page lets you select what you call a carbonated soft drink (pop? soda? Coke no matter what flavor it is?) and then plots it out on a map of the nation. I'm from Minnesota, and we ALL say "pop," none of this "soda" business. Thanks to Tiffanie for the link!

• Have you seen WalkScore.com? Plug in your address (home, work, whatever) and it rates how walkable the area is as far as reaching stores, theaters and the like. I wish I'd known about this when we were looking for a house.

• Ruh-roh! Real crime, or "Scooby-Doo" plot? Take this quiz and see if you can tell.

• "Superman Returns" has been out for a year, but this game is still kind of addictive: Play Jimmy Olsen and see if you can snap a front-page photo of Superman. I am Super-horrible at this.

• I've just discovered wardrobe weblogs, where ordinary folks share their fashion choices each day. There are plenty out there, but I especially like Dress Kevin (vote on what Kevin should wear each day) and What's My Wardrobe Today? I can't imagine sharing this kind of info on a daily basis, but it's kind of fun to page through someone else's closet.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/9f53edf3316a_4e40_b6da_ce0b77199d89;_ylt=Apnt344qPME0LLtOTAFhUPFxFb8C

Futurama returns.  I am a huge fan and thought you might like the link to the "latest and greatest"

Lucy (Sent Monday, August 06, 2007 2:47 PM)

It's SODA!

A.Nonymous (Sent Monday, August 06, 2007 6:17 PM)

It's "soda pop". Either one is correct. Having lived all over the country, I found that only Midwesterners call it by the last name. Everyone else calls it "soda", including New Yorkers and Los Angelenos -- the two biggest metropolitan areas of the country. If you're in the majority, you say "soda". If you're in a fly-over state, it's "pop".  Pop sounds like something a little kid would say, not a grown up. But who cares? Call it what you want.

JAM (Las Vegas, NV) (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 3:06 AM)

POP baby!!!!!!!!

Brandon, Scottsdale, Arizona (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 3:08 AM)

It is also how americans say soccer and not football, but americans normally use football for a sport that has nothing to do with a football connecting with the one part of the body that the sport requires to make contact with. this is not an antiamerican speaking here I am american but also very logical.

vivi (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 3:38 AM)

I'm from Chicago and we say Pop and also Coke!!!!

David (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 4:05 AM)

Meeeh. I say Soda pop....I guess I'm just a loser lol.

Ticika, Seattle, Washington (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 4:14 AM)

Superman game is cool! I stink at it too..

Someone Somewhere (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 4:30 AM)

Soda or pop they are both death to me debetic even the sugar free bad reaction. So call it what you will I call in bad flavor water to me.
drink up you all soda is what they call it around here
Hastings Nebraska

R Bear hastings, NE 68901 (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 4:48 AM)

It's pop, you cook with soda.

It's the Truth (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:05 AM)

When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's it was tonic. Now if I say that to my 8 year old Grandson he looks at me and says whats that? I have an idea for a new one. Is it Piazza, Porch, or Deck ?

Jim Cunningham (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:44 AM)

It is a (soft) drink.
"Would you like a drink?"

Pop is (soft) music.
Soda helps make (soft) bread.

Daniel (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:46 AM)

It's Soda. What is "pop" anyways. There is nothing "pop" about Soda. Are they talking about the bubbles? They're TINY and they don't "pop". People are crazy, i'm tellin' ya...

Harley, Santa Monica, California (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:51 AM)

Cooper should at least do a little "cursory" research.

The "pop vs. soda" site has not been updated since October 2002.

What's the point of looking at an obviously dead website? Boring!

disgusted (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:54 AM)

I'm from Wisconsin and we always called it "pop".  When I moved to upstate New York and they referred to soda, I thought it was club soda.  Now living here for 30 years I now call it soda.

Vicki upstate New York (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:10 AM)

I disagree!  It's pop!   :)

Cat (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:14 AM)

best laugh I have had in a long time - loved Superman

Margaret, Niagara Falls (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:30 AM)

Soda or pop? As long as it communicates what you want, who cares?

The only time I had a problem was when I ordered a chocolate soda, and got Coke with chocolate syrup in it instead of an ice cream soda. I walked off bemused... It was good, by the way.

Lisa, CA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:30 AM)

Oops! I forgot to say that in upstate NY, where I spent my early years, pop = carbonated soft drink, and soda = ice cream soda.

Lisa, CA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:37 AM)

Soda and Pop are both way off since that's not what they are. We shouldn't name something by only one of it's ingredients (I don't even know what Pop is in there). Why not just call them soft drinks????

James, Chattanooga, Tennessee (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:43 AM)

It's POP!!!!!

BDNC Pittsburgh, PA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:52 AM)

Here is a good one for you..I grew up in Kansas City, MO where everyone says Pop, so I only knew Pop. Then when I went to live in the metro DC area of Maryland everyone says Soda, and they laugh at Pop like it's country to say "give me a pop" so I had to conform, it was a struggle, but I did it. Now when I go home to KC if I ask for soda, when I want a Pop, they think I want bicarbonate of soda. It's too much, I have to split my brain remember where I am or say one of my quickly revised versions "sodapop", and get laughed at from both regions

Pamella Taylor, Greenbelt, MD (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:53 AM)

"I was born and raised in MT and I recently moved to NC, where I have never experienced such prejuduce towards the use of a 3 letter word "pop""

Pop User (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 6:58 AM)

In Mich.. we say pop, when we moved to fl. I went to get some at the store and ask the stock boy where the pop was and he said oh he is at home ! lol

Betty deltona fl. (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:03 AM)

I always called it soda in central NY. Then I moved to western PA(only 4.5 hrs away) and no one knew what soda was! I thought I moved to another country.

Megan Zimmerman,Edinboro PA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:12 AM)

IT'S SODA
POP WAS MY DAD

George Gray, Coward, SC (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:14 AM)

I am from Minnesota...it is and always will be pop and I am spreading the word to everyone I meet!!!

Nicole Espland, Concord, GA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:26 AM)

Soda is a dessert made with ice cream, carbonated water and syrup.  Pop is your father or a type of music.  If you are thirsty, get a cold drink or a coke.

Louis Cage (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:36 AM)

what diffence goes it make pop, soda done of that suager water is good for you . Are bad eating habits will be the down fall of america

me some where ind (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:41 AM)

Yeah I don't know if is my computer but I cannot move the camera to take a shot.  Need to know how to move the darn thing.  Do I just move the mouse?

Dawn Whalen (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:43 AM)

All I know is whenever I hear "Soda", I among thousands are thinking..."Baking soda"?  "pop" is shorter and uses less energy, I say let the "soda people keep wasting there own energy,maybe we'll be better off in the future!!!

stephen gillenwaters, altamonte springs, Fl. (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:00 AM)

Soda.  But what's wrong with soda-pop (as when I was a kid).

charles, Wash, DC (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:03 AM)

Soda!!!

M.Charles (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:04 AM)

Who cares.  I drink beer.

Matt (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:08 AM)

Call it Soda Pop as it was intended to be, debate over, now let's get back to solving the real problems on this planet...  ;)

Lance, Buffalo, NY (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:09 AM)

There is only one way to say and that is pop, and none of this sodapop combination business.  

Kyle, MICHIGAN (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:17 AM)

A soda has carbonated water (fizzy water) and ICE CREAME!  

POP is flavored suryp and carbonated water!

Dean Cory, Valpairaiso, IN (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:20 AM)

Coke you Yankee :)

Atlanta, GA thank you very much! (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:23 AM)

it is not soda or pop it is generally and simply referred to as "coke"  as you walk into a convenience store we say "I need a coke" whether you are talking about and come walking out with a Dr. Pepper, Mtn. Dew, Coke Classic, or whatever.

Matty, Evansville, Indiana (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:24 AM)

POP!

It's pop (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:25 AM)

No worries, I've lived East Coast, West Coast, North and South...Oh, my God!!!: I really did sound like Fargo! Now it's ya'll and soda in the South, and see ya and pop in the North. Just go with it....

Gritsbychoice, Ocala, FL (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:30 AM)

It's called POP! It was called soda 50 years ago!!

Laura,OH (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:37 AM)

I agree it is soda, "pop" is what you call your father or the noise a balloon makes when it pops.

Erika the magnificent, Fleetwood P.A (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:38 AM)

It's always been soda, or coke (no matter the flavor)! Pop just sounds strange........

Natalie, Ulysses, KS (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:40 AM)

Soda is the right term for it! Pop sounds like a grandpa.

Marissa (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:43 AM)

it's pop!!!!

Michelle, Millwood, West Virginia (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:43 AM)

It's neither!  I am from Louisiana and it's "Coke"....doesn't matter what it is (Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew etc.).  If I have a guest over my questions is "Would you like a coke?" and then I will tell them what we have.

Lena Styles, Lafayette, LA (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:52 AM)

Other great time-wasters, in addition to wardrobe weblogs, are deal-a-day sites, like mine! It's Shopalicious! (http://www.shopalicious.com)

On the soda vs. pop topic, where I'm from we said "soft drink" (as opposed to "hard drink" with rum in it!)

best,
Lisa

Lisa, NYC, NY (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:56 AM)

It's called pop in my country, consistently, from coast to coast. Canada!  I always thought the word Soda was a generic term I would hear on T.V., and it wasn't until I moved here that the word soda is ACTUALLY used!  Still sounds very odd to me!

Hagerstown,MD (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 8:59 AM)

Soda?? Pop??  Why not soda pop - like we all say in the south .... oh ... nevermind .... we all really say "sodipop" !!

Anon (Sent Wednesday, August 08, 2007 9:03 AM)



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