A satirical map with over 50 alleged regional terms for carbonated beverages

As shown above, Randall Munroe recently published an xkcd cartoon with an absurdly detailed map of alleged Regional Terms for Carbonated Beverages. (Click on it to see a larger, clearer view). It is a satire of one by E.D.W. Lynch on June 6, 2013 at Laughing Squid that was titled Soda, Pop, or Coke: Maps of Regional Dialect Variation in the United States. At least that’s what the Explain xkcd web page suggests.  

I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived both in Columbus, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan. While there I heard carbonated beverages called Pop, rather than Medicine. Also, I lived in Portland for 4 years and heard Soda, which didn’t need to be spelled Söde. (One brother-in-law of mine does refer to LaCroix carbonated water as Substance).

There are lots of regional brands of soda, some of which went national. Vernors is a ginger ale from Detroit. My mother liked it when she lived in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Sometime after my dad retired, and they moved to Knoxville, Vernors began selling it there. At a supermarket checkout line someone asked her what flavor that was – and she said it’s great ginger ale. She wrote Vernors to point out their label didn’t then say what it was. Eventually the label changed, and now describes it as The Original Ginger Soda.

      

Randall likely was making fun of clickbait web articles that provide maps or ranked lists on topics such as the Most Reasonably Priced Housing or the Best Places to Retire. For reasonably priced housing Lima, Ohio sometimes pops up. (Lima is roughly 75 miles from both Toledo and Dayton, and best known for the Lima Army Tank Plant which builds the M1 Abrams).