Mrs. Warr and I were finishing our supper, a nice bowl of chili. I got up to get a cuppa. She said, "Could you get me a soda, please?"
I reached into the cabinet, set the bicarbonate box next to her bowl on the table. I said, "You'll want a glass of water to take that with?"
I was being totally sincere and trying to assist her digestive process. She accused me of being a smart-aleck. "You knew," she stated inaccurately and incorrectly, "that I wanted a root beer."
She did not ask for a root beer. She asked for what she got: soda.
[Small differences in cultural backgrounds make huge differences in communication. I have never referred to pop as "soda." And conversely, . . . ]
4 comments:
I grew up calling it pop. Then I moved down here and everybody called it soda. Where I grew up, sonny, soda had ice cream in it. But after enduring the thousandth "hunh?" look when I called it pop, I capitulated ... to always naming the exact carbonated beverage I mean, whether Dr. Pepper or Vernor's or Diet Caffeine Free Cherry Coke.
'Pop' was my father, soda was a flavored carbonated beverage. There is an unflavored carbonated beverage called seltzer. Then of course there is an alcoholic carbonated beverage called champagne...from which I do indeed get a kick.
Oh the joys [and pitfalls] of language and culture.
Jim, I think naming the drink specifically is a good idea. In certain regions of the country, every soft drink is a coke. "Would you like a coke?" might yield who knows what.
Grace, never referred to my dad as "Pop," but I hear what you are saying. Especially about the "kick."
Chuck, the truly astounding part of my tale is that I did not make this up, or fake it in any way. I really thought she wanted a bicarbonate. Dumb me.
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