Re: Colas (was Phoneme winnowing continues)

From: "Stone Gordonssen" <stonegordonssen@...>
Subject: Re: Colas (was Phoneme winnowing continues)


> I myself have given up trying to find any generic for a dark-coloured soft
> drink in the USA.
>
> If I say "Coke" they ask "Is Pepsi okay?", if I say "Pepsi" they ask "Is
> Coke okay?", if I say "any dark Cola" they ask "Is Coke okay?" or "Is
Pepsi
> okay?", and if I say "iced tea" they invariably bring some noxious
> concoction flavoured with faux essence of raspberry, passion fruit or
peach.

Assuming that "cola" is the word for the category of dark soft drinks that
Coca-Cola and Pepsi belong to (as I would use the word "cola"), the
responses you've got above are just fine.  If you asked me for "Coke" and we
had no Coke, but we had Pepsi or RC or some other "cola", I'd suggest that
as a substitute, but being something different than what you asked for, I'd
ask if it's all right first.  Sort of like if you wanted capellini but we
only had spaghetti, I'd ask "Is spaghetti okay?".

If you asked for "any dark cola", I'd tell you which one we have, perhaps
saying "Is Coke okay?".  The same as if you asked for "any meat dish", I'd
say something like "Is boiled mutton okay?".

Yet if you asked for "iced tea", I'd bring you actual tea, served cold,
possibly with lemon in it, and possibly with sugar in it.  Anything else
would _require_ clarification, as if you asked for "fried chicken", and I
wanted to bring you a whole chicked, feathers and all, that had been thrown
in the fryer for a few minutes.  Sure, that's fried chicken, but it might
need some clarification.