For my comic-lovin’ brother, I offer this lovely article from the Orlando Sentinel:

Comic books arrive in school as learning tool

Comics, once scorned by educators, are sharing school library shelves with the classics of literature these days as librarians look for ways to hook teens, particularly boys, on books and reading.

Libraries in middle and high schools are betting that colorful, action-packed books featuring superheroes and other larger-than-life characters can give struggling or disinterested readers a bridge to more-advanced literature.

…

At Boynton Beach Community High School in Palm Beach County, media specialist Will Heckman has built up a collection of 1,400 graphic novels in the library the past two years. Kids can’t seem to get enough.

“If I get a new load of graphic novels, I can’t even get them out and they’re all, like, attacking them,” Heckman said.

‘Tis good news for those of you in the industry, and good news for those of us in literacy as well. I can speak firsthand of how much more attractive a graphic novel is over a book to an adolescent boy.

Or a soon-to-be-30-year-old one.

OK, now I’m serious about this one, should it be “pop” or “soda”?

Yes, yes, I know, in Ohio, it’s “pop.” I grew up drinking it and called it that until I was persuaded in late adolescence by my East Coast-hailing cousin that “soda” just sounded so much cooler. It stuck. Now whenever I hear someone utter the word “pop,” it sounds foreign and strange.

In the South, it’s neither–it’s “Coke,” even when it’s Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, or even Fresca.

So which is it, really? And why, you may ask, is this debate plaguing me this morning?

Today I came across a literacy-related arcticle from the dahlbergcentral hometown rag, “The News Journal.” It’s all about a parent-student day at a local school (Woodland Elementary, if you must know). I read the article–I always love reading stuff from home–and there it was:

“Pizza and pop fueled group conversation in the gym afterward.”

Such a small sentence. And yet so powerful. I had to think hard. When was the last time I had seen someone refer to “pop” in a newspaper article?

A quick consultation to my handy AP stylebook found no helpful guidelines to the correct use of words for fizzy beverages. I hit up Webster himself and found that, yes, one definition for “pop” is indeed a carbonated drink. But why the difference in what we call it depending on where we live in the country? And are there other newspapers that use the word “pop”? Is this a common practice? Where are the cultural pop/soda/coke boundaries?

I’m on a mission. I’m going to uncover as many examples as I can. I’ll give you all a full report on what I find. And in the meantime, I’m going to go drink my morning soda.

UPDATE!!! Quick search has turned up this gem of information!!! It’s a color-coded map of who uses which term in what part of the country.