The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy

[Laurence Horn]

>I can't remember -- is 1995 before or after the remodelling of South
>Station?  In any case, I can hop on the T and go look.
>
>Joel

Before, I'm pretty sure.  When my daughter was selling ice cream at
Scoop's in the station a couple of summers ago I checked out the
competition and none of them were offering "Tonics" under that name,
but I don't know when the change took place.

LH

>
>At 5/22/2007 03:49 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>I remember posting some years ago of my delight in noticing that the
>>>large refreshment stand in the middle of South Station in Boston
>>>listed its soft drinks under the generic category label
>>>
>>>TONICS
>>>
>>>I fear that that sign and very possibly the refreshment stand itself
>>>are no longer extant.
>>>
>>>LH
>>
>>after some delving, I turned up that prior post--it's older than I thought:
>>
>>Date:         Wed, 6 Dec 1995 09:41:01 EST
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
>>From:         Larry Horn <LHORN at YaleVM.CIS.Yale.Edu>
>>Subject:      Re: pop and soda
>>
>>Rudy Troike worries,
>>
>>>         Virginia Clark's report on the demise of "tonic" is a devastating
>>>blow (especially when coupled with the loss of "Chesterfield") to the
>>>linguistic lore of all our American English courses. Can anybody else in
>>>the Boston area confirm this? Say it ain't so!
>>
>>I can't help with chesterfields, but I can reassure Rudy and anyone
>>else concerned that the reports of the demise of superordinate
>>"tonic" are at least somewhat exaggerated.  South Station in Boston
>>has a large menu board over its main snack bar at which it lists
>>"coffee", "iced tea", "milk", and "tonics" (I seem to recall an
>>itemized sublist under the last, featuring the usual colas and root
>>beers and the like).
>
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