On Cokes and Cars and Chucking It

If you’re born in the south, or at least in Texas, there’s a good chance you refer to any can of soda as a coke. If we’re at a restaurant and I tell Spreadsheet Guy to order me a coke, he knows I don’t mean Coke. I hate straight-up Coke. When I say coke, it means Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper or, if I’m desperate and the restaurant sucks, a Diet Pepsi. But a coke means any coke. Or soda for all you weird folks.