Might I Have a Sip of Your Tasty Beverage?

Recently, the husband and I went to a local pizza restaurant. Before the owner rang up our order he warned us, "Our soda machine is out of order; would you like a drink from the cooler?" Bryan said, "Yeah, sure."

You know that giggly feeling you get when you know something someone else doesn't, and you know when they realize what you know, it's gonna be, like, awesome? I'd seen the cooler on the way in. It wasn't full of Coke products (an impossible dream north of the Mason-Dixon), or even Pepsi products. It was full of Marsh brand soda.

My excitement made time freeze as he slow-motion turned to the cooler... I saw him see the soda... then, no wait, that can't be right... is that really??... right here in a restaurant? Then his face registered the full horror, and he said, "Aww, man! I feel like I'm eating at my cousin's house."

We had a healthy debate about why a restaurant would possibly stock a cooler with generic soda. First, this pizza joint does a lot of takeout business, but they also have seating for about 30 in their dining room. It seems like a costly risk, when you could just pay a few cents more for real drinks. Don't worry; our story did have a happy ending. (The pizza was fantastic, and the owner doesn't even look surprised when you bring in a big gulp from the gas station next door.)

I've never had good generic soda, but I've had a few good laughs at their names. Since supermarkets are regional, and all brands have their different spun-off brand names, I thought it might be fun to share our favorite generic soda names.

In Georgia, I lived near a FoodMax. FoodMax's generic brand was called "Southern Home" and they worked some variation of the name into each of their drinks:

Dr Pepper = Dr. S
7-Up = Southern Up

Some of the fruity ones get fun, too. Like when the off-brand starts trying to squeeze too damn many words onto the can. Like "lemon lime-o super sizzle berry blast." I mean, that just sounds too exciting to drink, then it goes flat before you get it to your lips.

Let us have it, commenters. Let's hear your funniest off-brand soda names. You can even give us a quality report if you managed to choke down any of it.

From Underemployed to Unemployed and Back to Working Stiff Again

It took me being jobless to post, but, by God, here we are. The good news is, my new job starts Monday. I left being a technician at an Optometry office to go back to my old life in government consulting. Once again I will have one of those jobs where people say, "huh? So what do you actually do?" It's business consulting for government clients, so on a high level, it's helping government run more efficiently. What you actually do is determined by the project you're working on. I happen to think mine's pretty cool (at least with the blissful ignorance of not having begun.) I'll let you know if I still think it's cool after I've eaten from the tree of knowledge on Monday.

I should have some interesting news later; perhaps some info on a souvenir from Mexico. (In news, we called that a tease) but now for the urgent stuff.

Next Friday, Bryan and I are going to New York City for a few days. Woo-hoo! This will be my first trip to the city, and maybe Bryan's second. (I'm sure I'll be corrected at Chiliburgers if I'm wrong.)

We're going for religious reasons: A pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Baseball. Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium are both closing this year, and Bryan's never been to either. So, that's nice. But here's the thing; I'm not really into baseball. I'm sure it will be fun and everything. You know, historic and whatnot. But I'd like to add in a few things more in line with my interests. So far, we have tickets to Avenue Q, which is kinda like Sesame Street for grownups. That sounds incredibly fun, but I need a few more ideas.

So, Internet, have you been to the Big Apple? If so, what do you think we shouldn't miss? If not, any burning thoughts on what you would see if you go someday?