Posted by JLabaree on February 08, 2005 at 15:48:20 from 207.5.234.19 user JLabaree.
In Reply to: Re: posted by Jon on February 07, 2005 at 14:29:25:
Tonic and Pop, by the way, are quintessentially New England, where a "milk shake", to the unenlightened, is a "cabinet"
Hmmm, not sure I agree with you on this. I've spent my whole life in various parts of New England (youth in far western Massachusetts and Maine, adolescence in Eastern Connecticut, adulthood around Boston and then back in Maine). I don't think I've ever heard anyone from New England refer to soda as "pop." It's almost always "soda" (as the map suggests). "Tonic" is tonic water as in "gin and tonic", not, I don't believe, another word for "soda".
Now, the "cabinet" issue is interesting. That's more of a southern New England term (most associated with Rhode Island, I believe). If you ordered that here in Maine, I think you'd get a rather curious look. To get that here, you need to order a frappe, specifying both the flavor of the syrup and flavor of the ice cream. Thus "May I please have a chocolate frappe with vanilla ice cream?".
Some assume a "milk shake" has ice cream in it, but generally in New England it's just milk and flavoring. Ordering a milk shake in Connecticut might in fact yield ice cream, but that would depend and it's always best to ask. The give-away is if you see "frappe" or "cabinet" on the menu.