As part of a required assignment this semester I have given up soda for nine weeks. I have made it through four days so far, and there are eight weeks still remaining. To put it colloquially, this sucks.
If this had been an acceptable expression in Jane Austen's time, then Elizabeth Bennet would have said it after Mr. Collins' proposal and Mr. Darcy's first proposal. Fanny Price would have said after learning that Edmund Bertram was in love with Mary Crawford. It is likely that Mary Crawford herself would have used it, since Edmund did not have the same aspirations to riches and glory that she did. Emma thought it when Harriet first told her that she was interested in Mr. Knightley. Elinor Dashwood said it to her mirror in private when she found out that Edward Ferrars was secretly engaged to Lucy Steele.
I'll repeat it: this sucks.
Carbonated mineral water has been around for ages. Inventors started discovering and marketing ways to artificially carbonate mineral water by 1767, and shortly thereafter flavors were added. Since Jane Austen lived until 1817, she likely could have partaken of this precursor to modern day soft drinks. However, these bottled mineral waters and other types of soft drinks did not become popular (or invented) until several years after her death. She may have been the lucky one. Coca-Cola, originally developed and marketed as a patent medicine (since carbonated water was considered healthy), once contained an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass, which was removed in 1903 (wikipedia.com). Nowadays, it still contains a cocaine-free version of the coca leaf (wikipedia.com).
Soda (or pop) may no longer contain cocaine, but it's still a hard habit to kick. I'm not sure if it's my current lack of all that sugar or the caffeine, but I'm tired and cranky. All I want to do is drink a can of soda, and I'm rationalizing it by thinking to myself: "It's just soda, what harm is it really doing?"
I just hope that if I make it through the next eight weeks I'll be able to stay away from it for good.
In the meantime, this sucks.
Info in this post found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola#19th_century_historical_origins
http://www.usfirehouse.com/SodaHistory.htm
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