[Sarvi]

In the What Are You Sewing Now thread, I noticed the Australian gals using ‘snap’ the way I’d say ‘jinx’ — for when two people say or do the same thing at the same time. The rules around jinx vary but commonly as a kid you’d owe the person who beat you to saying jinx something like a soda. I never saw that debt actually paid. Are there rules around ‘snap’?

[mcholley1]

How timely! Jinx is big at my house right now with my 2nd grader (that and spelling out all conversation by letters…but I digress). My SoCal hubby grew up with “jinx, buy me a soda” I grew up with “jinx, no return” where the person that didn’t say “jinx” fast enough couldn’t speak again until someone said their name.

Fun thread, Sarvi.

[Justine J]

….we use ‘jinx’ too – but (in my house anyway), jinx is reserved for saying the same thing at the same time. And like MC, we say ‘no return’ – but the person then can’t speak until someone says their name three times.

So, now that I am thinking about it, I guess we say ‘snap’ for when we are doing the same thing – like having matching pairs in the card game

[KarenK]

When I was a kid we played it that when jinx was called the other person couldn’t speak until someone said their name. My kids play it “jinx buy me a soda” which of course never happens. Lame. 😉

[Todd Gibson]

Yeah, that’s what S says too. I’ll bet she doesn’t even know where that comes from. But I do.

I’ll buy a soda for the first person who correctly answers the question, “Where does ‘Jinx, buy me a soda’ come from?”

[Nicole]

When you guys say ‘soda’ do you mean fizzy water you have with whiskey or a sweet fizzy drink?

‘Snap’ comes from the card game in our house. Don’t play with the Twins, they play dirty.

‘Nurse’ is another funny one. In AUS it means to hold a baby, not feed it.

[KarenK]

Soda as in coke, pepsi, rootbeer….soda pop.

[Nicole]

I thought it had to be sweet. I don’t know too many children that would like soda water.
I used to read about it in Bobbsey Twins books.

Thank you Karen, x

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Nicole. Reason: forgot my manners

[Robin]

I’m in Canada and in my family we call “soda”, “pop”.

[Liesl Gibson]

Todd and I grew up in the Midwest where it’s called pop, too. Had to adjust when we moved east!

[Nicole]

In South Australia it is generally a ‘soft’ drink or a ‘softie’. Our family calls it ‘fizzy’.
I.E Saturday night is ‘fizzy’ night.

[meleliza]

soda on its own refers to soft drinks like Coke, Pepsi, etc. However, yes you can order a whiskey and soda, but most people wouldn’t mistake that for a children’s drink. Not that I personally consider Coke a children’s drink either, but the kind of soda is usually clear in the context.

Jinx on the other hand, is about saying the same thing at this same time and the jinxed person has to be quiet until someone says his name. Google the How I met Your Mother episode on jinx for full explanations. I’ve never heard of nor believe in this jinx soda connection.

my 7 year old has started saying “oh, snap” which he picked up from some tv show or a girl at school. It makes him sound very metro sexual. But then I started saying it because it’s more child appropriate that what I’d be more inclined to say.

I find it amusing that this linguistic anomaly generates a thread as opposed to the bush baby thing, which I to Google before I believed it was a real animal.

[KarenK]

I live in the Northwest part of the US and most people call it pop.

My kids would argue you into the ground that “jinx buy me a coke/soda/pop” isn’t real or long standing. It is in their world!

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by KarenK.

[Brittney]

We always did jinx as Karen did, you couldn’t talk, you could stop the jinx by saying ‘stop’ before the person counted to ten. Then you couldn’t be un-jiinxed until your name was said 3 times. My kids do the soda pop one too, though they cheat and count to ten as ‘one, two, nine ten’.

And we say soda, though about half the time soda pop.

[lattemama]

This thread is really interesting but I have nothing to contribute with so I’ll sit back and read …