So we're getting a lot of this these days: "Where are the bottles?" Here we are, over a week into the Pepsi-iTunes giveaway, and lots of viewers are reporting that Pepsi bottles in their towns are remaining stubbornly non-iTunes-enabled. Far more people inform us that, in their local stores, only Diet Pepsi has shown up with the Apple logo on the bottle indicating a 1-in-3 shot at winning a free song, while Pepsi and Sierra Mist are still their usual ungambly selves. Seeing as we've witnessed the "Diet Only" situation in several stores here in the Boston area, we're taking people at their word.

So, once again you ask, where are those 300 million specially-marked bottles? And the answer, of course, is... they're around. "Yeah, but around where?" Just AROUND, around. See, inventory differences from store to store will certainly affect whether they've got new bottles in the cooler yet, but trust us, they're out there. What, are you accusing us of trying to cover up some massive scandal about criminally uneven contest bottle distribution? That's preposterous! Why would Pepsi engage in geographical discrimination for a giveaway promotion? And even if they did, why would we try to hide it?

What's that? You say you've seen the map over at iPod Garage?

Oh, crud.

Okay, fine, we admit it: as the iPod Lounge's handy U.S. map showing locations with confirmed free song winners reveals, there does seem to be a marked concentration in iTunes bottles in the eastern half of the country. We haven't a clue as to why Pepsi seems to be favoring the East, but it should be pretty obvious by now why we didn't want to mention the phenomenon in the first place: we're Easterners, and the last thing we need is millions of iTunes freaks from the left half of the country crossing state lines for the express purpose of drinking our Pepsi products and claiming all of our winning bottle caps. So stay put, willya? We're thirsty over here.

Besides, as it turns out, you don't even need a specially-marked bottle to win-- or even a bottle of the right freakin' soft drink. As Bill Palmer reveals at the iPod Garage, he won a free song in the cap from his one-liter bottle of Mountain Dew purchased in Florida. You may recall the uproar and furor in the geek community when the Dew was omitted from the giveaway (it is, after all, Nature's Weird Green Kick in the Ass), but if one Dew bottle can be a winner, doesn't it seem likely that there are more floating around out there somewhere?

Drink!! DRINK LIKE THE WIND!!!