Long story short... last night we ended up with an extra soft drink from the local fast-food place. Didn't want to drink it then, but knew it'd be flat in the morning.

Light bulb went off over my head. I cut a piece of plastic wrap and placed it between the cup and the lid, sealing it tight. Put it in the fridge. Just now opened it. It was still fizzy and most of the ice was still there.

Nice to know.

In the vein of cold drinks, I saw this demonstrated on TV tonight. http://www.spinchill.com/

They explained the physics behind it, and took a can of beer from room temperature (72F) down to 36F in 60 seconds.

That SpinChill thingie is nice, but I don't understand why not just keep the drinks in the same cooler as the ice. Smaller ice container?

Many years ago, I read about a trick used by butlers to chill a bottle of wine quickly. You wrap it in wet newspaper, then drive around the block while holding it out the car window. Gotta try that sometime.