How are you? Good, how are you?

I hate when you’re behind someone in  line at the cafe’ and the person behind the counter says, “Hi, how are you?” and then the person to whom he or she is speaking ignores the question and says, “Ah wunta lahtay wiff noh fohm.” (In perfect Baltimorese, of course.)  I could write a few long posts on people’s selfishness and condescension when there’s a counter between two people (both sides’ jerkery, that is).  What’s not as bad, but still annoying, is when someone asks how another person is doing, and he or she just answers the question and doesn’t return it. “How are you this morning?” “Fine. Where are those folders I asked for?”

In an attempt to make everyone think I’m nice (and perhaps to make myself nicer in the process), I always answer and always return.  Call and response style.  And yesterday, I’m pretty sure that someone with whom I work made fun of me for it. I fully realize that “well” is the correct response, not “good.”  But we don’t speak in proper English, do we? And they weren’t making fun of my responding with “Good,” but with the fact that my consistent response to, “Hi, John[ny]. How are you?” is, “Good. How are you?”  I mean, if I was being implicitly accused of being formulaic and insincere for responding to the same question in the same way, I could certainly charge the same person with asking the same question.  If my static response is insincere, what would that say about the static initial question?

And let’s not get started on the sheer stupidity involved in getting annoyed at a constant response to a constant stimulus. Let’s not get started. (I do that too much to get started getting mad at other people for it.  Heh heh heh.)