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| Tuesday, October 5, 2004 04:18 AM |
| How are you? |
| by poppy |
A few weeks ago I was at a departmental picnic (the bane of all socially-challenged grad students), and the conversation turned to how we in the D.C.-Boston corridor greet each other. Some friends from the Midwest and West Coast mentioned it was very strange that we corridorites would use "how are you" to mean "hello", as opposed to having it mean "how are you?" (The question mark is key here). My buddy Leo, from the wilds of Seattle, recounted how at first she would try to answer, but then realized that the inquirer had just kept walking (at the corridorite pace) and was out of earshot. This was fascinating to those of us born and bred around here: you mean that's a real question? You'd answer that? It's not that we don't care how you are (okay, sometimes it's that we don't care how you are), it's just that... it was just hello. To us, as explained by a metro New Yorker, the proper response to a "how are you" from an aquaintance or co-worker is "hey." This is on my mind since this morning I had no less than five people walk past my desk and say "how are you"... and not one of them slowed down. Which is of course right and proper. |
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