'Hope all is well' can be annoying as…

摘要

(I am on vacation. Here's a Buzzblog item posted just before I left that prompted a bit of back and forth with readers.)rnAn e-mail arrives this morning from someone I do not know and with whom I have had no prior business interaction. It begins this way:rn"Hi Paul,rn"Hope all is well."rnHope all is well? Honestly?rnMaybe in the abstract, this person hopes I am well, but not really. Not in the way that I hope my sister in Minnesota, with whom I have been out of touch lately, is well.