Why 'Hi, how are you?' is a semi-useless greeting

摘要

My mother Esther lived with me in her last years, and I have to say we really enjoyed her sense of humor. With that in mind, here's part of what made me realize how useless the phrase, "Hi, how are you?" really is. The house phone rang. Esther answered. The man said, "Hi, Mrs. Friedman, this is Dan from XXX. How are you?" My mother said—without missing a beat—"I'm so glad you called. I have a bad case of diarrhea, a terrible migraine, been vomiting all day, my pacemaker is running slower than normal and I have a bad rash. How are you?"