fine whine

I was never much a fan of small talk. One of the first things that attracted me to my wife was her honest answer to "How are you doing?", after I'd crawled out from under the table. I looked on small talk the way a comedian once described it: basically it is a blindingly obvious conversation which can be distilled into this exchange:

PERSON 1: Are you alive?

PERSON 2: I am alive.

PERSON 1: So am I!

Since developing that view, I have worked in a couple different environments which seem to be build, in part, on a foundation of small talk and other mindless pleasantries. As I do not want to be seen as unfriendly, I gradually have developed competency in the pointless conversational arts. At first I answered the stock "How are you?" with a look upward and "Fine" or (failing that) "Eh". The problem with those responses is that they tend to end the exchange, providing no return volley. To add a "How are you doing?" after the "fine" just didn't work, for reasons of balance and rhythm. It just didn't flow right. So I remained the black hole of small talk.

Lately, though, I upgraded from "fine" to "good", accompanied usually with a pursing of the lips and a small nod. For some reason, this works much better with "how about you?" for a trailer. Flowing even better is the contracted version "how 'bout you?" which is much snappier for the dropped syllable. Coupled with "doin' good" instead of merely "good" seems to work pretty well for me now.