prescriptivism, conventions, irony, and could(n't) care less

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:01 PM -0500 1/31/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>[re responses to "How are you?"] The usual Pittsburgh
>answer -- which was a minority usage in other places where I've resided --
>is "I am [doing] good", which strikes me as inapposite/erroneous, since the
>question is basically "Are you [doing] well or poorly/ill?" rather than
>"Are you good or evil/bad?" or "Are you performing good or evil acts?" ....
>
>What do other folks perceive?
>
I don't take "I'm good" in a moral sense here.  Perhaps the
respondent is imagining s/he's playing draw poker and has been dealt
a pat hand.

larry