On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 1:28 PM, Perry E. Metzger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Jeremy Bornstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 06:14:57AM -0700, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > >> I wonder if there's a culture somewhere where the question is "have you > >> crapped today?" > > > > I was told once that the now common (in the USA anyway) "How are you?" > > was a shortened form of "How are your bowels?" > > A quick web search doesn't turn up any claim to that effect in the > usual dictionaries and such. Dunno whether that means anything, of > course. A quick test of my gut (both upper and lower GI tract) reveals nothing here either. I know this isn't scientific - but culturally it just sounds off. There's plenty of shit my culture; and often "How are you?" doesn't mean shit. I think that the person who provided the shortened tale was bullshitting.
