good, thank you

there is quite often a self-congratulatory, a sort-of "i'm in the club" announcement, tone deep within the response of "well" to the question of "how are you."

good is the vernacularly accepted common answer. that, or, an actual description of the respondents feelings. but well, we are taught, is the answer preferred on grammar quizzes. indeed, should the question have ended with "doing," such advice would be saved from the default status of grammer advice (malapert) and serve some use...maybe a conversation starter. indeed, well, and not good describes a verb.

but 'how are you' requires, if we wonder what this phrase means, an interpretive leap to assume that 'doing' should become the object of the question. should we strip down from contextual assumptions, and view the bare phrase, it asks a rather simple, if metaphysical, question. italics will do the trick: how are you.

to such a question, 'good' is not only a fortunate response, but the correct response grammatically. i am good. eat it, ms phillips.

if only we could think of the smartass responses to our instructors while sitting in that little 3rd grade desk. sorry, little andrew, i wasn't there for you then.