Elliott Skinner, tutor emeritus, just came in to the library to pick up some inter-library loans.

"How are you?" he said.

"Good, how are you?"

"I'm fine."

He stood for a second, just looking at me, so I felt like I had to say something else. "I was never good at answering that question."

"Which one, 'How are you?'"

"Yes, that one."

"It's such a common question, you know. You just figure out something to say in advance."

"Nobody ever told me that," I said. This is true.

"Nobody? Yeah, sure, maybe you make a little list, like 'okay,' or 'whatever', and you just go through it." He thought for a few seconds, and then started telling me a story, as he does every time he come in.

"One time, when I was in graduate school at Princeton--maybe I told you this story already, but--Richard Rorty was walking down the quad, and I saw a friend of mine coming onto the quad from the street. They were about to walk up to each other, and I saw Rorty--who was extremely shy--looking around trying to find some way to avoid meeting him. But my friend kept getting closer, and finally he was right there. And he said, 'Hello, Professor Rorty. How are you?' And Rorty stood there, going 'ahh', and my friend walked on. Half a minute later, Rorty was still standing there frozen, hand to his mouth, like he was thinking of what to say. So, you know, you're in okay company."

Then he walked over to the chairs to look at his new books.