\n<\/p>\n
My late father-in-law, who lived to be 104 and was a veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation and the north Africa war, would inevitably respond to the question \u201cHow are you?\u201d (Letters, 23 December) with an enigmatic \u201cSurviving. That\u2019s the name of the game.\u201d The dialogue is now used regularly by members of the family in fond\u00a0memory of his fortitude. Re the unwanted health inquiry, as someone in my ninth decade, I\u2019ve taken to asking \u201cHow long have you got?\u201d When my friends ask me how I am, I always reply \u201cNo better.\u201d The\u00a0alternative, often deployed by my friend Alan, is \u201cBad as I am, better than you.\u201d Many years ago when living in the East Midlands I learned that \u201cNot so bad\u201d meant you were fine, \u201cNot so good\u201d meant you were quite poorly, and \u201cPretty middling\u201d\u00a0meant that you were unlikely to last the night. As the ageing \u2013 81-year-old \u2013 daughter of an Aberdonian parent, my response to \u201cHow are you?\u201d is \u201cI\u2019m haudn thegither\u201d. Sadly, living in North Yorkshire, this often\u00a0requires translation to \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0holding together\u201d. In response to the ubiquitous northern greeting \u201cHellohowareyou?\u201d, my nonagenarian neighbour replies\u00a0\u201cGood in parts!\u201d \u201cFair to miserable\u201d and \u201cNobbut\u00a0middling\u201d are two typical\u00a0Yorkshire replies. When asked how she was, our Hungarian grandmother would invariably reply \u201cVy you esk?\u201d At the age of 88, my response to the question is \u201cStill above ground\u201d. Wasn\u2019t Oscar Wilde\u2019s definition of a bore one who, when asked \u201cHow are you?\u201d, tells you. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My late father-in-law, who lived to be 104 and was a veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation and the north Africa war, would inevitably respond to the question \u201cHow are you?\u201d (Letters, 23 December) with an enigmatic \u201cSurviving. That\u2019s the name of the game.\u201d The dialogue is now used regularly by members of the family in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[8113,994,4244,487],"class_list":{"0":"post-39195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-abundance","9":"tag-answers","10":"tag-friendship","11":"tag-question"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ray Woodhams<\/strong>
Cawthorne, South Yorkshire<\/em><\/p>\n
Roger Wilkinson<\/strong>
Leasgill, Cumbria<\/em><\/p>\n
John Young<\/strong>
Monkswood, Monmouthshire<\/em><\/p>\n
Florence Challands<\/strong>
London<\/em><\/p>\n
Jennifer Williamson<\/strong>
Richmond, North Yorkshire<\/em><\/p>\n
Nicola Campbell<\/strong>
Macclesfield, Cheshire<\/em><\/p>\n
James Vickers<\/strong>
Redcar, North Yorkshire<\/em><\/p>\n
Alan Sekers<\/strong>
London<\/em><\/p>\n
Mike Peacock<\/strong>
East Meon, Hampshire<\/em><\/p>\n
Rob Davies<\/strong>
Pontesbury, Shropshire<\/em><\/p>\n