Date:  Fri, 24 Oct 1997 12:35:38 -0400
From:  Ron Butters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: hello/good-bye

Julia Cochran writes:
>["Bless you!" has] no function other
>than to provide an excuse to make
>contact with a fellow human. Those
>who say "bless you" when you sneeze
>likely have some interest in
>making contact with you, or with
>other people in general. Those who do
>not, likely have no such interest.

I don't agree. "Bless you!" as conversational opener is pretty rare--the
idea of waiting around for strangers to sneeze before talking to them is
pretty ludicrous. Often "Bless you!" is uttered in the middle of
conversations that have been temporarily halted by a sneeze (come to think of
it, arguably it has some small function here that signals 'your sneeze did
not disrupt our conversation'). Often it is uttered by people who are not in
converstion but who know each other well (e.g., two people working in the
same office). When a total stranger utters it to another, I don't think it is
generally taken as a signal that a conversation should start--that may
happen, as with a dropped package--but conversation-initiation is incidental,
not functional.