I fell to Chatting in the Tom 'o the Wood pub last night to a fellow who runs a motor and butty pair, and he used a term I'd not heard before: "Noddy boats". But I hunted for the term today and found that he'd not invented it; several mentions of the phrase turn up in a web search, without much explanation of its meaning.
Apparently, it's descriptive of boats helmed by people like me, who 'nod' in friendly fashion to other boaters as they pass. I never realised; I just felt it's courteous to acknowledge people as I pass them. It's made me self-conscious now, and perhaps I'll have to cease the habit.
But I can see how it can irritate the person being nodded-at. For example, it irritates the hell out of me when someone asks "how are you?" They don't really want to know how I really am, do they? Of course not. Sometimes when I tell them, they say 'wish I'd never asked'. Perhaps I should call people like that 'howars'.
Don't tell your friends about your indigestion. 'How are you' is a greeting, not a question. - Arthur Guiterman
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