I have learned from experience that asking an elderly person 'How are you doing?' generally leads to a long winded monologue about past ailments. So, I stopped asking.

A lot of the time it is probably just a casual greeting, " hi how are you" is something I do and I am not trying to get a complete medical history on you, I am just trying to be polite. When I say have a nice day I actually hope you will, however if having a nice day isn't really something you are interested in then have a miserable day if you like. It seems being polite can cause some folks anguish. Now if they are indeed prying into your business that's a different story.

"How do you handle nosy people?"

Reopening the old 9mm vs. .45 debate are you............... personally a .22 to the base of the skull works well..........

Had this a lot the last year with "people" asking about my wife..........I want to say..."If she wanted you to know.... you would be on her friends list!!!!" .......but I refrain........

"Why on Earth would you ask me that???"
Actually, with my peripheral neuropathy, I walk kinda funny and when we're out and about I wear a brace on my right wrist. Sometimes people'll ask if it's carpal tunnel.

__________________
Keep on Chooglin'

Look them straight in the eye and say, "Why do you ask?"

Stops them cold every time.

Would you rather live where your neighbors are friendly or where they walk past you without talking to you?
Or is a question like that none of my business?
Just sayin...your call.
Personally i say "lighten up".
Sorry let me be clearer.. I would rather live where they ask but I do evaluate each question on its own personal merit and respond to each accordingly.

In due respect some ask just out of curiosity while others ask to be nosy.

I'd suggest based on your sense of feeling about the person you simply respond with "I'm dealing with some personal matters" or any of the replies above it they seem more suiting.

I'm not sure why everyone conflates being friendly with asking someone you just met, "So what's wrong with you?" Do you guys really not see a difference? Is every person you meet entitled to know every detail about your life under the guise of friendliness, or do you have boundaries?

As to "not letting it bother me", that's why I asked for ways to divert/diffuse the question. I let most stuff pass, but that particular scenario that I keep describing is the one that sticks in my craw. I would rather be recognized by the work I do and the type of person that I am vice some defect. Perhaps my original question came off harsher than intended, but it had just happened again.

__________________
Where's my dad's America?

Your case is easy...Just tell people you're a professional bowler.

I used to know a woman who just wouldn't shut up whenever she saw me.I kept telling her to mind her own business.She eventually learned to leave me alone but it cost me $10k.

Difference between a wife and an exwife? The pain from the exwife goes away eventually.

Got to say none of my defects have typically caused the typical Man/Woman/Who Knows What in the street to point it out to me and ask me that.
If someone is blatantly obnoxious fight fire with fire. If someone is genuinely concerned then again each incident merits its own response. No simple answer unless you just enjoy slamming people (hey that can be its own amusement I guess).

Herknav,as you can see from the replies,the members here represent more different flavors than Baskin & Robbins.

I have found that the best way to cut short an unwanted conversation is to be blunt with people.Let them figure it out.If you appease some people with an answer you pretty much give them an open invitation to start a conversation.

I was born with a deformed vertebra in my lower spine. It causes back pain and also makes me walk "like a duck" with toes pointing outward rather than forward. I often get the question "why do you walk like that?" I usually say it's just the way God made me.

I once had an older gentleman stop me and tell me I needed to quit walking that way (I wish I could). He said he was a retired physician and every patient he'd ever had who walked that way suffered from back pain. I took the time to explain about my problem and asked him if he'd ever wondered if it was possible that he had cause and effect backwards.

I just do like Rain Man ignoring them and reciting the entire Who's on first routine. After a while they go away.

I just answer their question in Polish.

__________________
Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

OK...The best prank I ever pulled on a real deep digging nosepicker was back when I worked for the local transit system. I had driven bus for 27 years and finally just burned out, it wasn't the people, it was the traffic.
I had friends in maintenance and got transferred into building maintenance and worked in that department another 12 years. The company had hired a guy to look into the possibility of "light rail" development, he was a retired Army Major and genuine "peckerhead" always asking questions about what we were doing when it was no concern of his, typical of the type. As is typical of this type he found a way to weasel his way into a nice beaurocratic position in management, they liked to hire ex military types because they obey orders without getting into the details. I was on the contract negotiating committee so we had a chance to talk while that was going on, he didn't seem to be too bad a guy, just had alot of questions and liked to try to pick my brain since I was one of those guys that knew where all the skeletons were buried and he was a "weed'.
I'm a big guy, 6'3", 235, beard and at the time long hair. One day I was fueling up a service truck and getting ready to go out and clean up my share of park n rides. He sees me and calls out to me, waves and walks over. I'm thinkin to myself, how do I get rid of this guy once and for all without pissin in his cheerios. He walks up all buddy buddy like and says "Dick, theres something I've been meaning to ask you for awhile, do mind if I ask you a personal question?" I said "Go ahead Travis (that really was the guys name), its your dime." He says "We've been talking off and on for something like six months and you've impressed me with your knowledge of the business and all of your duties, what I'd like to know is whats a guy with your ability doing in building maintenance." I looked over both my shoulders and leaned in real close to him and said "Have you ever heard of the Federal Witness Protection Program?" He looked up at me and took a couple steps backwards, nodding his head up and down, I gave him a big shrug and went back to fueling the truck. He walked off looking over his shoulder and never said a word to me again for the rest of my time there, at least three years...that was the best ever.

Herknav, you don't say which "neck of the woods" you will be going to, where the people may be so rude, as to inquire about your health and well being. It sounds as though you are to be forced there, willing or not ?
You might like New York City.

While I can not testify if it is factual, they have the reputation, earned or not, that you can fall down on the sidewalk,with people all around, and lie writhing with pain,unable to get up, in pools of your own, (or others') urine, for a great long while, and NOBODY will bother you at all.

As I say, I only hear of this, no first hand accounting, but, in D. C., oh yeah !

__________________
wanna do right-- not right now

It really don't bother me if folks are nosy.
If you think about it, this is a pretty nosy conversation.
Blessings

__________________
TEXAS, by GOD