Nice and Interesting for a Small fortune which is Pretty good.

[Carol]

Steve/bluewizard/formerly bboyminn wrote:
<snip>
> 'What's up?'
> 
> This may be more of an American thing, but Americans say 'What's
up?' as a greeting all the time. I've spoken to some foreigners who
took forever to understand that they were merely asking 'How are
you?'. <snip>

Carol responds:

Not to be contrary, but I think "What's up?" is  more like "What's
happening?" or "What's going on?" When I telephone my son-in-law, he
always asks "What's up?" meaning, "Why are you calling, Mom?" but
usually the question is more of an empty greeting, ostensibly asking
what's happening in the other person's life rather than how they're
feeling or doing. (When a teenager says "Wazzup?" he probably expects
no more response than a high five.)

At any rate, if you say, "How are you?" you generally expect a
response like "Fine, thanks," or "Fine. And you?" Neither of those
answers is particularly informative, but either would be an odd
response to "What's up?" don't you think? OTOH, you're likely as not
to get "not much" as a response to "What's up," which is no more
informative or meaningful than the canned responses to "How are you?"
Not much going on in any of these conversations!

Carol, who has received some odd looks for providing a real answer to
the rhetorical question "How are you?" but thinks that "What's up?"
allows a little more leeway (unless the person asking is fifteen)