People who say "How ya doin'?" when they mean "Hi"

This happens to me all the time. Some friendly neighbor will say "How ya doin'?", and I say "Great. How about you?", and then they walk off without another word.
I know that my question is an empty pleasantry, and that neither of us care one tiny bit if the other is having a good day, but I do expect a reply. I don't expect honesty, as I don't want any negativity clouding the moment. Just a simple "Good", "Great" or "Splendid". How hard is it to just say "Good" to prevent me from feeling like an idiot with an ignored question?
If they don't want a conversation they should just say "Hi", or "Good Afternoon", or whatever. A nod of the head is good enough.

Chipotle

They stay open until 10pm. The staff is very efficient. The food is relatively cheap. So I go there reasonably often, but, as always, there is much to complain about:

They put my favorite, small local burrito places out of business, and their food is not nearly as nice. They have a woefully limited menu, and it's not as cheap as you think when you add in the extras. The music they play is dreadful, and, even if it wasn't, it would sound horrible as it bounced off the corrugated metal walls clashing with the din of collegiate banter that the metal amplifies. The chairs are very uncomfortable, with hard wood slanting up at too great an angle. The artwork is corporate and mediocre. For some reason they think plastic baskets are more convenient to eat from than plates. To stop the beans and rice and goop from falling out of the baskets they line them with paper. The paper lists musicians they deem to be "cool", as if Sufjan Stevens himself prepared the food. And the air conditioning is on way too high, making it uncomfortably cold, as well as unnecessarily contributing to the warming of the planet.

People who keep telling me how great "The Wire" is

I know I know, it's really good. Just like real life - based on what we think that world is like, from, um, the media. But, they tell me, you have to watch it from the first episode. I bought into that with Deadwood, and now I've invested hours and hours of my life trying to catch up on DVD, and I'm still about 20 hours behind. (And I catch myself swearing far too much). With The Wire I'm only about 45 hours behind. I suppose I don't need to catch up, but still I feel crushed by the weight of unwatched tv drama.
So I wish people would shut up about The Wire. I've never seen it, and it seems I'm missing out. I did, however, watch one episode of Age of Love, so at least I'm really experiencing the very best that modern culture has to offer.

Weddings

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good wedding. I just don't enjoy the extensively planned expensive weddings any more than the cheap casual ones in the couple's back yard. I don't think anyone remembers the flower arrangements and place settings, except for perhaps the bride, and shouldn't she really be thinking about other things.
A relative of mine actually broke up with her fiance over the stress of planning the wedding. Many friends have moaned about how their brother/sister/cousin has made annoying selfish demands for the cause of their perfect ceremony. Elaborate weddings seem to split people apart rather than bring them together, and they do nothing to provide a stronger base for a marriage.
I also know of people who have rushed off to a brief unattended civil wedding rather than have to go through the ordeal of an official wedding. They don't think it's possible to have a simple wedding celebration without spending a fortune.
The fact is that couples are going to have a happier marriage if they have some money to fall back on. You can't put down a bunch of photos and a white dress down as a downpayment on a house.

CNN

The first post of this blog should be more insightful, but CNN just annoys me so much that it jumped to the head of the queue. As I am writing the front page of their website has a large picture of Paris Hilton to give us the crucial news that "she has never used drugs, isn't a big drinker ". This is their lead story, after winning a frantic bidding war to get the exclusive first post jail interview. She had however many hours of screen time through series upon series of "The Simple Life" and had nothing to say, so I'm not sure that a week or two of solitary reflection will have given her any more wisdom.
But frankly, Larry King's, no doubt tedious, interview with everyone's favorite vacuous heiress, is, I'm sure, the best thing that's been on CNN in weeks. I can't say for certain. I haven't done my research. I can't bring myself to watch it. It is however pervasive. I see it all over the place, so I know enough of what I write. I know that they report everything as a major breaking news scoop. I know that they never really report the real story, just the reaction to the story. Political legislation is framed as a sporting play, as they dissect the statistics to show which team is in the lead. They never really tell you what the legislation will do for simple old curmudgeons like me. Everything is a situation. Everything is a fight. Everything is oh so crucial, and yet I'm never sure why, because the long term human repercussions of the news are never really shown.
Subconsciously I still expect better from CNN. I expect to be gripped by the drama of all the important developments of the day. I expect to actually learn something. Then my conscious mind kicks in to remind me that all I'll get is a man called Wolf shouting next to a big TV screen drivelling on and on about something that excites him very much, but is of no consequence.

An aside:
According to CNN's website, Paris had a pithy Hallmark moment in her interview, when she said "Don't serve the time; let the time serve you," . Substitute any word for "the time" in that sentence, and I'm sure it also applies for her.