Society, or at least American society, has a series of social norms. One of these norms is politely asking questions of people of which you clearly don’t care or want to hear the answer to. Some of these include, “how are you,” “what have you been up to,” “how is your family,” “any big plans for (whatever season),” and “how’s your job going,” among tens of others. People ask these questions when they have nothing original to offer in conversation, yet feel awkwardly compelled to speak to someone. Sure, sometimes these questions can be genuine, but a lot of times, if you really cared about the person you were talking to, you would already know the answer to these general questions. In the end, the person asking the questions is trying to make an effort to be polite, so they shouldn’t be criticized for their efforts. Stapleton resident Chad Caughron feels differently however, especially in regards to a particular question. “Summer is now over, and you run into lots of people you haven’t seen for a while,” said a frustrated Caughron. “People at grocery stores, out to eat, and especially now at school. People keep asking me, ‘how was your summer?’ They really want me to sum up a three month time period in a paragraph or less? It’s one thing when people ask how you are doing today, but how has my last 90 days been? That’s a pretty ridiculous question.” Caughron would prefer people either not ask, or be more specific when speaking about large time periods. “If the question was, ‘what was the best place you went to this summer?’ or ‘are you excited to get the kids back in school?’ I can handle those. Quick and easy. But don’t make me condense my entire summer down to a few words and pretend I think you care.” Coughron has become so annoyed by the question, there’s a chance he could get violent if someone asks him again. “I swear, I’m going to strangle someone if I hear it again,” said Coughron. “I’m just going to jump at them screaming, and grab their neck. There better be some people around ready to pull me off. I just can’t handle it any more.” Maybe we should all be careful about asking people about their summers. There could be more Chad Caughron’s out there.