What’s on Your iPod?

Salutations are tricky affairs. Even the simple and ubiquitous “Hello” in English, while now firmly entrenched, has probably been in use for less than 200 years, and derives from the Germanic root “to hail,” as for a coach or ferry. “Good day,” or the equivalent in many languages, is straightforward, but other greetings are more complex and take some getting used to: Gr us Gott (“may God greet you”) in Southern Germany or ( chi le ma , “have you had your lunch?”) in rural China, seem curious at first. As we conclude the first decade of this century, amid all of the electronic accoutrements and grown-up toys that have proliferated, I would not be surprised if “What’s on your iPod?”—or some suitable corruption—became the new “Good day” of midcentury, and possibly with good reason. Learning of a …