foothills

i just dont understand people. if i walked up to you and said to you “could you tell me what time it is?” there are relatively few ways to misconstrue the question. the first and quite literal meaning is i need to know the time and so i am asking you and therefore your reply is business as usual, “why its 4am good sir.” the other possible interpretation is you are threatened by my gigantic 140 pound presence and think only of your wife and child and so in reply say “just take my wallet i dont want it!” ok. so how does email present such a massive difficulty in following the simple thread of a question to its quelling? if i ask a question lately via email, regardless of how analytically inclined or well read the person is, at least 50% of the time (based on the last ~100 emails i have sent to people) i get a response that does not reflect or address all or some of the content in my impetus email. i am not talking about emails of whimsy. those are different. i am talking about focused and specific questions that simply get ignored or slip right past a reader for no reason whatsoever. the effect is another email or further communication via phone or face to face contact. what the hell? is anyone using email actually reading the prompts? i might as well just reply to all emails saying i like bananas but not the dried ones that are sometimes coated in chili pepper and salt because the taste and smell of them reminds me of stale vomit.