I have no idea since avoiding and/or screwing up small talk is my forte, but I just have to add my annoyance with people who use it instead of "Hi" when you walk past someone. As someone who doesn't (and probably can't) do small talk anyway, this just confused me for the longest time. I usually just trot out whatever I happen to be thinking at the moment, which has led to some rather bizarre conversations since no matter what I'm doing at any given moment I'm usually thinking about something else. I think long answers may just be Not Done, though.