how's your hammer hanging

Phrase

how's your hammer hanging?

1. (US, colloquial) How are you? (generally used between male speakers)
   • “Hello, Pop,” a young clammer said to the man in an adjoining boat, a sullen old man in wet overalls, “how’s your hammer hanging?”1943, Joseph Mitchell, “A Mess of Clams”, in McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, page 201
   • Porter, the only other colored guy on the shift, used to hail him—“Hey, Fred, how’s your hammer hanging?” And he’d mount the stool and holler back, “It ain’t ruined my crease none.”1980, Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters, page 79
2. (US, colloquial) How’s your sex life?
   • “Hey, Sam, you gettin’ much?” ¶ “Huh?” I said. […] ¶ “I said, ‘How’s your hammer hanging?’” ¶ “It’s hanging,” I said, pulling myself back to the present. “That’s the trouble.”1976, Jack Olsen, chapter 1, in Massy’s Game, page 32
   • Micheaux was still willing to test the censors, with lines like “How’s your hammer hanging?” and “You might be able to ‘make’ her,” that the local authorities in some parts of the country were bound to notice.2007, Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only, page 332