>>16: Care to give examples of other languages in which questions can be interpreted differently based solely on intonation? I'm not saying it's not true, but even if it is, I fail to see how it's a faulty example.
>>19: You could answer the first intonation example with "No, thanks," but it would be an unexpected answer. At least to my ears; perhaps not in your corner of the world.
And you're right about the "sane" person, but I was just stating what the dialogue said.