This paper analyzes propositional uses of how, as in how did Howard not come to the party?, as an implicitly modalized propositional operator. Empirically, the contribution is a more fine-grained characterization of the facts in this domain, building on Jaworski 2009 and Pak 2017, particularly in its behavior around (other) modals and modal concord, its differences from why, its focus behavior, and the pragmatic effects it gives rise to. Analytically, we propose this how asks for elaborations of Kratzerian conversational backgrounds that make the prejacent true.