When, as a very young 'with-it-cool-in-my-own-mind' teacher, trying to explicate 'Year of the Cat' to a group of bored Grade 12 English students, I became flustered when they didn't understand my allusion to Bogart and Bacall.

Of course it was my parent's generation and their grandparents'.

Not theirs. And I was losing them.

"You know' I said searching, "It's like...it's like...it's like Lois Lane and C-C-Clark C*nt!"

Dead silence and the odd knowing glance from the three girls in the front table as I searched for white-knuckled purchase on this head-shaking teacher's desk.

I was so mortified that my apology was a whisper.