Cosi fan tutte

So we're in the orientation meeting and Les, the Holt official, is talking. He's a British expat and an old hand at the whole process. He's describing the long and difficult series of paperwork-intensive meetings that await us in the next two weeks.

"This next meeting is very important, and the paperwork is crucial, so you should send someone responsible -- probably a mum," he says.

There are howls of outrage from the women present who heard that as "probably a MAN."

Once they realized he said "a mum," they were molified, seeing nothing wrong with the generalization.