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One story I heard secondhand:
On the first day of what I call Music Theory for Geniuses (I was not in the class), the professor came in, talked a little bit, then said to the class "Why did J.S. Bach have so many kids?" No one said anything, and class went back to business as usual. Two months later, my percussionist friend Gabe stood up in the middle of class and yelled out "Because he didn't have any stops on his organ!" Class then went back to business.
Senior year, I'm in orchestra rehearsal, rehearsing for the opera, which was "The Old Maid and the Thief" by Giancarlo Menotti. When a conductor rehearses the orchestra without the vocalists, he or she will usually read or sing the lines before an orchestra's entrance, so they know when to come in. Baton raised, the conductor sang the line "My dear, do you mean liquor?" and kept her baton in the air. She looked down from her podium at the first cellist , baton still raised, orchestra ready to play, and said "Liquor? I hardly know her!"
Graduate school, in Understanding Information. We're talking about copyrights and copyright law, and I was relaying a story about my days as a junior high band director and the quandaries they face. You can't give kids originals, 'cause they lose them and they're expensive to replace, and copying that much music is illegal. I said "So really if you teach junior high band, when it comes to copyright you're just S.O.L." I continued talking, but there was this rustle at the front of the classroom, then laughter. When I finished my sentence, I looked at the professor and said "What did I say?" Her TA, who had this wonderful accent (he was from Sri Lanka) said "I'm sorry, KappaStargirl, I just never had to translate before." Prof had never heard the phrase S.O.L before. Good thing she thought it was funny.
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