Unlike ny G/Fs mum (see below)...
...my faux pas was just down to stupidity. Bear with me, it is worth it...
Before cars in the UK all had Catalytic Converters I had heard one imported from the USA which had a very broken "cat" fitted to it. It made a very distinctive rattling noise.
Fast forward a few years and cats have recently been made compulsory and I wander into the workshop of the Saab garage where I worked and all the staff are gathered around a customers car which is making a familiar (but only to me) noise. They're all scratching their heads and looking a little lost. Before my brain has a chance to take control my mouth has blurted out a phrase that it obviously thought had the right balance of technical knowledge and nonchalence, "haven't you lot ever heard a cat when it's fucked?" (About 18 months if you're wondering).
( A Lurker jacked up on B3ta on, Thu 13 Jan 2005, 0:48, closed)