Dagnabbit. I'm too old to get canceled, or even GAGS if I am.
I work with a post-boomer, bit of a social warrior type, the kind you wouldn’t joke around with about that stuff.
One day, we were working on something, and as I stared intently at something I was working on, I asked him to hand me a pair of dykes to cut a wire. I had my hand out, and when no dykes were forthcoming, I glanced over, and he was looking at me with an odd look.
Puzzled, I said again “Can you hand me a pair of dykes?”
His face was frozen, and he said awkwardly “Uh...uh...umm...’dykes’ is not a good word to use...they are called ‘diagonal cutters’...”
I forget exactly what I said, but it boiled down to an exasperated “Just give them to me.”