Ali Baba's Ass
In this week's Carnival of Education, hostess Ms. Frizzle tells of an e-mail contribution she received from one Graycie, an anecdote about Graycie's first ever day of teaching, which reportedly happened years ago:
The assigned first unit of the year for me was short stories. The first part of this unit covered the characteristics of fairy tales. The first story I was to teach with was “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” The first sentence in that story read: “Once upon a time, Ali Baba was out in the forest with his ass gathering faggots.”
We're told that the fast-thinking Graycie reacted by telling her students that mature readers see old phrases like that and laugh for 30 seconds — never more, says good taste — which they all did.
My reaction, of course, is to copy it here so that I have it handy as inspiration for a story.