Penetration and Stickiness

In my afternoon staff meeting, the one man in my business group discussed the figures for 2005 in these exact words:
"You can see the penetration clearly on the right. Don't be fooled by the sticky numbers, they are a necessary evil to high penetration. We are doing extremely well for this time of year!"

None of the 9 women flinched, but I had to fight EVERY impulse to chuckle. Mind you, I wasn't going to burst out laughing as if someone had whispered "Penis" in the middle of math class in 8th grade, but a hearty cackle was in order.

Fast forward to 20 minutes ago:
One of the coordinators in our group just got engaged, a discussion about her wedding plans led to the inevitable talk of dresses. My boss pipe in with the following remark, "As if anyone these days should even be wearing white. Tradition, indeed."
I'm not entirely certain what part of that audacious statement was inflammatory, but it was definitely met with a stone cold silence that brought death to the chatter of women entrenched in wedding dialogue.