These days, in fandom that's practically lost the sexual overtones, but I doubt that's obvious to mundanes

Yeah. The tutor just looked at me, and then she said, "Um. Does that mean quite the same thing in your country?"--meaning America. And I said, "No, in my country it's subtly different"--meaning fandom.

Or maybe we just blinked at each other for a few seconds and then ignored the entire incident.

I fail at Neal Stephenson reading. I fail at cyberpunk in general--it's like, "Whoa, two pages in and I'm already intensely confused!" *shame*