>>I have done that, and it's good advice. Will see if I can reemploy that technique in the future. Either that or avoid heated discussions in the first place when I know I'm in a cranky mood.
>
>I've done that too, believe it or not. Even so, sometimes one slips out. I underwent "Verbal Judo" training a few years ago as part of in-service.

I had something similar: five years of teaching in a vo-tech school (i.e. worst bunch in the area). Knowing that they won't keep their mouths shut during the class, I said it's generally OK to have fun, as long as we get the work done. And I said I knew they'll try to poke fun at me as well, which is OK, but beware: I fire back.

So I had 200 of these 17 to 19 year olds every year training my fast talk-back functions... though we call that "verbal karate" :).

It's been 20 years ago, and I'm probably out of the loop nowadays. Today's generation would probably talk circles around me.