On each yoke, steering wheel if you will, of an airplane is a two-position communication switch. To the left, the boom microphone of the headset would transmit to ATC (Air Traffic Control) and to the right, intercom to the other pilot.  You would generally do all your checklists with out the headsets and put them on only when it was time to taxi off the gate for take-off.

The night before, a mechanic read in the maintenance log that the “push to talk” switch on the Captain's side was inoperative and needed to be replaced.  He replaced the switch but unwittingly wired it backwards, i.e. ATC is now intercom and INTERCOM IS NOW ATC. (See where this is headed?).  Now Captain Opinionated is ready to taxi off the gate.  The First Officer calls for and receives taxi clearance from a woman controller.  This launches a lengthy discourse from Captain Opinionated to his First Officer, or so he thought, on the “proper” place of a woman (I'm sure barefoot was in there somewhere.).  After a brief pause, she called his flight number and said, “I heard that!” Captain Opinionated was, if only for a brief moment, put in his “proper” place.