In high school I had an old Calculus teacher that didn't allow "electronic calculators" in his class. It was miserable. I got the idea of bringing in a slide rule - after all, it wasn't an "electronic calculator" as he said. I brought it in and he stared at me as class started. He smirked and said, "if you know how to work that thing then you can use it."

Come to think of it, I was always kind of an ass. I was nice to everybody, but was always using my creativity and technicalities to get myself out of irritations like that. I can't help it, I'm left handed and creative.
One of those "lateral thinkers."