Like George Washington or Lady Gaga

My students have been studying the Federalists. Today, one girl asked me what the word "iconoclastic" meant. She found it in a prep book for SHSATs.

I said that it described someone who defies conventions, who blazes a trail with their new and sometimes unsettling beliefs.

"You know," I said, "like George Washington. Or Lady Gaga."

She nodded thoughtfully.

Then I realized that I had put George Washington and Lady Gaga in the same sentence.