It was bound to happen eventually.

I heard a Radiohead cover played on a banjo last night

and

I was wandering around a street music festival thingy down town last night with a couple of philosophy professors, deep in a tipsy conversation about Heidegger (of course I was tipsy - why else would I even attempt a Heidegger discussion with philosophers), when I was accosted by a small little blond girl waving around a plastic red cup and claiming to be one of my students.  I felt really bad that I didn't recognize her but then again, in a 200-person lecture, the faces all kind of blur.  I also didn't really know what to say.  Don't do drugs?  Quick, give me three social consequences of the Punic Wars that, in turn, contributed to the collapse of the Roman Republic?  

How do I convey coolness and authority in a way that doesn't seem too measured?  How do I become an enlightened despot without sacrificing authenticity?