Lawrence Summers: discuss. The academic world on both sides of the Atlantic has loved discussing Harvard's abrasive president for years and his resignation this week has made the topic inescapable.
The affair feeds academics' sense of importance in the world - he may have been able to order presidents and other folks in Washington round but he met his match with a bunch of New England professors.
And it also raises fascinating questions of where power lies in universities today.
The idea that the managers have taken over has received a severe knock and will be watched with interest in, for instance, Oxford where John Hood, the vice-chancellor, has a battle on his hands to push through reforms to the way the ancient university is run which would leave him as more of a chief executive.
Today he is answering questions from staff in a session being webcast to the university as he tries to build support.
Cambridge, under Alison Richard, seems to be enjoying a quieter time after the all-out battles of a few years ago but the question of who runs the university is far from settled.
University College London staff recently threw out their provost's proposal for a merger with Imperial College. The new provost Malcolm Grant is treading carefully.
As the head of an American headhunting firm told the website Inside Higher Ed: "The first lesson that's loud and clear here is that the faculty is still in charge -- and that's absolutely going to be a message that boards are going to hear, and it's going to have an impact.
Dennis M. Barden, head of the education practice of Witt/Kiefer, added: "Boards and presidents cannot simply mandate change and expect it to happen."
Mr Summers' resignation letter is a fascinating record of bitter battles with his staff and what he obviously felt was the lack of vision among Harvard academics who opposed him.
