simpson was very funny in lecture this morning. he was talking about chaucer describing criseyde's hair (and implying, i thought, some deep female anxiety and the attendant hair fetish.) "i once made fun of a friend's haircut. the consequences were terrible and i have learnt my lesson: never to make fun of a woman's hair." then he paused and thought about what he had said. "perhaps that's sexist?" he mused. "perhaps it is. but there is a deep psychological truth in it."

and then later when talking about troilus he said that when things go wrong we must always remember boethius. once, he said, he had parked illegally to take his sick child to the doctor's, and when he came out of the clinic his car had been towed. and he said to himself" "boethius!" to keep his temper.