Blimey, the entries are coming thick and fast these days....
A pleasant exchange with
ankh156on
e_compass_rosa's blog set me looking up
AJ_Ayer on wiki....and I came across this story:
He [Ayer] taught or lectured several times in the United States, including serving as a visiting professor at Bard College in the fall of 1987. At a party that same year held by fashion designer Fernando Sanchez, Ayer, then 77, confronted Mike Tyson harassing the (then little-known) model Naomi Campbell. When Ayer demanded that Tyson stop, the boxer said: "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world," to which Ayer replied: "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men". Ayer and Tyson then began to talk, while Naomi Campbell slipped out.
If Mike Tyson can behave like a rational man, I suppose I can too. But A J was a braver man than almost anyone.