"STAY OFF THE TULIPS!"

Here's a culturally illuminating experience from this morning's class:

My professor was discussing with us the concept of justice in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and because of the nature of the text (an allegory for English involvement in Ireland, as it were), we came onto the topic of rebellion. The professor toward the end of class burst into chuckles and told us this story: "When I was being interviewed as an undergraduate, ages ago, the bloke who was interviewing me told me about Oxford rebellion in the 1960s. Of course France at that time was having massive riots, people throwing pavement slabs off of buildings, incredible violence. Oxford students want to rebel in their own right, so they tear down the gate to the Sheldonian Theater, but someone shouted 'STAY OFF THE TULIPS!' and they all said 'Sorry!' and leapt back. That's Oxford rebellion for you."