Everyone loves to watch a tempest in a teapot.

Great publicity, too.
For everyone.

Read the article to which Tyler links and to which Terry responds.
What do you think?
I don't know Terry's track record but it strikes me as odd that Nicolai, of all people, would have the cheek to suggest that he might be second-rate. If that is indeed what he did mean.

The whole thing seems contrived. A glancing remark by a critic, the gloves wildly thrown down by the subject, a proposal for a public debate!  What better way to create publicity.

UPDATE: I have re-read the texts and if there was ever a contrived dispute -- contrived to promote attention on two major institutions and their champions -- this must be it. Nicolai really said nothing particularly offensive (nor much truly incisive). Terry seems to take umbrage at nothing and simply want to keep the "debate" going. Fluff.