In-der-Blog-sein

Dreyfish reminds us to avoid the philologist on the omnibus when on the way back from Syracuse:

Phillips notes that in 1934 '[a]ccosting Heidegger on a tram after his early resignation of the rectorship of Freiburg University, Wolfgang Schadewaldt asked his colleague, 'Back from Syracuse?''
Schadewaldt's teasing reference, of course, was to Plato's similar dalliance with a tyrant (Dionysius II of Syracuse in his case). On his way back from from Sicily, Plato for a time found himself enslaved, the story goes. So did Heidegger after his return from Freiburg: by Frau Heidegger, who apparently wore the lederhosen. Plato, at least, was ransomed by his friends.

Plato had friends because he did not stab his mates in the back on his way to Syracuse. And that's the moral of the fable.

And Martin did too wear the lederhosen. At least when company dropped in for tea and schnapps. Not that the missus didn't have the legs to be wearing leather short-pants, mind you.

Was Dreyfus, only 23, nervous about seeing the man many consider the 20th-century's greatest philosopher? "I suppose I was," Dreyfus replies. "But I had been distracted by the legs of Mrs. Heidegger. She was on a ladder in an apple tree in the front yard when I came to the house, and all I could see was her legs. So I was already bemused when Heidegger came to the door in his lederhosen and green suspenders and funny hat."

Green suspenders? That was one swanky Swabian.  ¶ 9:13 PM