Quotes from Alan Levy

Auden turns to his guest and asks: "Do you know the frightening thing about the dandelions?" The guest, bracing himself for a riddle, confesses that he doesn't. Auden says: "The dandelions originally were sexual plants. We don't know when, but in the course of evolution they gave it up. They go on, though, with the same genes.

Auden is an Ausländer (foreigner), a Herr Professor (Smith, Swarthmore, Oxford, etc.) and sometimes Herr Dichter (Mr. Poet). This, by definition, means that the only Kirchstetten Inländers with whom he can associate socially are "the schoolmaster and his wife, the doctor and his wife, and the new priest—a young man whose name is Schickelgruber!* I've recently introduced Father Schickelgruber to his first martini. It was a huge success.

Near Weinheberplatz, Auden swerves down a side road with a smaller marker that says Audenstrasse. Only when the visitor remarks on it does Auden say, with unfeigned embarrassment: "The Gemeinde (township) really shouldn't have done it. I don't have the bad manners to tell them how much I detest it, but I don't have the nerve to thank them for it either. The name Hinterholz is so much better.