It’s a pretty special June 16th. Like the June 16th of James Joyce’s Ulysses it has landed on a Thursday. It’s also one hundred years since the publishing of the book in February of 1922 (hats off to you, Sylvia Beach, brave pornographer!) I’m posting this about the time in the book the Sirens episode takes place, in which Joyce’s hero, Leopold Bloom, has some liver and potatoes at the Ormond Hotel while Simon Dedalus and others sing around the piano. This happens to be one of my favorite episodes in the book, and the line “[i]n liver gravy Bloom mashed mashed potatoes” is one of my favorite lines to speak, enough times I can get my children to march around the house singing it.
Thank you for listening to this. Now, please go and have yourself a stout and crack open a little Ulysses, just to help you be mindful of the infinite.
You can read the original poem here:
