Bloomsday

A bit off the path of my usual topics, but one couldn't let the day pass without raising a glass to Joyce's glorious and mythical summers day of 16th June 1904 as portrayed in Ulysses. Actually a rather fanciful re-invention by none other than Brian O'Nolan ( aka Miles na Gopaleen of "Third Policeman" fame) and Patrick Kavanagh ("On Raglan Road" etc.) who attempted to retrace the major scenes of the book in one day (essentially a glorified pub crawl). They ran out of steam half way as the stout got the better of them.

It still goes on in Dublin, and is a fabulous piece of nonsense with some good literature thrown in. Now it's a long way to walk from Prague to Ringsend, so a pint of the black stuff locally will have to suffice...

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.”