B L O O M S D A Y -- June 16, 1904

Holy Buck Mulligan! I almost forgot that today is Bloomsday, the day that James Joyce's "Ulysses" takes place in Dublin. Last year was the 100-year anniversary of this fictional event, so that one overshadows today, the 101-year anniversary. However, I was in Dublin for Bloomsday back in 1998 (an awesome experience for a Joyce fan like myself--see Washington Post article by clicking on title above)), so I like to celebrate it every year (when I can remember). There's a new (2004) Irish film now available on DVD based on "Ulysses" called "Bloom." It stars Irish actor Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game") as Leopold Bloom and was directed faithfully by Sean Walsh. I bought a used copy through Amazon.com recently and plan to watch it tonight for the first time. The actress who plays Molly Bloom, Angeline Ball, seems to have really thrown herself full-force into the role in what appears to be a wonderfully lusty portrayal of the cheating wife, who says, "...first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

But it's not about movies, is it then? So go read some out of "Ulysses" on your own, if you please. And, as they say in Dublin, don't be a begrudger! As legend has it (and the biographers), Joyce chose the date of June 16, 1904 for his novel because that was the day he first had a real date with his future wife Nora Barnacle. Supposedly she gave him a hand job that day, as well, for which he was apparently forever quite grateful. Here's the text of a letter Joyce wrote to Nora dated August 15, 1904 that give you a good idea of how head over heels he was for this fetching red-haired Irish lass (from "Selected Letters of James Joyce" edited by Richard Ellmann):

"My dear Nora It has just struck one. I came in at half past eleven. Since then I have been sitting in an easy chair like a fool. I could do nothing. I hear nothing but your voice. I am like a fool hearing you call me 'Dear'. I offended two men today by leaving them cooly. I wanted to hear your voice, not theirs.

When I am with you I leave aside my contemptuous suspicious nature. I wish I felt your head over my shoulder now. I think I will go to bed.

I have been a half-hour writing this thing. Will you write something to me? I hope you will. How am I to sign myself? I won't sign anything at all, because I don't know what to sign myself."

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