h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

16th June is celebrated in Dublin as Bloomsday, the day on which is set the entire action of James Joyce's great novel ( much praised, seldom read...), "Ulysses." This year is the 100th anniversary of that original, fictional epic day. Why "Bloomsday?" Because Leopold Bloom is the main character along with Stephen Daedalus ( Joyce's alter ego.) On Bloomsday in Dublin lots of people dress up in Edwardian dress and re-enact bits from the novel. There are TV documentaries and all that sort of thing dedicated to the book, and to Joyce's memory, and to his wife, Nora Barnacle, whom he met in Dublin on 16th June 1904.

Anyway, here's the ( rather cynical ) joke:

Why is Bloomsday like any Sunday in Ireland?
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.Because thousands of people who've never read the book get together to celebrate a piece of fiction!!!

az

Ah but those who celebrate Bloomsday *have* mostly read it, and mostly they don't go misspelling Dedalus.

You picky old bollix, R'man, I totally dispute your assertion that most Bloomsday celebrants *have* read the book. While you were off pedalling your way to the Arctic Circle, an estimated 10,000 people gathered for the free Bloomsday breakfast in O'Connell Street. None of those interviewed by the media had read the book.

So yah, boo, and sucks to you too. As for misspelling Dedalus.. yes, well, I misspelt it. Tough. I still like my joke.

Ah. Didn't know about the free breakfast. A time-honoured way of gaining adherents who are willing to defer reading the text, perhaps indefinitely.

And you weren't so much misspelling Dedalus as correcting Joyce's spelling.

And as you know Picky is my middle name.

~Recumb Picky Entman