Hello again and welcome to another Monday. I almost missed this one, the problem with this retirement lark is that people keep giving you things to do. It was quieter at work!
On This Day – 16th June 1904 – ‘Bloomsday’ – James Joyce meets Nora Barnacle
On this day in 1904, Irish author James Joyce met his future wife and muse, Nora Barnacle. He subsequently set the events of his novel ‘Ulysses’ as taking place on this day. The main protagonist in the novel is Leopold Bloom and this date is now known amongst Joyce aficionados as ‘Bloomsday’.
Joyce and Nora began a relationship that would outlast the many travails of their life and continue until Joyce’s death in 1937. They lived in relative penury, with Joyce taking up positions as a teacher of English in Trieste and as a correspondence clerk in a bank in Rome. All the time he was using his experiences to improve his literary work and his novel ‘Ulysses’ was eventually published in 1922 by Sylvia Beach via her Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. The novel had previously been serialised in ‘The Little Review’ magazine in the US but was banned for obscenity after two instalments.
It would be the 1930’s before the novel was freely available in the UK and US and it is now regarded as a modernist classic, being at the forefront of the stream of consciousness style.
Read more here.
Also on this day:
1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his ‘A House Divided’ speech in Springfield, Illinois
1884 – The first purpose built rollercoaster opens in Coney Island, New York
1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated
1911 – IBM is founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
1977 – Oracle Corporation is founded as Software Development Laboratories
Arrivals
1890 – Stan Laurel, British actor and comedian, one half of ‘Laurel & Hardy’
1941 – Lamont Dozier, US songwriter and producer (‘Heatwave’, ‘Where Did our Love Go’, ‘Two Hearts’)
1946 – Simon Williams, British actor (‘Upstairs Downstairs’, ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘Don’t Wait Up’)
1954 – Garry Roberts, Irish guitarist (The Boomtown Rats)
1971 – Tupac Shakur, US rapper
Departures
1858 – John Snow, British epidemiologist and physician, traced cholera as a water-borne disease
1971 – John Reith, British broadcaster and co-founder of the BBC
1977 – Wernher Von Braun, German rocket scientist
1994 – Kristen Pfaff. US bass player and songwriter (Hole)
2016 – Jo Cox, British MP, murdered by a disgruntled constituent
The Funnies:
Recipe of the day: Ham and Pea Pasta
This recipe from BBC Food is a quick and easy midweek meal for one. Not on your own? Increase the quantities.
Ingredients
· 100g/3½oz dried pasta shapes
· 100g/3½oz frozen peas
· knob of butter or splash of olive oil
· 1–2 spring onions, white and green parts separated and finely sliced
· 100ml/3½fl oz double cream
· 25g/1oz Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
· 1 thick-cut slice of ham, diced
· ½ lemon, zest and juice
· salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the pasta and cook for 9–11 minutes until done to your liking, adding the frozen peas for the final minute.
- Meanwhile, heat a knob of butter or splash of oil in a frying pan, add the spring onion whites and fry for a minute until just softening. Turn off the heat and set aside until the pasta is cooked.
- Drain the pasta and peas, reserving a ladleful of the cooking water, and tip into the frying pan. Add the cream, Parmesan and ham with 3 tablespoons of the pasta water. Stir over a low–medium heat until the cream starts to bubble, then turn the heat down and stir briefly until the sauce is clinging to the pasta. (If you overcook it and it starts looking dry, add a little more of the pasta water.)
- Stir in the lemon zest and spring onion greens, then season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan.
Quote of the Day:
“Books bend space and time. One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky secondhand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are, having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turning in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it. You stray into L-space at your peril.
Very senior librarians, however, once they have proved themselves worthy by performing some valiant act of librarianship, are accepted into a secret order and are taught the raw arts of survival beyond the Shelves We Know”
– Sir Terry Pratchett
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: “Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???”
Image Credit: https://xkcd.com/3102
Explain XKCD: explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
If you missed Friday’s interactive Spark! from @Lonny6654, you can find it here:
(Spark! Pro series – 13th June 2025)
