Bloom and Chris Callinan were on one side and I was with the wife on the other. We started singing glees and duets: Lo, the early beam of the morning. She was well primed with a good load of Delahunt’s port under her bellyband. Every jolt the bloody car gave I had her bumping up against me. Hell’s delights! She has a fine pair, God bless her. Like that. He held his caved hands a cubit from him, frowning:

–I was tucking the rug under her and settling her boa all the time. Know what I mean?

His hands moulded ample curves of air. He shut his eyes tight in delight, his body shrinking, and blew a sweet chirp from his lips.

From “Ulysses,” by James Joyce

Does this scene sound familiar? I am sure it does, boys boasting their sexual prowess to other boys. How many lies do we have to endure? Joyce does a tremendous job describing this universal phenomenon.  Even in this era of sexual freedom and casual sex, this behavior goes on.  We live in weird times where a soccer player bites an adversary during a match and is received as a hero in his country, or a woman can have sex with a stranger and be yet considered a heroine because she gets an abortion, like the main character in the movie “Obvious Child.”  So much for role models for this spinning dizzy world.  Well, there is still hope for us all as shown by the picture of the blooming  framboya tree in Florida.