Ninth Ocean, 9th Day of Fall, 525 M.E. (Helios): More liberties with MacLise's Universal Solar Calendar - the ninth day of autumn was Day of the Antler in the original version, but I liked having the Ocean days fall on multiples of 12 and today is the 228th day of the year (with leap year day included), the 19th dozen. Also, who could resist having Ninth Ocean fall on the ninth day of the season? Too good to pass up, so I swapped Ninth Ocean and Day of the Antler in my New Revised USC.    

I walked a hot Jackson today - 7.6 miles in 95° heat. 90% humidity with a dew point of 71°, but it still didn't feel as muggy as last Monday. I didn't walk on Wednesday - I let the heat and humidity and threat of rain intimidate me into staying in, although in actuality a walk would have been quite manageable.

I'm still bulldozing my way through Ulysses - I'm almost done (page 722 of 768) and about to start the infamous, last "yes" chapter. I actually read that chapter years ago, maybe 1973, from the same hardbound copy I'm reading now, a book handed down to me from my grandfather, the grandson of the slave Eli of Cashua Creek Plantation. 

I laughed to myself as I recognized some of the text of the penultimate chapter before "yes" - "the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump," and the wordplay of  "Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the Jailer and Whinbad the Whaler and Ninbad the Nailer" and so on to "Xinbad the Phthailer." Apparently, I looked back at the chapter before "yes" in 1973.  

Speaking of Yes in 1973, back then I was still listening to Jefferson Airplane, and now all these years later I've finally read enough of Ulysses to understand the lyrics to their song, ReJoyce:

Molly's gone to Blazes

Boylan's crotch amazes

Any woman who's husband sleeps 

With his head all buried down at the foot of her bed

It's Friday by the Julian calendar, which means it's time for the weekly NY Times' news quiz. I scored a disappointing eight out of 11 - apparently, I didn't know there was some sort of political issue in France over air conditioning, that social media has been abuzz about the size of Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend's engagement ring, or that AOL dial-up internet has finally been discontinued.

Let's all hope that the Stable Genius doesn't give Alaska to Putin today in exchange for pulling out of Ukraine.