Cast 88. Page 140, line 740.
What will I take now? He drew his watch. Let me see now. Shandygaff?
—Hello, Bloom, Nosey Flynn said from his nook.
—Hello, Flynn.
—How’s things?
—Tiptop... Let me see. I’ll take a glass of burgundy and... let me see.
Sardines on the shelves. Almost taste them by looking. Sandwich? Ham and his descendants musterred and bred there.
Episode 8. Around one o’clock in the afternoon. Bloom has just entered Davy Byrne’s pub to get a light lunch.
A customer already there, Nosey Flynn, speaks to him. “Nosey,” derived from “nose,” means nosy, prying, inquisitive — Flynn’s nickname.
“Nook” means a corner, a tucked-away place, somewhere out of sight. “said from his nook” is a wonderfully efficient phrase. It perfectly suggests that he was settled into his usual hidden corner where Bloom had not noticed him. Bloom probably was not delighted.
It is odd that Bloom looks at his pocket watch while deciding what to order. Later, while Bloom is in the lavatory, Flynn tells the proprietor that Bloom always does this whenever he is invited to drink. He says Bloom always pulls out his watch before deciding what to imbibe.
—God Almighty couldn’t make him drunk, Nosey Flynn said firmly. Slips off when the fun gets too hot. Didn’t you see him look at his watch? Ah, you weren’t there. If you ask him to have a drink first thing he does he outs with the watch to see what he ought to imbibe. Declare to God he does.
—There are some like that, Davy Byrne said. He’s a safe man, I’d say.
（U146.979）
Reading that exchange, one gets the impression that Bloom is a man who does not get drunk and who is cautious by nature. Perhaps he chooses his drink by calculating how long it will take him to sober up in light of what he has to do later in the day. He has already attended a funeral in the morning and done some advertising work at the newspaper office, but he does not really have any urgent business for the afternoon, so there seems little practical need for such calculation. Or perhaps he likes to give the impression of being a man with important engagements.
Bloom says “Let me see” over and over. It seems to be one of his habitual phrases. He is really hesitating.
Later in the evening, at the Ormond Hotel, he orders cider, and at that moment too he keeps saying “Let me see.” This is one of those small details that make the novel feel extraordinary.
And Bloom? Let me see. Not make him walk twice. His corns. Four now. How warm this black is. Course nerves a bit. Refracts (is it?) heat. Let me see. Cider. Yes, bottle of cider.
（U220.445-）
A shandygaff is a beer-based mixed drink, made with ginger ale. The origin of the name is apparently uncertain.
He abandons the idea of the shandygaff and instead drinks burgundy — that is, Burgundy wine.
It is interesting to think about what Bloom drinks over the course of the day.
- Breakfast at home: tea
- Lunch here: Burgundy wine
- Evening at the Ormond Hotel: cider
- Later, after the maternity hospital, at Burke’s: ginger cordial
- At home: cocoa
Unlike many of the other male characters, he does not drink beer or whiskey. He does drink alcohol but prefers beverages of relatively low strength. He drinks tea, probably in part because of Molly. His wine is not claret (the Bordeaux wine favoured by the English) but Burgundy. Cider comes from traditions associated with Brittany and Normandy in France. His tastes are un-English, un-masculine by conventional standards, and rather health conscious.
“Tiptop” literally means the very top, but colloquially means excellent, first-rate. I am not sure whether it is still current. In this novel it is used by people other than Bloom, so it does not seem to be a personal catchphrase of his.
(U214.196) (U291.324)
I am not entirely sure what “Almost taste them by looking” means in relation to the sardines.
A little earlier, Bloom thinks of tinned salmon as being like a mortuary chapel. So perhaps he simply does not care for fish. I took it to mean that merely looking at them is enough to put him off.
Provost’s house. The reverend Dr Salmon: tinned salmon. Well tinned in there. Like a mortuary chapel. Wouldn’t live in it if they paid me. Hope they have liver and bacon today. Nature abhors a vacuum.
（U135.496）
“Ham” is also the name of one of Noah’s three sons in the Book of Genesis, alongside Shem and Japheth, each of whom became the ancestor of peoples spread across the world.
“Ham and his descendants musterred and bred there” is a pun on the sandwich ingredients ham, mustard, and bread. “Musterred” echoes “mustard,” and “bred” echoes “bread.” It is so neat that Bloom probably did not invent it himself; it was perhaps a familiar joke of the time.
In the end, however, he orders a gorgonzola sandwich.
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