my old stick-in-the-mud
She kicked the bucket.
throat being cut from ear to ear.
in one fell swoop at a moment’s notice
which simply spelt ruin
not to put too fine a point on it,
What bogeyman’s trick is this?
The mockery of it!
The pity of it!
To break the ice,
They blow ickylickysticky yumyum kisses.
he was rather pale in the face
of his own accord
for no special reason
in complete possession of his faculties
bringing common sense to bear on it
with his practiced eye,
he experienced no little difficulty in making both ends meet.
with the usual quantity of red tape,
he could neither make head or tail of the whole business
so to put it,
frankly he was utterly at a loss
[he wondered] if the whole thing wasn’t a complete fabrication from start to finish.
the result of his investigation.
actuated by motives of inherent delicacy
the obvious reason being
He knows which side his bread is buttered on
[He resolved] to take some measures on the subject
[and] put a good face on the matter
how to get there was the rub.
where he invariably drew the line
as luck would have it
for all intents and purposes
he always believed in minding his own business
had next to nothing to live on
[living] at the tender mercy of others.
Snippets from Ulysses by James Joyce