Expression: steal a day's march on him

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Could you please help me with the passage below?

  1. Does the first underlined part mean: she prefers yesterday’s loaves, whose bottoms are baked crisp and ends hot?

  2. Does ‘yesterday’ simply mean ‘yesterday’ or ‘one-day-old’?

  3. Does ‘him’ in the second part mean ‘the sun’? If so, could it be ‘from’?

Thank you!

Haihao

2

Hi Haihao

This appears to be a bunch of rambling (rather than completely coherent) thoughts and images.

  1. The word ‘loaves’ suggests ‘bread’ to me, but the word ‘turnovers’ suggests something smaller than a loaf of bread – i.e. individual pastries. The crown would be the top. It seems that she prefers to warm up yesterday’s bread or pastry as opposed to buying something fresh.

  2. Yes, I’d say so.

  3. Yes, “him” seems to refer to the sun.
    .

3

Many thanks again, Amy. They really help. Oh, the Google images were excellent too and helpful.

Haihao

4

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1-- Bloom is thinking of the breadvan’s wares. He first remembers that Molly likes yesterday’s loaves, but then is reminded of what he likes better-- the fresh turnovers with their hot, crisp crowns.
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5

Many thanks, MM. ‘he likes better-- the fresh turnovers with their hot, crisp crowns.’ gave me a thorough kick. :slight_smile:

By the way, I googled across today a site with many “Ulysses images”:

joyceimages.com/browse.php?chapter=4

in case you might be interested.

HH

6

A very nice site indeed, Haihao-- I’ve bookmarked it for my own reference.

I guess you won’t be needing me anymore.

7

Oh, sure I will, very much as ever, Mister Micawber. Actually the most difficult but interesting part to me is Mr Joyce’s acclaimed-as-the-peak-of-perfection words and phrases and expressions… and the way of them all… However, they all remain big puzzles to me. Could you please not leave and help me out with this part? I would make all the possible research on the historical one myself.

By the way, Mr Joyce’s allusion or multiple allusion, vertical and horizontal, behind his magical letters or words is really beyond expression…

Haihao

8

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Yes, I agree, but ‘insinuation’ has a negative connotation; ‘allusion’?
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9

Oh, I am sorry… and thank you, MM, I didn’t realize that. It should have been absolutely ‘allusion’. Especially to describe the most favorite author of mine! Please allow me to correct it. -HH