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What's one to do with a typical Tuesday in June? That is, of course, after you've savored the fine tang of your mutton kidney breakfast, taken your (extended) morning constitutional and stepped out into the glory of another humdrum day. If you'll accept a suggestion: Perhaps you might want to spend the day with a man who's prone to doing all of these things himself — and who, despite having never actually drawn a breath, has wandered in the minds of his readers for close to a century.

In other words, gang: Happy Bloomsday. No better day to spend some time with the holiday's namesake — one Leopold Bloom, star of James Joyce's high modernist tome Ulysses. It was into the confines of June 16, 1904, (and a few of the wee hours of the day afterward) that Joyce squeezed the events of his novel. And so it's natural that fans should have chosen this day to celebrate the work — and they have been doing so since Bloomsday's inaugural festivities in Dublin in 1954.

The holiday has picked up adherents ever since, and it's picked up different ways to celebrate along with them. Care to do the day classy? Head to the Symphony Space in New York City, where they'll be celebrating with a performance that includes Irish literary luminaries Colum McCann and Paul Muldoon. In New Orleans, they're rolling up their sleeves with a marathon reading — and they're doing the same in Washington, D.C., and in Buenos Aires, among many other places. If a marathon's not your speed, how about a slow stroll through Genoa, Italy, instead?

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In Auckland, New Zealand, unfortunately, you may have missed your chance at seeing the Kiwis' usual cabaret in the city's red light district. Apparently, according to The Guardian, last year's rendition — featuring a rowdy showing from Lucy Lawless, star of Xena, Warrior Princess — brought down the house. So much so, in fact, they've retreated to a simple night of readings and songs at the local pub this time around.

And there you have a pretty good indication of the whole point, and the joy, of the occasion. Generally speaking, this is no home for the monocle-twisting, bitterly harrumphing stereotype of the elbow-patched academic. Like the book itself, celebrations at times happily veer into the playful and profane.

(After all, it's not for nothing that the book was banned from publication in the U.S. for more than a decade over obscenity concerns; for many celebrants, it seems only fitting that its loyal readers act accordingly.)

The pub owner who helped organize Dublin's first Bloomsday in 1954, John Ryan, took some silent footage to remember the inaugural pilgrimage to the novel's notable sites. In this glimpse, you can get a good look at another great Irish novelist, Brian O'Nolan (better known as Flann O'Brien), lousy with drink by the mid-afternoon, and chumming around with fellow writers Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin.

For Joyce himself, though, the first Bloomsday was a slightly more hallowed occasion. Though Ulysses was published in 1922, he'd picked to set his book on this specific date — June 16, 1904, remember — because it was the day that he first went for a walk with his longtime love, Nora Barnacle.

As Time recalls, it was the day that "Joyce always liked to say that Nora Barnacle had come 'sauntering' into his life out of the Dublin hotel where she worked as a waitress."

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In April this year, on Earth Day, Pope Francis urged everyone to see the world through the eyes of God, as a garden to cultivate.

"May the way people treat the Earth not be guided by greed, manipulation, and exploitation, but rather may it preserve the divine harmony between creatures and creation, also in the service of future generations," he said.

On Thursday, the Vatican will release the pontiff's hotly anticipated encyclical on the environment and poverty. The rollout of the teaching document has been timed to have maximum impact ahead of the U.N. climate change conference in December aimed at slowing global warming — and has angered climate change skeptics.

Past popes have also spoken about man's duty to protect the environment. Pope Benedict XVI was known as the "Green Pope" for installing solar panels at the Vatican.

Francis has made it clear that he believes climate change is mostly man-made.

"It's man," he said earlier this year, "who has slapped nature in the face."

Safeguard creation, Francis warned — because if we destroy it, it will destroy us.

Francis isn't the only pontiff who has championed environmental issues: His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, installed solar panels (seen here in 2008) at the Vatican. Alessandra Tarantino/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Alessandra Tarantino/AP

Statements like these are generating controversy in some quarters. For example, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum — who is Catholic — believes the pope should focus on problems that Santorum says are more pressing than climate change.

"The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists, and focusing on what we're really good at, which is theology and morality," Santorum said.

As a young man, the future pope studied chemistry and worked as a chemist before entering seminary, so he may have more scientific training than most of his critics.

"It's nice — for once the Catholic Church is on the side of science," says the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.

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Climate Change Is A 'Moral Issue,' Says Archbishop On Papal Encyclical

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The encyclical won't be just about economics and politics, he says, but will focus on a moral issue that could affect many millions of lives.

"This is a call to respond, to help people, to protect people from the disasters that can come from climate change," Reese says. "The pope sees it as one of the most important challenges that we face as humanity."

As the first Latin American pope, Francis warns against what he calls the myth of trickle-down economics and the "throw-away culture" whose primary victims are the poor. As a result, some conservatives have labeled the leading voice of the global south a "closet Marxist."

But Mary Evelyn Tucker, professor of religion and ecology at Yale University, says the pope focuses on inequities in incomes and distribution of resources in societies across the world. She believes the papal document will stress not just sustainability, but development centered on human beings and on justice.

"Not development that allows the poor to sink and the rich to rise," she says, "so this is a new integration called eco-justice."

The title of the document is Laudato Sii, or "Praised Be," a refrain from the "Canticle of the Creatures" written in the 13th century by St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment — and the man from whom the pope took his name.

The pope's encyclical, says Reese of the National Catholic Reporter, will help rid environmentalists of their image as tree-huggers and Gaia worshippers and bring the movement into the mainstream.

He's also convinced it will have a far-reaching impact, encouraging Catholics to make major changes in what they consume and how they live their daily lives, and inspiring leaders of other religions to pick up the challenge.

"Religion is one of the few things that can motivate people to self-sacrifice — to give up their own self-interest for something else," Reese says. "This is going to be extremely important because people are not going to change their lifestyles to save the polar bears."

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Hillary Clinton walked a delicate line on trade as she held her first official press conference of her campaign on Monday.

Instead of staking out a clear position on whether she supports the current Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and fast-track authority for the president, the Democratic presidential candidate instead dismissed the current stalemate in Congress as a "process issue."

"I think this is chance to use this leverage so the deal does become one that more Americans and more members of Congress can vote for," the former secretary of state said after a campaign event in New Hampshire. "I will wait and see what the deal is, and then I will tell you what I think about it."

On Friday, House Democrats dealt President Obama a stinging blow when they rejected a key part of the trade package that would allow for funding for training and education for workers would lose their jobs because of the Pacific Rim trade deal. Even an 11th hour visit by President Obama to Capitol Hill couldn't sway enough votes from his own party. The White House dismissed the failed vote as a "snafu" and House Republicans will try again this week.

Progressive Democrats, who have led the charge against the trade package, have grown frustrated that Clinton hasn't taken a concrete position on the deal. Her surging Democratic rival, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has been a leading critic of the TPP in the Senate. As secretary of state, she once called the TPP the "gold standard in trade agreements."

Now, taking reporters questions for the first time in months, Clinton blamed the secrecy of exactly what is in the deal for its failure and tried to downplay her husband, former president Bill Clinton's, history of championing free trade agreements, including the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"The issue for me is, what's in the deal? And I think now there's an opportunity for the president and his team to reach out and meet with the people who have said on the floor, like [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi did, that we need a better deal," she said.

Clinton suggested that the White House could work with Democrats who could be swayed to assuage their concerns and get a better outcome on the bill.

"I believe that you take whatever happens to you in a negotiation and you try to leverage it," the former New York senator said.

The nearly 20-minute question-and-answer session also ended a long drought with the press. After she announced via social media in April that she was running for president, Clinton had answered few questions or shrugged many off, even as there were mounting concerns about her private email server at the State Department and donations to her family's charitable foundation. But with her official launch on Saturday in New York City, her top aides indicated that hesitation would change.

In her press conference Monday, Clinton also tried to walk a fine line on President Obama's struggles to revive the American economy. She argued that he was handed a difficult situation just after he was elected in 2008 but that she would be laying out her own plan to create jobs and spur growth.

"When the president came into office, the deck was at the bottom of an abyss," she recalled. "I don't want us to live in a state of collective amnesia about what we're facing."

"I will be laying out policies that I think builds on what the president has done, what my husband has done, what other Democrats have done, what even other Republicans have done," said Clinton. "I think President Obama has done a lot that has put us in a good position, and I will go further."

Clinton also addressed the question of her family's own finances — she took heat a year ago after saying her family was "dead broke" after leaving the White House, but they are now earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid speeches. She framed it instead as a story of success and hard work with the help of others.

"I want everybody to have the same opportunities that I had and that my husband had. He faced a lot of obstacles in his life and had a great set of people who urged him on and supported him," said Clinton.

"I don't think Americans are against success — I think Americans are against people who get on the top of the ladder and start pulling it up so nobody else had the same chance that they had, and then act as though they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and the log cabin they built themselves," she added. "At some point, we're all in this together, and those of us who do have opportunities ought to be doing more to help other people have the same."

Clinton laughed off a question about what advice she would have for another candidate dealing with both the advantages and baggage of a famous last name — Republican Jeb Bush, who announced his campaign for president just after Clinton was finishing her remarks.

"I'm going to let the Republicans decide who their nominee ends up being," said Clinton. "I'm running on my record and on my positions, but I'm very proud that I have experience alongside my husband in the White House and serving with Barack Obama as secretary of state."

Hillary Clinton walked a delicate line on trade as she held her first official press conference of her campaign on Monday.

Instead of staking out a clear position on whether she supports the current Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and fast-track authority for the president, the Democratic presidential candidate instead dismissed the current stalemate in Congress as a "process issue."

"I think this is chance to use this leverage so the deal does become one that more Americans and more members of Congress can vote for," the former secretary of state said after a campaign event in New Hampshire. "I will wait and see what the deal is, and then I will tell you what I think about it."

On Friday, House Democrats dealt President Obama a stinging blow when they rejected a key part of the trade package that would allow for funding for training and education for workers would lose their jobs because of the Pacific Rim trade deal. Even an 11th hour visit by President Obama to Capitol Hill couldn't sway enough votes from his own party. The White House dismissed the failed vote as a "snafu" and House Republicans will try again this week.

Progressive Democrats, who have led the charge against the trade package, have grown frustrated that Clinton hasn't taken a concrete position on the deal. Her surging Democratic rival, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has been a leading critic of the TPP in the Senate. As secretary of state, she once called the TPP the "gold standard in trade agreements."

Now, taking reporters questions for the first time in months, Clinton blamed the secrecy of exactly what is in the deal for its failure and tried to downplay her husband, former president Bill Clinton's, history of championing free trade agreements, including the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"The issue for me is, what's in the deal? And I think now there's an opportunity for the president and his team to reach out and meet with the people who have said on the floor, like [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi did, that we need a better deal," she said.

Clinton suggested that the White House could work with Democrats who could be swayed to assuage their concerns and get a better outcome on the bill.

"I believe that you take whatever happens to you in a negotiation and you try to leverage it," the former New York senator said.

The nearly 20-minute question-and-answer session also ended a long drought with the press. After she announced via social media in April that she was running for president, Clinton had answered few questions or shrugged many off, even as there were mounting concerns about her private email server at the State Department and donations to her family's charitable foundation. But with her official launch on Saturday in New York City, her top aides indicated that hesitation would change.

In her press conference Monday, Clinton also tried to walk a fine line on President Obama's struggles to revive the American economy. She argued that he was handed a difficult situation just after he was elected in 2008 but that she would be laying out her own plan to create jobs and spur growth.

"When the president came into office, the deck was at the bottom of an abyss," she recalled. "I don't want us to live in a state of collective amnesia about what we're facing."

"I will be laying out policies that I think builds on what the president has done, what my husband has done, what other Democrats have done, what even other Republicans have done," said Clinton. "I think President Obama has done a lot that has put us in a good position, and I will go further."

Clinton also addressed the question of her family's own finances — she took heat a year ago after saying her family was "dead broke" after leaving the White House, but they are now earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid speeches. She framed it instead as a story of success and hard work with the help of others.

"I want everybody to have the same opportunities that I had and that my husband had. He faced a lot of obstacles in his life and had a great set of people who urged him on and supported him," said Clinton.

"I don't think Americans are against success — I think Americans are against people who get on the top of the ladder and start pulling it up so nobody else had the same chance that they had, and then act as though they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and the log cabin they built themselves," she added. "At some point, we're all in this together, and those of us who do have opportunities ought to be doing more to help other people have the same."

Clinton laughed off a question about what advice she would have for another candidate dealing with both the advantages and baggage of a famous last name — Republican Jeb Bush, who announced his campaign for president just after Clinton was finishing her remarks.

"I'm going to let the Republicans decide who their nominee ends up being," said Clinton. "I'm running on my record and on my positions, but I'm very proud that I have experience alongside my husband in the White House and serving with Barack Obama as secretary of state."