Today is Bloomsday, June 16, the day in 1904 when James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" (1922) is set, so I was pleased to quote a favorite line to my sister Sara and my mother: "Paternity is a legal fiction" (although I misquoted it; it's "may be", not "is"). As a doctor, Sara immediately said it wasn't true. After all, nowadays biological paternity can be determined by DNA testing. In 1904, though, paternity was often defined by the legal status of the parents: the mother's husband was the father. Yet paternity can still be a legal issue now, when paternity tests are used to determine who is legally responsible for a child's upbringing. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 16 June 2025)