John Updike/elections in Iraq/ baffling foreign movie posters

1. To my shame, I've never read a John Updike book. I've read a lot of his magazine pieces. I will miss them. Here is one of his poems from an upcoming collection.

It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.
— JOHN UPDIKE
This poem is taken from John Updike’s forthcoming collection, “Endpoint and Other Poems.”

2. Here is a good article about what yesterday's Iraqi election could mean. When I was in Erbil, Iraq, the local librarian really recommended I read Ralph Peters. Since then I always do.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01302009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/iraqs_next_test_152618.htm

3. Forgive the occasional blue word and blue picture. This is pretty funny. http://www.cracked.com/article_16990_lost-in-translation-20-baffling-foreign-movie-posters.html

I've updated books read

1. Sorry I've been gone for so long. Work has been busy since the winter visitors have arrived.

2. One of my goals is to read a book a week this year. Since I've started working at the library my reading time has decreased.

3. They pick up the garbage twice a week in Yuma - probably because it gets so hot in the summer.

Israel-Gaza war

Here is my favorite article so far about the current Israel-Gaza war. It's by Daniel Finkelstein.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/daniel_finkelstein/article5461544.ece

Number pad / famous authors who can't spell

1. I realize this isn't an interesting or insightful point but most people use the number keys on the right side of a keyboard instead of using the number keys above the letter keys.

At my job, I help a lot of people use the Internet and the majority use the numbers on the right hand side.

I can't give a good reason why I find that strange but I do.

2. Flannery O'Conner and F. Scott Fitzgerald couldn't spell. At all.
http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/2008/12/dumber_and_dumber.html