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