Fun?

Book Culture's e-mail newsletter says:

Fun Fact: On this day in 1970, prominent Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima committed ritualistic suicide (seppuku) after taking part in an unsuccessful coup.

Seamus Heaney at the 92nd St. Y

I was at this wonderful reading earlier this fall:

Legio Patria Nostra

Helen Rittelmeyer writes:

H. W. Crocker III declares the French Foreign Legion one of the ten best thing about Catholicism: “It seems to me that as the product of a Catholic culture, showcasing a Catholic militarism by accepting men of all nations and backgrounds, devoted to one common goal, and by bestowing a sort of secular forgiveness of sins via its traditional offer of anonymity for recruits, it is a good reflection of the Catholic spirit.”

Here's the Choir of the French Foreign Legion singing one of their traditional songs, "Ich hatt einen Kameraden":