1.   Earlier this year, the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria slit the throats of seven Trappist monks.

2.   For years, Trappist monks have turned a tidy dollar for their abbey in Gethsemane, Ky., by selling fruitcake, cheese and bourbon fudge they make.

3.   He was encouraged to join the Carthusians by Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk whose inspirational writings were widely published.

4.   It did not make reporting look unreasonably glam, except to the extent that putting Robert Redford in a role could make being a Trappist monk look glam.

5.   Jon Katz bought a ramshackle cabin on a mountain and read books by the Trappist monk Thomas Merton.

6.   Less known is that during his years as the Trappist monk Brother Louis, Merton had a sexual affair with a young woman in Louisville.

7.   Last year he traveled to monasteries in Belgium and Holland, watching Trappist monks make beer and then staying for vespers.

8.   Realistically, how many Himalayan sherpas, Trappist monks or Antarctic climatologists will be trolling for twofers at the TKTS booth in the coming years?

9.   Since Supreme Court justices are more cloistered than Trappist monks, we can only guess what has been going on behind their antechambers.

10.   Some live in reclusive settings, such as Trappist monks, while others run missions, hospitals and parishes and teach in Catholic colleges.