In case you’re confused by the multiple bylines today, last night Andrew unplugged for his annual fortnight away from the blog. But before doing so, he reflected on the first seven months of an independent Dish and praised the young staffers contributing to its slow but steady success. A new subscriber writes:

Well, your vacation going-away post finally got me. I am a religious RSS user and thus I haven’t “had” to pay yet. But I’ve been reading the Dish daily since your coverage of the Green Revolution and, yeah, I can afford it, so [tinypass_offer text=”take my money”]!

Also, for the “You Think ‘Weiner’ is Bad?” files, I bring you Dick Power, “an important Long Island, New York bike shop owner and bicycle maker.” Yes, Dick fucking Power.

Andrew also wrote a handful of other posts before signing off; he tore into the Cameron government for detaining Greenwald’s partner under an anti-terrorist law; he filled us in on the somber state of Eddy over her dearly departed roommate Dusty (prompting similar stories from readers); and he rallied beard-lovers everywhere, provoking readers to weigh the pros and cons of pogonophilia. One more from the con side:

Howard Jacobson’s argument, and the vanity-free high ground, can be owned only by that tiny subset of beard wearers that do not “interfere in the process” and proudly display their long, scraggly, unkempt beards. Cheers to them. But the bearded men I know groom their prized facial hair meticulously, with more attention and effort than goes into my two-minute daily shave in the shower sans mirror. Simply scraping all the hair off is easier (and just maybe, less vain) than all of that obsessive trimming and sculpting.

Another narrates the above video:

I trust you’ve been getting updates on the bearded Daniel Bryan, the Dish’s favourite pro wrestler. But in case you haven’t, I thought I’d pass along news from last night’s Summerslam (WWE’s second-biggest annual show), where Bryan defeated John Cena to become WWE Champion in one of the most triumphant moments in recent wrestling history. Unfortunately, he also became one of history’s shortest-lived champions after getting screwed by a conspiracy between WWE’s top brass (COO Triple H was the special guest referee) and one of its veteran heels, Randy Orton. So Bryan’s reign lasted about five minutes in total. It was heartbreaking, but also thrilling.

But far more importantly on the Dish today, we continued to chronicle the escalating carnage in Egypt, something that National Review and Commentary seemed to endorse by backing the military crackdown. (Maybe instead of sending the junta billions of dollars, the US should start sending civilians bulletproof whiteboards.) The increasingly violent Muslim Brotherhood already looks doomed while the Egyptian press is under threat by both sides of the conflict.

Death seemed to be the overriding theme of today’s Dish; we honored the passing of Christian political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain, drew larger lessons from a sports journalist who killed himself on his birthday, continued to joke about suicide, and studied the science of near-death experiences.

A better note to end on: another scenic window view from a reader on the can.