In case you haven’t already noticed the double-date at the bottom of the page, just a heads-up that this is a combined issue of The Weekly Standard. We'll be off next week to take the waters. But many of our colleagues will be hard at work as usual. We're referring in part to our indefatigable team at weeklystandard.com, who will be publishing their customary sparkling online stories 24/7, even as we old-school types ­recharge our batteries.

We realize, though, that no Scrapbook next week may leave a void too large even for our online team to entirely fill. So besides the conversations recommended above, let us also commend to you the extensive library of podcasts (www.weeklystandard.com/podcasts) hosted by our colleagues Michael Graham and Eric Felten, as well as the weekly newsletters from Bill Kristol and Jonathan V. Last. You can sign up for them at newsletters.weeklystandard.com. See you again week after next.