[Updated and re-posted from the weekend]
A new gift-giver writes:
Glad to be able to provide a gift subscription for my 23-year-old daughter. I am another of those people whose is always bringing the phrase “Andrew says this” to every political, spiritual or current events discussion at our house. I didn’t realize that I was being heard until about a month ago. I usually check The Dish every day, while eating lunch or – embarrassed to admit but seems fair given previous discussion on the site – while “dropping the kids at the pool.” I don’t miss an entry. I had a very busy day at work a few weeks back and would have missed your posting of my view from my window had my daughter not recognized her own backyard. I didn’t realize she had become a daily reader – although free rider. I owe her – and you all, given how much I have gotten from the site – a gift subscription for her.
In case you missed the details: Tinypass, our e-commerce partner, just released an updated version of our gifting service, in time for Christmas. Now you can schedule the delivery of a gift subscription to the day. Just buy it now and have it automatically emailed to your friend or family member on Christmas Day. You can also add a personalized message. Just go here to fill out a quick form for a one-year gift subscription – which, remember, is a one-time purchase that won’t recur next year. The price is just $19.99 – or more if you want to give a little extra to the Dish this year. Another gift-giver writes:
I’m a long-time reader and was an early and enthusiastic subscriber, but it wasn’t until I read and listened to the latest Deep Dish that I finally got off my butt to send several gift subscriptions to friends who I know will just LOVE the essay on Pope Francis and the wide-ranging conversation with Dan Savage. It was really self-interest on my part – this volume of Deep Dish is provoking so many thoughts and ideas that I need smart people to talk to about it all! What better way, I figured, than to give gift subscriptions to some of my smart, thoughtful friends? I hope other Dish heads are feeling so inspired – it’s such an easy gift (takes no time at all!), for a friend and for the Dish.
Another:
I just sent gift subscriptions to my cousin and aunt in North Yorkshire, the few relatives of mine who love politics as much as I do. I am Canadian and don’t get to talk to or visit my British relatives all that much, so I am hoping your blog will bring us a little closer.
Another:
I’ve just purchased two gift subscriptions. One for my father, one for my brother. These two people are the ones who were most responsible for my own intellectual and worldview development as I was growing up, and I couldn’t be happier to share back with them my favorite daily source of intellectual exercise – the Dish.
And finally, if you’re one of our 35,000 Dishhead free-riders who maxed out the meter but haven’t subscribed yet, why not give yourselves and us a present? [tinypass_offer text=”Subscribe here”] for as little as $1.99 a month. From a recovering free-rider:
Sigh. I finally gave in, and subscribed today, after resisting right from the beginning of the year – not out of procrastination, but for philosophical reasons.
I realised that I’ve been reading The Dish since 2004, that it was one of the blogs that kept me sane during the Bush years, that it helped me adjust to American life significantly (like Andrew, I am a British person born in the early sixties, Oxbridge educated, came to maturity during the Thatcher years, met and fell in love with an American, and moved here ten years ago). Since that time, I’ve read The Dish several times a day, and it’s been one of the bookmarks on my web browser/mobile phone browser that always gets transferred straight away from device to device. And yet I felt unwilling to fork over the modest sum of just under twenty dollars a year when asked to fund the new venture.
Why? Because, wonderful as it is, The Dish’s marvelous commentary is still largely based on stories that originate elsewhere. It’s like the best opinion page on the planet, but if I wasn’t paying for the news sources that dig up those stories in the first place, it didn’t seem right to spend the money on a blog either. Well, one solution is to pay for both, which I have done (New York Times is getting a subscription, too).
The main reason that made me change my mind is, quite simply, Deep Dish. Longer pieces that are related to the blog but more closely resemble magazine journalism, e-books like the Iraq War penance – that is absolutely worth paying for.
Finally, you’ve heard this many times before, but it’s the fact that I don’t always agree with you that keeps me coming back. You’ve created a unique space on the Internet, and I am now happy to contribute a little cash to keep it going.
The Dish 