There's been a lot of beard news to comb through this summer: Egypt elected Mohammed Morsi, its first bearded president. In Ohio, the big news is a series of beard- and hair-cutting attacks by Amish people against fellow Amish. Meanwhile, entertainment websites have been excited over the bearded versions of Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Here are 10 facts that come within a whisker of profundity.

1 Peter the Great, enamored of Western ways, encouraged cleanshavenness among Russians by imposing a tax on beards. Noblemen paid 100 rubles a year for a medallion that served as a beard license and carried the inscription: "The beard is a useless burden."

2 Talk about being "in the cross hairs." In the early '60s, the CIA plotted to ruin Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's public image by making his beard fall out. One idea was to grab Castro's shoes when they were put out to be shined, and to insert thallium salts, a chemical used by women as a depilatory. But the plot was never carried out.

3 Members of the rock trio ZZ Top are known for their facial hair, but only two of the three main band members sport beards. The third, who is mustachioed, is Frank Beard.

4 Pogonotomy is a $10 word for shaving. (The other side of that razor is: pogonotrophy, the growing of a beard.)

5 The ancient Egyptians wore fake metallic beards in front of their faces to mark special occasions, such as solar eclipses. These hairpieces, called postiches, adorned the faces of men and women.

6 Brigham Young University's dress code states: "Men are expected to be cleanshaven; beards are not acceptable." But BYU will make "a beard exception for medical reasons." If you're wondering whether the school's namesake, Mormon leader Brigham Young, ever wore a beard, the answer is: yes.

7 According to legend, the Christian daughter of the king of Portugal was commanded to marry the pagan king of Sicily. Instead, she prayed to God to disfigure her so the plans would be scuttled and she could remain a virgin. Those prayers were answered — she grew a beard and lost a fiance. Her angry father had her crucified. The bearded virgin became known as Wilgefortis, the patron saint of unhappily married women.

8 Two well-known beards were Linda Lee Thomas and Phyllis Gates. They were married, respectively, to gay celebrities Cole Porter and Rock Hudson. The term "beard" describes someone who poses as the lover of a closeted homosexual. But it's also slang for someone who places a bet for a horse trainer. Among other beard-related slang: a "crimea" is a small beard; a "doorknocker" is a beard running just below the jawline. And if people say you have "a crumb in your beard," it might mean they think you're drunk.

9 Before Sir Thomas More was beheaded in 1535, he moved his lengthy beard aside, saying it "had never committed any treason."

10 Abraham Lincoln grew a beard in late 1860 after getting advice from an 11-year-old New York girl named Grace Bedell, who wrote, "You would look a great deal better, for your face is so thin." After Lincoln became the first bearded U.S. president, the Illustrated News of New York made a bogus claim that the president had used a hair-growing product called Bellingham's Stimulating Onguent, and "with this extraordinary paste he soon started the manly adornment." Bellingham's just happened to be an Illustrated News advertiser.

Mark Jacob is a deputy metro editor at the Tribune; Stephan Benzkofer is the Tribune's weekend editor.

mjacob@tribune.com

sbenzkofer@tribune.com

Sources: "One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair" by Allan Peterkin; "Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History" by Victoria Sherrow; "Sir Thomas More" by William Holden Hutton; "Holy People of the World, Vol. 1" by Phyllis G. Jestice; "Cassell's Dictionary of Slang" by Jonathon Green; "Almost History: Close Calls, Plan B's and Twists of Fate in America's Past" by Roger Bruns; "Lincoln President-elect" by Harold Holzer; "The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA" by Evan Thomas; "The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War" by James Robertson; "Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History" edited by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon; Lincoln Lore journal; The Advocate; byu.edu; newadvent.org; catholic.org; cnn.com; http://www.phrases.org.uk; Tribune news services