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A man worth knowing
“Agnostic though you are you should pray for his health,” John urged me when he heard that critic and essayist Clive James was suffering from cancer. “After [the deaths of Christopher] Hitchens and [Robert] Hughes we can’t lose him.

An important tool to fight drug abuse
The fear of measles and news of the Ebola virus have captured news headlines for many months. These are of course serious news stories and deserve our attention. However, there is one issue that should share this grave spotlight: the epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

Aetna’s common sense wage lift
By that I mean the original Greek word “idiotes,” which applied to people who care only about themselves and the prosperity of their immediate family, rejecting any responsibility to the larger society, civic affairs and the common good.

LETTERS
MORE POLICE DIVERSITY In 1972, the Illinois State Police hired a young, black state trooper from Rockford to join the force in District 15. He returned to Rockford to patrol the tollway from Rockford to Chicago.

Rauner’s labor attacks continue
His people say that the governor feels “liberated” since the election to speak his mind about a topic which stirs great personal passion in him.

A HIGHER POWER
Some religions worship the sun; others use it to power their buildings. In late 2014, the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation (ALUUC) in Springfi eld installed solar panels on the roof of their building at 745 Woodside Road, making it the fi rst church in town to harness this “higher power.

Work in progress
No government agency is in charge. The headquarters for the 2015 Lincoln Funeral Coalition is a mail drop on Wabash Avenue in Jerome. Organizers have told the Internal Revenue Service that they don’t expect to have more than $50,000 in annual revenue and therefore aren’t required to file detailed financial statements that are available online.

BIZ TECH
Business owners: what could you do with $30,000? Chances are, many business owners have a list of projects they’d tackle if the funds were to become available. Cable company Comcast wants to know what’s on your wish list, and they may give you a big wad of cash to scratch something off of it.

A watchdog now holds the leash
Until recently, John Maki served as the executive director of the John Howard Association (JHA), a Chicago-based watchdog group focusing on prison reform in Illinois.

Master mixologist, will travel
Recently while serving cocktails to friends, he began the evening by offering a glass of water for hydration and a lineup of hors d’oeuvres for sustenance. Then, surrounded by a back bar of various bitters (some he’s concocted), classic cocktail guides and key spirits, he selected the critical combination.

An end to 30 years of hell
The morning of Feb. 11 started like any other for Christopher Abernathy: wake up at 6 a.m., make coffee in prison cell, then get ready to work on the prison grounds at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, where he has spent much of the past 29 years in maximum security lockup.

Reading recipes
When my husband, Peter, was a college freshman, he and a friend developed a shared longing for liver and onions. The friend had an apartment, so they decided to make themselves a liver-and-onion feast. “It says here to dredge the liver in flour,” said Peter’s friend, reading the recipe.

Grey a bit anticlimactic
For any story that revolves around sex to have any sort of impact, the characters involved must be complex and appealing. If we can’t come to care about or be intrigued by them, then having them do whatever they do between the sheets means nothing.

Indelible Del
In looking for a snappy headline about Del McCoury, I landed on “indelible” to describe the 76 year-old musician and entertainer. The definition of “making marks that cannot be removed” seemed fitting considering the accomplishments achieved by this grounded and ground-breaking artist in a career spanning more than a half-century.

PUB CRAWL
The Timmys, The Haddonfields, Estates, The Rackatees, Diaper Rash.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | RJ Mischo & His Red Hot Blues Band
RJ Mischo is nothing short of a phenomenon. He’s traveled the globe for more than 20 years as a touring blues artist, released nine internationally distributed CDs and played on an additional 21 CDs as a guest or on compilations with the likes of Jimmie Vaughan, James Cotton, G.

THE CALENDAR
Feb 19, 12-2pm Thu. Author John Spencer signs copies of recently published book, Round Prairie Inferno. Free to public. 217-522-9742. Prairie Archives Antiquarian Booksellers, 522 E. Adams..

BOOKS & AUTHORS | A Pan-African and American dialogue
On Monday, Feb. 23, visit the Out of Africa Heritage Center, located at 422 E. Monroe St., for a book signing and discussion with Seenaa G-D Jimjimo. Seenaa will be signing copies of her book, The In-Between..

ART & ARCHITECTURE | Sustainable design
Sustainability will be the topic of discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m., at Lincoln Library. Sustainable design leaders from Springfield and Chicago will share the stories behind their designs and offer suggestions for revitalizing downtown Springfield.

THEATER & COMEDY | Clown comedy
If you are a fan of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” or The Second City, you will not want to miss this weekend’s Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company performances. In this live, improvisational two-hour comedy show, five ragtag actors take the stage without a script, acting out scenes and scenarios at the suggestion of the audience.