Columnist

    It's mid-August and the back to school sales are in full swing. Most of us have almost paid off the summer vacation credit card balance, and our fantasy football teams are beginning to take shape.
    Yes, we are running out of summer. Let's get one more summer cocktail in while the water in your swimming pool is as warm as it's going to be all year long.
    Grab whatever light rum is left in your cabinet and call your friends. We are going to end this summer with the quintessential summer cocktail, The Blue Hawaiian.

    That Braidwood and the surrounding coal towns were hubs for immigrants from all over the world still fascinates me.
    They came in waves, usually one nationality at a time. The prejudices they grew up with came with them. But also came the good things. Let's look at just one.
    The earliest wave of immigrants came from the British Isles, the Irish, English and the Scottish, were all familiar with life in the coal mines and for the most part they all spoke English.

    The war effort — today that is an archaic term. There is no doubt that our nation is at war in the Middle East. And there are many families who have been directly impacted by it. But for the rest of us, it is a remote thing to be watched on the television. We make no sacrifices, we attend no rallies, we donate no time to making our boys more comfortable. One hundred years ago, it was not so.