In June, we published Denis Rancourt's white paper titled “Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy.” As of this date, the article has been viewed over 460,000 times world-wide. And, as the Reader's publisher I pledged to publish all letters, guest commentaries, or studies refuting Rancourt's general premise that this mask-wearing culture and shaming could be more harmful than helpful.

A fascinating collection of sculptures, prints, and works on paper by a trio of Midwestern artists can be viewed in the latest joint exhibition at the Quad City Arts Center, with the Rock Island venue, from August 21 through October 9, showcasing new works in the exhibits SIGNALS by Matthew Boonstra and Alan Pocaro and Original Prints by Elizabeth Powell.

To download a PDF of the puzzle, click here.

"I need to be able to look myself in the mirror every day," was how Representative Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) explained to me recently why she decided to call for House Speaker Michael Madigan's resignation. "More importantly," the freshman suburban Democrat said, "I had to look at my daughters and remind them what it means to do what's right."

The following quintet of 1982 to 1991 releases is composed of four contemporary movies and one period piece – with that “period,” at the time of its filming, all of 19 years old – that personally inspire smiles and tears across the board through memorably satisfying takes on adult romance. One of them, in its first minutes, finds Daniel Day-Lewis whispering to a woman, in unexpectedly romantic fashion, “Take off your clothes” … and he does it while wearing a face mask! Well, okay, not a face mask. He actually says it with a towel wrapped on his face. But still … covered faces on-screen can be sexy, too! So maybe there is hope!

Rock Island’s own Randall Hall dropped a transfixing full-length album titled Oracle in mid-June that documents a cycle of his extended saxophone experiments and electro-acoustic compositions – all with the intent to, as he explains, “delve into the mythic, the esoteric, and the apophatic.” Loaded with fierce atonal sax shred, passages of freewheeling improvisation in more consonant modes, and interstitial segments of processed spoken word and electronics that build on his central theme of ancient Greek mysticism, Oracle lands as a fully realized and diverse statement of purpose from Randall Hall with seemingly few other precedents in the Quad Cities scene.

Co-presented by the Figge Art Museum in conjunction with the venue's 15th-anniversary celebration, simultaneous live and virtual presentations will be held at Davenport's Hot Glass art studio on August 14, with founder and executive director Joel Ryder delivering a fascinating live glass-blowing demonstration and the resulting artwork auctioned off at the evening's end.

In celebration of the Figge Art Museum's 15th anniversary, the Davenport venue will be hosting an exclusive virtual tour of New York's William Louis-Dreyfus Collection on August 13, with the online events including an overview of the collection with the foundation's Christina Kee and Mary Anne Costello, as well as interviews with artists Hester Simpson and John Newman.