* How a blind professor — who didn’t realize he was stepping through pools of blood — got through the chaos thanks to his dog and a colleague.
* The life of victim Dan Parmenter, 20, of Elmhurst:
Dan Parmenter’s fraternity brothers at Pi Kappa Alpha could rely upon him to organize charity events. His boss could count on him to work every day.
And his professors could depend on the big rugby player to come to class on a cold February afternoon.
It was that type of dedication that placed Parmenter in the front row of an introduction to oceanography class Thursday at Northern Illinois University.
* For the parents of Ryanne Mace, 19, you can only imagine their emotion from the concluding paragraph in a Sun-Times story, headlined “Family remembers their only child:”
Ryanne’s parents tried calling her and the school hotlines. Unable to get through to anyone after several hours, they drove to Kishwaukee Hospital and learned she had been shot.
* And, in today’s big development, the release of the name of the shooter. It seems wrong to dwell too much on him, though. It’s of course news and must be known — yet to focus on the killer seems to value death more than it honors life, and the lives that have been taken. I think our thoughts are better spent on the latter.