Twelve young adults died when a wooden porch in Lincoln Park collapsed early Sunday morning; 57 people were injured. A high school classmate, Kelly McKinnell, was one of those who died:

Kelly McKinnell, 26, used her eyes and a gift for photography to affect those around her. Lynne Wellen, coordinator of the adult education program at the Latin School of Chicago, said McKinnell graduated from the Latin School in 1995.

She came back in 2001 to teach digital photography in the adult education program and was applying to schools to get a graduate degree in photography.

“She was a wonderful young woman. She really was. And she was a terrific teacher,” Wellen said. “Very full of life, very upbeat. An exceedingly positive young woman.”

McKinnell’s mother, Jean Ware of Barrington, said her daughter had just mailed her application to the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Saturday morning.

“She’s an only child … she’s my only child,” Ware said. “You just get numb.”

Kelly and I weren’t close, but everyone at the Latin School, which we graduated in the same year, was a lot closer than average because each graduating class had only 75 to 80 students.

She was a nice girl, and even back in high school — when she shot for the yearbook — an evidently talented photographer.

There’s a bigger spook to this for me because only last Monday I attended a friend’s birthday party, a barbecue held on a wooden porch. These are designed as walkways, not as places for scores of people to congregate. To be honest, it never occurred to me that it might not be safe, though there were perhaps only a dozen people at that party.

This is yuppie Chicago’s version of E2.

Let’s see, I moved in with Karen after the honeymoon in September. And finally — yesterday, to be precise — I got around to unpacking and organizing my CD collection, which is a big relief.

Now I don’t have to listen to the same 30-odd CDs I had set aside in a wallet. And Karen won’t keep asking me, “Aren’t you sick of that album yet?”

Thanks to The New York Times for relieving that heavy burden.

“Online Dating Sheds Its Stigma as Losers.com” is the headline on this Amy Harmon story. As more and more people have turned to the Internet for dating help, the number of wackos grows proportionately smaller. In Internet time, Karen and I met aeons ago — 1998.

I’ve always thought we had a head start over people who meet through online matchmaking services, because we weren’t really looking to find love online. It just sort of happened. The element of calculation and misrepresentation that has plagued online dating wasn’t at all present.

Still, it’s nice to know that online dating is becoming more acceptable — and more successful for the people who do it. If you’re thinking about it, here are some tips to consider.

I admit to not having read the paper or barely even any news on the Internet the last few days. At first it was because I had a big deadline to meet, but then I just looked at the headlines and couldn’t get excited enough to dig deeper.

Then again, I did read and discuss the Supreme Court decisions quite a bit. I guess a week of light news consumption might be considered heavy by the average, non-news junkie. I don’t know. I just can’t seem to muster the interest right now.

I’ve gone through periods like that with sports. And then at other times I find them endlessly fascinating and can watch “SportsCenter” three times in a row. Moods, I guess.