Life and other deep subjects . . .

Scattershooting about the meaning of life . . . and other deep subjects (like, why do hot dogs taste better with coney sauce . . . and why are some coney sauces sweet while others are not) . . .

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WHETHER WE are talking about our paper in Crawfordsville or The Times in Noblesville, your outpouring of kind words and support to a guy who had a minor heart attack is simply overwhelming. I’ve heard from folks I haven’t talked to in eons and my wife and I can’t begin to tell you how much we appreciate all of you.

The official update is I’m scheduled for open heart surgery at the end of this month. The pros at St. Vincent’s tell me that I will be up and walking soon after the surgery and can get back to a regular walking (and even running) regimen soon. My oldest said that we are going to run the Ft. Ben Half Marathon again together (to that, my youngest said . . . y’all have a good time).

In all seriousness though, thank you so very, very much for caring. It’s a lot more than an old newspaper vagabond expected.

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IT’S THAT time of year for political filings. There are some interesting ones so far, including on the county level. Jennifer Bentley has a challenger for auditor in the Republican primary, Mindy Byers. Joyce Grimble, Matt Nelson, Steve Loy and Brett Cating have all tossed their hats in the ring for county council. Sheriff Ryan Needham is thankfully running for re-election. And Jim Fulwider is running again for the county commissioner seat he currently holds.

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SPEAKING OF politics. Please let me repeat that I urge you to keep your eyes on our hired help in Indianapolis. Yes, they are zeroing in on newspapers again, but they are also going to be looking at issues involving personal rights and such. The more you pay attention, the better. When those good folks are left unchecked and don’t hear your opinions, they can do some awfully strange things.

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MEET JOE LaRue. For those keeping score at home, Joe used to work for us when he was doing his undergrad work at Wabash College. Now as a distinguished alum of the prestigious school, he’s back as our managing editor. He’ll be working out of our Noblesville office but his talents will be on display in both places. Please help us give Joe a warm Sagamore News Media welcome. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

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FOR THE purposes of my earlier question – I’m dividing coney sauces into two categories – sweet and not-so-sweet. Coneys, like at Dog’n’Suds, are sweet. The ones from Skyline out of Cincinnati are not. For the record, I prefer sweet. Then again, for the record, pretty sure coneys are officially off the heart-healthy list I’m abiding by these days. What about you? Sweet or not-so-much?

Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].