This week we are commemorating 43 years of publishing The Times. We printed our first edition on June 27, 1974.

It was originally called The Times of Fountain Hills. But the threat of a lawsuit by The Times of London caused us to change it to The Fountain Hills Times in 1999.

A funny thing about that was another large British company contacted a Fountain Hills builder to “cease and desist” using their logo because they felt it looked too much like theirs. The contracting firm name was R and R Engineering and Builders. The British firm was, you guessed it, Rolls Royce.

And the only publication in which the contractor was advertising was ours. We either had a reader of The Times who was a loyalist to the queen or they must have quite a sizeable staff checking for such things.

While I’m in this light-hearted mood, I think I’ll tell you some of the typos that have appeared in this paper over the past 43 years.

We had the Baptists “sinning” around the campfire rather than singing.

When Congressman Mo Udall’s mother died of over exposure in the desert after she wandered away from her home west of Rio Verde. We accidentally wrote, “Upon finding the Congressman’s mother’s body, the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office determined there was no evidence of “fourplay.” It’s amazing how the meaning of a word can be changed by typing just one wrong letter.

But it was a call from a local business owner that informed us about our worst typographical error in the 43 years of publishing this newspaper.

We ran a story on the new owner of a pizza restaurant called Time Stop Pizza.

After the story and accompanying photo ran, reporter Rick Snedeker received a call from the owner. He called and asked Rick if he had looked at the paper that day. The pizza man’s name was Whitey Pupshis (pronounced “Poop-shis). When Rick walked into the normally brightly lighted restaurant, he thought it was unusual that all of the lights were off.

Whitey was sitting at one of the tables at the rear of the restaurant. He was looking down at the floor and his fisted hands were holding up his head.

“Rick, did you see the caption on our picture that ran in the paper today?” Whitey asked.

“No,” Rick replied.

Continuing to look down, he said. “All my life, I’ve put up with grief over my last name.”

He then raised his head and said. “But I always thought Whitey was safe.”

The typesetter, who was extra careful in typing his last name, somehow typed an “S” in place of the “W” on his first name.

He made it known that he was unhappy. We ended up giving him a month of free advertising.

You may have noticed my new picture at the top of my column. Diane has been after me for years to update my photo. She says I look like I came out of a concentration camp. That was around the time of my brain surgery and I lost about 30 pounds for some reason.

Now that I’m “semi-retired” and just a few weeks away from my 70th birthday, I should have a photo that looks more like me now, anyway.

Wow, 43 years. That makes us one of the oldest businesses under the same ownership in town. I can only think of Kay Kinder’s Fountain Fashions, Fountain Hills LP Gas (now operating as Arizona Propane), Bashas’ and Paul’s Hardware as being in operation longer than we have.

Many people are asking me how it’s going with the younger guys running the operation. Well, let me tell you. Very little has changed other than I’m not in as much.

I can’t cover meetings any longer. Due to the Parkinson’s, my note-taking skills have greatly diminished. We’re also traveling to see the grandkids more frequently now. But that doesn’t keep me from approving the pages before they go to the printer.

As long as I have access to a laptop or an iPad, the staff can send me the main stories and pages by email to just about anywhere in the country. They send the pages and stories to me on Monday afternoons and I get back to them with any changes on Tuesday morning. My son, Brent, who I named assistant publisher the first of the year, has received many positive comments about his columns. This has been a pleasant surprise. For now, he’ll be writing one column a month and I will be doing the rest.

He’s been busy with the sales on the Community Guide and The Times. Both he and Duke Kirkendoll have been working on our presence in the social media world. He will be having a staff meeting to discuss ways to increase our number of subscribers and better serve our advertisers.

Many local businesses are saying this is the worst summer yet for sales. The heat may be partly to blame. Who wants to go outside when it’s close to 120 degrees?

Remember if you have need for a unique gift, a special dining experience or maybe you need a new washer and dryer, check the ads in The Times and shop local.