My Pop always said he envisioned me as a TV news anchor. That probably had something to do with the fact that, given a topic I’m interested in, I can ramble on and on and on to anyone willing to listen.

I’ve always preferred the written word, though, and view speaking to a group of strangers as something akin to one of those game show challenges where they have you shove your hand in a box without knowing what’s waiting inside. Are you going to wind up petting a rabbit or wrapping your vulnerable fingers around a snake?

Despite those reservations, I’m typically happy to chat up local groups who are willing to listen to my ramblings and, so far, my luck with “the box” here in Fountain Hills has been all bunnies.

Last week I was invited to talk to the local chapter of P.E.O., a philanthropic group that raises funds to provide scholarship opportunities for women. I could write a separate column about how nice and welcoming they were.

But the reason for my visit was the same as pretty much every group that has me out to speak: Talk about the role of a community newspaper and field some questions from the audience.

I always enjoy the Q&A sessions because I can pretty much field questions until the sun goes down. Rather than relying on my limited speaking skills to keep a group entertained for an extended period of time, questions guide me directly to what an individual is curious to know.

That’s kind of the job of a community newspaper, now that I think about it. We provide answers to as many questions as we can tackle in a single week.

What was the score from last Friday’s high school football game? What was discussed at the recent town council or school board meeting? What’s going on with clubs and the local theater? Is there anything happening around town this weekend?

We might not have all of the answers, and readers might occasionally dislike the answers they receive, but we do our best to answer them fairly all the same. That’s the way it has been since The Times first rolled off the presses and that’s the way we intend to keep it.

As for the topics the P.E.O. ladies were curious about, it ranged the spectrum. And since they had these questions, I figured other readers might have them as well. So here’s a lightning round of details.

Does The Times use a police scanner to stay on top of incidents as they occur around town? Yep.

How many people put the paper together each week? There are about a dozen office staff, plus the delivery team.

How do you decide what goes in the crime log? Bob peruses the reports daily and pulls the items that seem the most significant.

How do you choose what runs on the opinion page? If it meets the stated guidelines at the bottom of page 6A, it runs. If there’s an issue, I do my best to work through it with the person who submitted the letter.

What’s the work flow like for putting a paper together each week? Okay, that one would take too long to explain here, but I believe the words “insanity” and “magic” were mentioned.