Friday, May 17

Arrowhead Park

EMERGING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Read an online version of the newspaper similar to the one delivered to homes.

Thank goodness the PC police took down that filthy Brent Musburger. At 73, he’s clearly past the age limit at which you can compliment a young, beautiful woman. We all know that’s, um, well, I have no idea. But apparently there is a limit. Old geezers can marry young women, but whatever you do, don’t say they’re beautiful.

This week there are three coupon inserts, Redplum, Smart Source and P&G. You can also go to www.HealthyEssentials.com for more than $100 in printable Johnson & Johnson coupons.

Read Our Community Newsletter for January-February-March 2013.

Check out our photographs from 2012 homecomings from around the area.

This week we get a Smartsource and a Redplum with more than $100 in coupon value. There are several good deals this week.

Sign up to play our NFL picks game, Pro Experts Club.

Play our college football picks game

Check out the latest national and international news from the Associated Press

DELPHOS — The recipe Sue Clark shares today doesn’t really have a name.“We call them rye thingies,” she said, laughing. “Everybody knows what the rye thingies are.”The recipe for this party appetizer has roots in her husband’s family. It came from his mother, that much they know, and she likely received it from a friend. (Who knows? It may even have been a promo recipe from Velveeta.)But one thing Clark knows is that everyone loves them. It’s not a get-together unless the rye thingies are on the table.She enjoys the recipe not just because it’s a family favorite. She also enjoys how simple they are to make. A giant batch can be whipped up in no time at all. Once they’re assembled, you can freeze them at that point. Once ready to serve, just pop a few on a baking sheet and warm them up in the oven. “It’s got a little bit of kick to it because it’s got a little bit of red pepper,” said Clark, admitting she’s been known to warm up a few for herself for a quick lunch. Just put two halves together, and you’ve got a perfect little sandwich.Clark enjoys cooking. This past Christmas season, she made almost 10 different types of Chex Mix and brought it to her work at the Lima Public Library. She learned to cook with her mother, and one of her favorite activities is to teach her granddaughter to cook.“My granddaughter loves to come over and do stuff with me,” she said. “And I let her do it.”Have a suggestion for who should be featured in this spot? Email amcgee@limanews.com.

Stephanie WysongThis week we can expect two inserts, Red Plum and Smart Source. I’m not seeing too many in-store deals going on; however there are usually a ton of online deals. I did all of my shopping online last week and got great deals!At Rite Aid this week they will be having an extra mid-week sale Wednesday to Saturday. You will be able to get Rave hair spray free. The deal is buy three cans for $6. Use three $1 off two coupons found in the Nov. 6 Smart Source. Pay $3 and get back a $3 +Up Reward. Your final cost is zero. CVS has a few good deals going on. You can do the gift card promo where you get $30 worth of product to receive a $10 gift card. Remember, the $30 is the pre-coupon price. Not the price you actually have to pay. You can get Faith Hill Fragrance sets almost half price after coupon and rewards, Playtex and Schick items for 92 cents each, and a money maker on Revlon nail polish. There is also contact cleaner for $8.99 with an $8.99 Extra Care Buck, so it’s free. That is nice for those who use contact cleaner. For anyone wondering about the $5 CVS gift card for only $10, that promotion has ended. I will post an update on my website if it opens back up.Here is how to go about shopping this week at CVS:I recommend starting with the Revlon products first. On the Revlon deal, you will get a $6 Extra Care Buck when you purchase any two Revlon beauty tools or cosmetics. The tools seem to be the cheaper way to go. You can purchase other items, but you will have to factor in the extra cost. Note you do not have to spend a certain amount. You will get your $6 Extra Care Buck for buying two products.Transaction No. 1: Purchase two of the cheapest Revlon Beauty tools you can find. Nail files or clippers would be good. I think the nail clippers are around $2.99. Use two $1 Revlon Beauty Tools coupons found in the Oct. 30 Smart Source, pay $3.98 and get a $6 Extra Care Buck. Your final cost is a little over $2 profit.For the Schick and Playtex, you will get a $10 Extra Care Buck when you purchase $30 in Playtex and/or Schick products. For transaction No. 2, purchase one box of the 16-count Playtex Sport Tampons at $5.49 and two Schick Extreme Razor 3 (four-count) razors at $8.49 each. Your total is $22.47. Use the $1 Playtex coupon from the Nov. 30 Smart Source insert and use the buy one get one free Schick razor coupon from the Nov. 6 Smart Source (will deduct $8.49), and use the $6 Extra Care Buck from transaction No. 1. Pay $6.98 and get back a $10 Extra Care Buck. Your final cost is a $3.02 profit. Now you have spent $10.96, plus tax, for two packs of Schick razors, one box of Playtex and two Revlon products, and you have $10 in rewards to use on something else or save them for next week. Your final cost after rewards is 96 cents for all. Not bad.For more CVS shopping, visit www.stephaniesavings.com and click CVS. This page is now open with a CVS Shopping Guide. You can also find more deals for other drug stores and grocery stores. Also, be sure to watch for the online deals that are extremely good this time of year. All deals are mentioned with the current knowledge of the sales and coupons available. Deals are subject to change at the store’s discretion. Coupons may be regional.

LIMA — The Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter. The name means wasp in Italian. Vespa scooters are known for their steel unibody which completely covers the engine and has a flat floorboard. The inspiration for the design is it said dates back to pre-WWII Cushman scooters made in Nebraska. These scooters were in Italy in large numbers to be used as field transport for the Paratroops and Marines. The biggest sales promo was Hollywood. In 1952, Audrey Hepburn rode Gregory Peck’s Vespa in the feature film Roman Holiday. In 1956, John Wayne traded his horse in for the easy riding two-wheeler to get between takes on sets. Marlon Brando, Dean Martin and Abbe Lane and Charlton Heston all sung the praises of Vespa riding. With the price of gasoline, the Vespa proves to be a more economical mode of transportation these days.Larry and Kim Fairburn brought their 1980 Vespa P200E motorcycle with sidecar to The Lima News’ Real Wheels Cruise-In. They have owned it for 21 years. They bought it in 1990 with 3,100 miles on it. Their favorite memory is taking their Boxer dogs for a ride in the sidecar.

One imagines the promo will pretty much write itself.“Don't miss a moment of the high fashion, high drama and hijinks as ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' returns for Season 2. Join the pampered princesses of the world's most famous ZIP code as they struggle with questions all the money in the world cannot answer. Can sisters Kim and Kyle repair their broken relationship after last season's fight? Can Camille find happiness in her new life without Kelsey? And, what will Taylor do when she finds out her estranged husband committed suicide after seeing his private life played out as a cheesy soap opera to sell hemorrhoid medicine and feminine hygiene products to a mass audience?”Maybe you find the foregoing an unsuitably cynical response to last week's news that a fellow named Russell Armstrong hanged himself and people around him blame it on the pressures of seeing his wife, reality star Taylor Russell, file for divorce as his finances crumbled (The Los Angeles Times calls him a “struggling entrepreneur” with a $12 million debt) and an audience looked on. But it seems to me the real cynicism is embodied in a TV show's decision to treat people's actual lives and misfortunes as entertainment.“‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,' I think, was (Russell's) downfall,” a friend named William Ratner told The Los Angeles Times. “The TV show put a lot of pressure on him to produce financially. You're on a show with a couple like the Maloofs, who are verifiable billionaires, and you're not.”The reference was to “Housewife” Adrienne Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings basketball team.“The program itself,” Russell's mother, John Ann Hotchkiss, told CNN's Headline News, “just really brought him down.” She said her son was constantly bashed on the show and could do nothing about it because the conflict generated ratings. “All the network cares about are ratings. They don't care how people feel.” Nor is Russell reality TV's first meltdown. Jon and Kate Gosselin got divorced. Singer Fantasia Barrino tried to commit suicide. Danielle Staub thought about it.“I was very close to taking my own life — not just on one occasion — it's been several times,” the former cast member of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” recently told “Entertainment Tonight.” “I don't have words to describe how alone you feel when everybody's coming at you and judging you — and they don't even know you.”Now there's this. And you wonder if, even at this price, we will finally realize that other people's lives are not a car crash we slow down to watch on the freeway.This brand of television is the moral equivalent of those “bum fight” videos where homeless men are paid to scrap on camera and the video is posted online. There is something similarly predatory in searching out these troubled people, these drunks and narcissists, these self-centered, superficial plastic surgery junkies, these screechers and whiners and perpetual adolescents with daddy, esteem or anger management issues, and paying them to let us watch as they implode. There is something reprehensible in the watching, too.“Reality,” they call it. Well, a man is dead and it looks like TV played a part.Is that real enough?Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132. Contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

PAST CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AWARD WINNERSAthena Award1996 Eldridge Consulting1997 Met Place Properties LLC1998 Girl Scouts of Appleseed Ridge Inc.1999 Judy Gilbert2000 United Way of Greater Lima2001 Violet Meek2002 Alberta Lee2003 Lima Allen County Academy of Medicine2004 Spherion2005 Dr. Lee Snyder, president of Bluffton University2006 Jon E. Rockhold, director of external relations, OSU-Lima2007 Cheryl Morgan, Rea and Associates2008 James Reber, CEO, St. Rita’s Medical Center2009 Karel Oxley, Lima City SchoolsEmerging business of the year2004 Yellow Tuesday’s Hair Club2005 Meeting Place on Market2006 Adrian Gabbiano’s Hair Salon & Designing Associates2007 Heartlight Pharmacy Services2008 FAST2010 Blass Residential ServiceMinority owned business of the year2003 Vogarts Salon2004 Jones-Clark Funeral Home2005 Law Office of Farley K. Banks2006 Dr. Will Ellis, owner, Infectious Diseases Inc.Category eliminated for 2007Culturally diverse business of the year2008 Sarah Ricks, Sarah Ricks’ Treasure Co.2009 George Ricks, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network2010 Sal Alkhatib, LazeezaNonprofit of the year1998 Lima/Allen Council on Community Affairs1999 Girl Scouts of Appleseed Ridge Inc.2000 Goodwill Industries2001 Marimor Industries Inc.2002 Lima/Allen County Neighborhoods in Partnership2003 American Red Cross2004 Children’s Developmental Center of Lima2005 Lima Family YMCA2006 Allen County Council on Aging2007 United Way of Greater Lima2008 Lima Symphony Orchesta2009 Equestrian Therapy2010 Health Partners of Western OhioSmall business of the year1989 Tom Ahl Buick Inc.1990 Kewpee Hamburgers1991 Gooding1992 Gasdorf Tool & Machine Inc.1995 Lima Allen County Paramedics1996 Hardy Financial Group1997 Buckeye Charter Service Inc.1998 K&K Supply1999 Smith Boughan Inc.2000 Folsum Somerville Insurance2001 Fat Jack’s Pizza2002 WCOIL2003 Chiles & Sons-Laman Funeral Home2004 Stolly Insurance Group2005 Happy Daz2006 Pajka Eye Center2007 Wannemacher Trucking2008 Pack Pharmacy2009 Trisco Systems Inc.2010 DeHaven Home and Garden ShowplaceNone for 1993, 1994Women-owned business of the year2003 Seddelmeyer Travel Concepts, Chris Seddelmeyer2004 Nitza’s, Karen Barrington2005 The Cut and Color Crew, Taffy Colley2006 I Do Windows, Lisa Kroehler2007 Sign Pro, Michelle Sterling2008 Promo Hits!, Melinda Bowden2009 Johnny A’s Grill and Spirits, Stacey Stose2010 Intermedia 3, Maggie WannemacherSOURCE: Lima/Allen County Chamber of CommerceLIMA — When it comes to launching and sustaining a successful business, each owner has his own secret recipe for success. But for the finalists in this year’s Small Business of the Year awards, the key ingredient is people.The Lima Allen County Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards will take place Wednesday at the UNOH Event Center. Among those to be honored are business owners Robert Sielschott, Eric Wiechart and Mark Niemeyer. The three run very different businesses, but their challenges are similar. Each admits his business lives or dies on the people he hires.“Quality and service is such a huge, key factor to business, and that means finding good employees that want to learn this kind of trade,” said Niemeyer, owner of Lima Millworks. “It’s a challenge to find people who want to learn and jump on board.”Like almost all business owners, Niemeyer started out as one of those employees with a desire to learn more. He was working in the millwork shop at the former Lima Lumber store. When the business closed in 1983, Niemeyer decided to take the plunge and buy the millwork portion. Over time, the business grew, eventually moving to its current East Road location, where he employs 28 workers. Despite years in the industry, Lima Millworks is unknown to most people. Most of its work comes from building custom cabinetry for three large nursing home companies, one of which owns more than 500 facilities. “We kind of have a niche market, so for us we have not found competition that’s willing to take all the steps for service and quality we have,” Niemeyer said. “We don’t have a whole lot of competition, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have to always provide a quality product and great service.”That combination is also key to Wiechart’s business, All Service Glass. The company was founded in 1975 and had two other owners before Wiechart bought the operation 11 years ago. Since then it has expanded, purchasing Taylor Glass six years ago, a Kentucky company in 2010 and Keller Glass earlier this year. The company now has 35 employees in Ohio and 28 in Kentucky, and every one of them gets the sermon on the importance of customer service and getting it right.“The whole world has compressed. There’s no room for error, no room for fluff, no room for mistakes,” Wiechart said.Like Niemeyer, Wiechart depends on workers willing to learn a trade. And once he finds good workers, he invests time and money to make them better. But even finding them can be tricky.“For me, it was just put it up on the bulletin board, put an ad in the paper and that’s it. I realized I’m not reaching anyone under my age,” Wiechart said. “We really had to change the way we look for people.”For Sielschott, the goal is not just finding young talent but making sure that talent is rewarded for success. He started R.E. Sielschott CPA in 1982 with the goal of creating an accounting practice that offered quality work, full disclosure of fees and access to the senior staff. His commitment to that practice means long hours and hard work for staffers. It also makes it tough to find accountants who are willing or able to keep up. “The position of CPA partner (here) is very demanding, and finding those who wish to commit to practicing in this style is a challenge,” Sielschott said.Finding good partners is tough but not impossible. The company, now named Sielschott, Walsh, Keifer and Regula, Inc. CPAs has four partners, and all were younger than 32 when they earned the title.“We have met the challenge by discounting factors such as age and making partnership accessibility based primarily on a willingness to commit extreme efforts to the team and a personality that thrives on interaction directly with small business owners,” Sielschott said. You can comment on this story at www.LimaOhio.com.

PITTSBURGH — Len DiNaples Sr. took a swig of Iron City beer and displayed the bottle to an out-of-towner.“This is what you want,” he said, nodding at the local brew, his white hair engendering trust, as he reclined in a cozy booth at Primanti Bros.The sandwich shop radiated a Pittsburgh vibe, minus the slow-to-order tourists, many wearing Steelers gear. No Stella Artois or Amstel Light here. Pastrami sandwiches, complete with Weight Watchers-busting fries and coleslaw smothered on top of the meat, are served on wax paper instead of plates.The working-class soul of this city — gleaming and sagging all at once, currently covered with soot-blackened snow — is undeniably connected to its NFL franchise. The Steelers have long embodied Pittsburgh’s gritty spirit and helped create an unapologetic ego. Now, again, the city’s black-and-gold heart is soaring as the Steelers prepare for Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium.It’s Pittsburgh’s third Super Bowl appearance in six seasons, stirring talk of another dynasty to match the four Super Bowls won between 1975 and 1980. After the Steelers knocked off the bravado-spewing New York Jets in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, it’s onto the Green Bay Packers, another franchise that many consider NFL royalty and one that Steelers fans respect.“The pride of our city is on the line,” said DiNaples, 68, a longtime Pittsburgh resident and season-ticket holder, who wore a leather jacket with patches commemorating the Steelers’ NFL-best six Super Bowl victories. “We have a good chance at No. 7.”“At the gates of seven” is how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette put it on Monday’s front page. Local TV news trumpeted “Destination: Dallas” promos after the Steelers’ win. References to Arlington, Fort Worth or North Texas were minimal.While North Texas’ Super Bowl turn nears, Steelers fans relish the continued prosperity of a team with which they feel an almost religious union.Pittsburgh’s Sonny Amato, a 30-something, is too young to relive the steel mill closings that coincided with the Steelers’ initial success of the 1970s. But he said the shared identity between the city and Steelers is tangible, as is the respect for the longtime ownership of the Rooney family. Pictures of the late Art Rooney, chomping his iconic cigar, emblazoned with the word “Believe,” are plastered in store fronts.“It’s about the whole organization, it’s consistency year to year, and that they try to do things the right way,” said Amato, editor of a Steelers’ fan blog, theterribleblog.com, named in honor of Pittsburgh’s famed Terrible Towels waved during games.The Steelers’ distinctive logo couldn’t be missed during a drive through the city’s core, from men wearing it proudly as they waited for the bus to a glowing neon sign in a pizzeria window.“You have to understand, we wear Steelers gear all year; it’s part of our wardrobe,” said Jim Coen, owner of a store that hawks all things Steelers, located near Primanti Bros. in the Strip District.Coen’s father worked in a steel mill that closed in the 1970s. So he still becomes emotional when he describes the connection between the city and the Steelers.“The city fell to (expletive),” he said. “When that happened, that’s when the Steelers won Super Bowls. And the city had something to hope for.”Super Bowls are good for business. Fans clamored Monday for AFC championship T-shirts that were only just delivered around lunch time.Women are huge consumers of Steelers ware; Coen can’t keep women’s sizes in stock. At least they’re easier to find than season tickets. Amato inherited his from his grandmother. Looking to get married? Coming from season-ticket-holding stock may be the asset to flaunt.Coen’s shop is named Yinzers, derived from a term that could be used much like “y’all” is in Texas. But it also refers to people from Pittsburgh. Or who used to be, Coen said.Something, though, about the Steelers’ success, mystique or branding, connects with NFL fans well outside the city and even across the U.S. border — much as with the Dallas Cowboys. Fans commonly travel from long distances for games. Alex Martinez Jr. attended Sunday’s frigid game with his father, who were visiting from sunny Cancun.Wherever members of Steelers Nation live, they’ll tell you this season was not marked for magic from the start. Accused of sexual misconduct, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for the first four games for violating the NFL’s code of conduct.But the Steelers found a way. Again. According to cornerback Ike Taylor, the Steelers are winning so much that perhaps now only a Steelers Nation-vs.-everyone else mentality will do.“People don’t like successful people,” Taylor said Monday. “Just the tradition we have here, the success, we feel like a lot of people get tired of seeing the same people (win). ... I’m just happy to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.”Amato said Steelers fans don’t want to be known as cocky, like, say, Yankees fans, but ...“We have been watching a lot of playoff games lately,” he said.Steelers fans want to believe that they’re watching another dynasty. That the names Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu may ultimately carry the same respect as Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and Lynn Swann. They want another Super Bowl to celebrate.“No one else even has six (Super Bowl wins) — we would really set the bar,” said DiNaples, well aware that this rankles Cowboys fans, who claim five Super Bowl wins. “I may be gone by the time someone else gets to seven.“But by that time, we’ll have eight.”