The traveling salesman problem asks the following question: “Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?”

I stumbled across that definition online as I was trying to find the shortest and most direct route between the Bowling Green Daily News and seven other papers I run in the middle and eastern part of Kentucky as well as in Tennessee. I never really found that best way, but it did lead me to think about that story of the traveling salesman who had families and relationships in other cities.

That thought was reinforced Thursday on a weekly video conference call with all of my sales and account executives. As folks were popping into the meeting, I was bantering back and forth with a sales rep in Middlesboro about an upcoming visit to that property. She promised she would have donuts from my favorite Asian donut shop and buffet. Getting caught up in the moment, I told the staff I would make sure to take them out to lunch at said Chinese restaurant.

No sooner had I uttered those words, then one of the sales reps in Bowling Green muted her microphone and spun around to her co-workers gesturing wildly like she had a burr under her saddle. Growing up with three sisters and being with my wife for 38 years, I immediately recognized a scorned woman. The hand gestures, body language and spinning around in the seat were telltale signs that I was in trouble.

At the end of the call, I made another fatal mistake – I asked my Daily News rep if everything was OK. The flood gates opened. In a shrill and disgruntled voice with an Edmonson County twang she blurted out, “How come you never take us to lunch and you take the new girls out?” I backpedaled as fast as I could with the meeting attendees erupting in laughter. I ended up on the hook for lunch dates with sales reps in eight different cities over the next couple weeks. I am going to have a tough time explaining that to accounting.

The joke in the meetings now is that I am cheating on my Bowling Green work family when I am on the road. Just like the traveling salesman with a family or love in each town, I am kept quite busy. Now that I have come clean with my work family, I have to acknowledge that I have cheated on a few other businesses and people in the community. Not in the biblical sense, but in a way that makes me feel a little guilty.

I’m sorry GADS (Great American Donut Shop), I have found someplace in eastern Kentucky that rivals your puffy, mouth-watering morning, or anytime, treats. They aren’t open 24 hours, but they will give you a run for your money. While I’m on the topic of food, Sasa Mandrapa is next in line. I’ve found a version of Novo Dolce and Toro in my travels that feels as close to home as I can get except for the techno club music. Josh Poling, I’ve yet to find a version of Hickory & Oak that will make me a New Fashioned.

Chris and Andrew, while no one can match the well-worn comfort and service of Bowling Green Pipe and Cigar, I have found a place to have that occasional cigar and bourbon (or moonshine when I’m near my Harlan market). Sonny and Penny, I have found someone that comes close to the Thai Express triple-native hot Pad Thai you cook for me on a regular basis in Bowling Green. They don’t quite trust me when I say they can’t make it hot enough, but they are learning.

As far as government officials, law enforcement and community leaders, I have your counterpart now in each of the other seven markets. Judge-Executive Doug Gorman, Mayor Todd Alcott, Sheriff Brett Hightower and Bowling Green Police Department Public Information Officer Ronnie Ward, you’ll never be replaced in my life, but I have seven other relationships I am juggling. Some of those relationships are easier than others and some take a lot of heavy lifting.

I have heard the Bowling Green Rotary Club is going to put my picture on a milk carton. I have been on the road almost every Wednesday for months and I long for one of club president Duncan Hines’ jokes at the start of the meeting. I have found that I am on the Rotary Club speaking circuit in the central and eastern part of the state as a newspaper publisher. Never fear, I’ll be in attendance soon.

Expanding my work family and community relationships has been a great experience. I have met some great people and continue to make new friends, but at the end of the day, I cherish the folks I work with in Bowling Green and Warren County over the past 33 years in some capacity at the Daily News.

Lastly, I have to declare that as I talk about cheating on my relationships, I have never and will never cheat on the love of my life, Tracy Ann. I might have to sleep with one eye open for a bit until the humor of this column sinks in. It’s good to say it but it’s even better to put it in the newspaper. I love coming home to my wife, my family, my colleagues and my hometown.

– Daily News Publisher Joe Imel can be reached at (270) 783-3273 or via email at joe.imel@ bgdailynews.com.