COFFEE BREAK 8B — THE OBSERVER THuRSday, JunE 17, 2021 Bride wants to dictate attendants’ underwear Dear Abby: I am getting mar- ried, and my fiance’s daugh- ters, 19 and 21, are in the wed- ding party. I have purchased the dresses they are wearing, which are light and flowing. I have told the girls that on the day of the wedding I do not want them wearing thong underwear. The older one then went to her dad and said she didn’t want to wear reg- ular underwear. He told her she could wear whatever she wants. I have tried telling them that as young ladies there are times you don’t wear thongs, and under a flowing dress is one of them. It’s one day of their lives. How can I get my point across? — Wise Bride in Phoenix Dear Wise Bride: Explain to your fiance exactly why you are concerned about his daughters wearing thong underwear under their bridesmaid dresses and, when you do, be graphic. After that, if he still feels the same, accept it. Then pray no slip-ups occur while they are dancing, and no strong gusts of wind come along when the wed- ding photos are taken. Dear Abby: I’m dating a lady and committed to our relation- ship, but every time I visit her at her apartment, she expects me to take her dog out. The building has a policy that if the dog poops, you have to pick it up and dispose of it, so they have bags at different locations. I don’t like doing it. I grew up on a farm where we had dogs, but never would I think about picking up their poop. It grosses me out. OK, so I have been doing it for a couple of years, but I don’t want to do it anymore. But if I say that or don’t do it, she’ll think I’m not committed to her. What should I commonly experience “conver- sations” with robo-calls, virtual assistants (Alexa and Echo) and phone routing software. All this technology is powered by artifi- cial intelligence. So given that we are talking to machines, do we need to follow the rules of etiquette with these robots? My wife insists we should say “Thank you” and “Please” to these software creations, while I say no manners are needed. Your thoughts? — Mulling It Over in Montana Dear Mulling It: Although it isn’t mandatory, I know of at least one AI “assistant” that would acknowledge the courtesy. do? — Dog Walking in Texas Dear Dog Walking: Stand up for yourself. Because you feel so strongly, tell her that from now on you will walk her dog together or she’ll have to do it herself. You may have been raised on a farm, but you are now part of a com- munity with ordinances against leaving excrement on the streets. Your devotion to this person should not be predicated upon your willingness to perform a task she should have been doing herself. Dear Abby: My wife and I are having a minor argument, and we are seeking your help in resolving it. We live in an age when we NEWS OF THE WEIRD Dog ejected from vehicle crash found herding sheep Luckily for the town, Read was willing to give it back. County records show he trans- ferred the water tower back to Brooksville through a warranty deed last month. The town of 8,500 residents is located 50 miles north of Tampa. “I don’t know where the blame falls here,” said Blake Bell, a city council member. “We’re council members and we rely on the city manager. We assume that he has done his due diligence.” City Manager Mark Kutney blamed the use of a bad legal description for what happened. The city’s redevelopment agency director resigned after the acci- dental sale. “We’re human,” Kutney said. “Sometimes we make a mistake.” The Associated Press SPOKANE — A pet dog who vanished for two days after being ejected from a vehicle during an accident has been found appar- ently doing the job it was bred to do — herding sheep. Linda Oswald’s family and their dog, Tilly, were driving along Idaho State Highway 41 on Sunday, June 6, when they crashed into another car, launching the dog through the rear window, The Spokesman-Re- view reported. The unharmed but stunned dog then ran away, prompting an immediate search with at least six complete strangers who witnessed the crash and pulled over along the highway to help, Oswald said. “People just kept going out,” Oswald said, noting that the search lasted about 10 hours before the family went home. “We were sore and exhausted.” Oswald said the family then wrote a Facebook post that included a picture of the 2-year-old border collie and red heeler mix and more than 3,000 people shared the post. That’s when Tyler, Travis and Zane Potter recognized the dog in the photo as the same dog they saw on their family farm south of Rathdrum on June 8. Both the Potters and Oswald think Tilly was drawn to the farm and their sheep. “I think that dog was trying to herd,” Travis Potter said. Oswald said if it weren’t for the post, he would still be out there. Endangered corpse flower blooms in Warsaw, drawing crowds WARSAW, Poland — The endangered Sumatran Titan arum, a giant foul-smelling blossom also known as the corpse flower, Customer finds 7-foot gator inside Florida post office went into a rare, short bloom at a botanical garden in Warsaw, drawing crowds who waited for hours to see it. The extraordinary flower, which emits a dead-body odor to attract pollinating insects that feed on flesh, bloomed Sunday, June 13. It was already withering early June 14. Those wishing to avoid the smell and crowds could watch it on live video from the Warsaw University Botanical Gardens. Hundreds, if not thousands, lined up long into the night June 13 and the morning of June 14 at the conservatory just to be able to pass by the flower and take a picture. Known also as the Amorph- weather | Go to AccuWeather.com ophallus titanum, the flowering plant has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, which can be up to 10 feet high. Its com- pound flower is composed of a hollow, tall spadix with small flowers and a spathe, with one big, furrowed petal that is green on the outside and deep burgundy red on the inside. It’s blooming is rare and unpredictable. The plant only grows in the wild in the rainforests of Sumatra, but it is endangered there due to deforestation. Cultivation at botanical gardens, where they are a great visitor attraction, has helped its preservation. It’s first known blooming outside Sumatra was in 1889 at London’s Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Florida town accidentally sells municipal water tower BROOKSVILLE, Florida — A small town in Florida acci- dentally sold its water tower in a blundered real estate transaction. A businessman purchased a municipal building underneath the city of Brooksville’s water tower last April for $55,000 with the goal of converting it into a gym. However, when Bobby Read went to the county to get an address for his new business location, he was told the parcel he bought included the entire water tower site, according to the Tampa Bay Times. AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 53/64 Kennewick 51/78 St. Helens 55/81 58/87 Condon 59/92 56/82 Clear Baker City La Grande 6 53 86 54 Comfort Index™ 6 85 53 89 55 Eugene 6 6 4 51/84 84 58 87 58 90 60 6 6 4 4 82 57 89 59 6 6 4 4 ALMANAC TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High: 124° Low: 32° Wettest: 3.18” 74° 44° 70° 48° 73° 48° PRECIPITATION (inches) 0.02 0.12 0.67 2.35 5.20 Trace Trace 0.88 5.90 8.68 0.24 0.41 1.00 14.62 12.92 AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 25% NNW at 7 to 14 mph 14.7 0.31 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 50/75 17% of capacity 79% of capacity 45% of capacity 87% of capacity 46% of capacity 84% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday) Grande Ronde at Troy 4320 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 64 cfs Burnt River near Unity 92 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 98 cfs Minam River at Minam 1570 cfs Powder River near Richland 21 cfs Death Valley, Calif. Walden, Colo. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. OREGON High: 89° Low: 39° Wettest: 0.45” Ontario Crater Lake Meacham A strong Santa Ana wind loaded with fi ne dust and pulverized clay roasted Santa Barbara, Calif., on June 17, 1859. Unof- fi cial temperatures reached 133 degrees. SUN & MOON THU. 5:04 a.m. 8:43 p.m. 12:15 p.m. 1:08 a.m. FRI. 5:04 a.m. 8:43 p.m. 1:28 p.m. 1:30 a.m. MOON PHASES First Jun 17 Full Jun 24 Last Jul 1 Beaver Marsh 54/86 New Jul 9 Burns Jordan Valley Paisley Frenchglen 53/96 City Astoria Bend Boise Brookings Burns Coos Bay Corvallis Council Elgin Eugene Hermiston Hood River Imnaha John Day Joseph Kennewick Klamath Falls Lakeview Hi/Lo/W 64/51/pc 87/56/s 98/64/s 75/57/s 95/55/pc 66/51/s 82/48/s 94/55/pc 88/53/s 84/50/s 96/63/s 87/58/s 92/54/s 92/57/s 86/57/s 95/63/s 93/52/s 94/52/s Hi/Lo/W 65/55/s 87/56/s 95/62/s 77/58/s 92/51/s 67/55/s 83/55/s 92/54/s 84/54/pc 84/58/s 95/63/pc 85/63/s 87/54/pc 85/54/s 82/56/pc 95/65/pc 94/53/s 93/51/t Grand View Arock 63/100 55/97 55/99 Klamath Falls 51/93 Lakeview 50/94 McDermitt Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs. SAT. Diamond 54/94 Fields 58/90 FRI. Boise 56/93 52/94 54/91 Medford Brookings 54/99 62/98 53/89 56/75 Juntura 50/95 Silver Lake Chiloquin Grants Pass Ontario 61/99 47/93 58/99 RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY REGIONAL CITIES WEATHER HISTORY Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset 47/86 50/90 Roseburg Powers Brothers 51/81 Coos Bay Huntington 51/91 55/87 Oakridge 53/94 63/96 Seneca Bend Elkton TUESDAY EXTREMES High Tuesday Low Tuesday Tuesday Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date Florence Council 47/90 52/92 54/88 52/66 Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable. 50/85 John Day 49/89 Sisters 51/80 82 56 53/93 Baker City Redmond 50/61 52/64 Halfway Granite 51/82 Newport 85 53 4 51 89 57 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 6 Mostly sunny; very warm 56/92 49/80 53/84 Corvallis Enterprise 53/86 51/89 Monument 58/92 Idanha Salem MON Sunny and very Partly sunny and Sunny and very warm warm warm 47 90 52 Comfort Index™ SUN Elgin 49/88 La Grande 54/85 Maupin SAT 59/91 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg 51/83 Lewiston 58/94 Hood River 55/91 50/66 FRI Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 Walla Walla 57/95 Vancouver 55/80 TIllamook TONIGHT SPRING HILL, Florida — They say neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night will stop the U.S. Postal Service, but an alli- gator could get in the way.That’s what happened at the Spring Hill Post Office in Florida’s Her- nando County, according to a sheriff’s office Facebook post. Sheriff’s officials say someone stopped by the post office recently to drop off a package and saw the 7-foot gator roaming around the lobby. The building has automatic double doors that allows off- hours entry, officials said.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Con- servation Commission considers an alligator a “nuisance” animal if it is 4 feet or longer and deemed a threat to people, pets or property. Florida has an alligator hotline for just these types of situations: 866-392-4286. Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review via AP Linda Oswald hugs 2-year-old dog, Tilly, at their home in Hayden, Idaho, on Tuesday, June 8, 2021. The dog vanished for two days after being ejected from a vehicle during a car accident and has been found apparently doing the job it was bred to do — herding sheep. City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla FRI. SAT. ANTHONY LAKES PHILLIPS LAKE Hi/Lo/W 94/60/s 78/50/s 89/53/s 90/57/s 61/49/pc 76/47/s 99/65/pc 96/58/s 91/59/s 82/55/s 75/50/s 89/51/s 86/54/s 84/51/s 87/58/s 92/61/s 83/48/s 91/62/s Hi/Lo/W 92/63/pc 78/54/s 84/55/pc 90/62/s 62/52/s 74/53/pc 98/65/s 95/62/pc 89/62/pc 82/60/s 80/56/s 88/52/s 87/60/s 84/58/s 85/59/pc 89/64/pc 82/51/s 89/63/pc Mostly sunny; mild Mostly sunny; warm Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice 63 50 88 52 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Sunny and pleasant Mostly sunny; hot 74 53 92 58 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Mostly sunny; warm Sunny and warm 74 47 80 45 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Sunny and warm Plenty of sunshine 86 57 89 58 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Mostly sunny; warm Sunny and warm 90 52 89 57