Page 6B East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Thursday, December 7, 2017 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ Non-hugger seeks polite way to keep others at arm’s length FOR BETTER OR WORSE BY LYNN JOHNSTON B.C. BY JOHNNY HART PICKLES BY BRIAN CRANE Dear Abby: I am not a hugger. know how to proceed. In fact, I pretty much always hate What can I do to maintain a good it. But people think I’m rude when relationship with her, while staying I don’t open my arms to hug after on good terms with my son? My they’ve opened theirs. And they also grandchildren mean the world to me. think I’m rude when I tell them I’m — Heartsick In The West not really a hugger. It happens with Dear Heartsick: The last thing friends, fellow church congregants you want or need is to get caught in and audience members (I’m an enter- the middle of the divorce. Try your Jeanne tainer) all the time. Although I let the Phillips level best not to take sides and be hugs happen, I’m usually holding my sure to give your almost-ex-daughter- Advice breath the whole time. in-law her space. Once I’ve “Hey girl’d” someone Assure her that you care about her and offered my warmest smile, what more and that you deeply regret that the marriage can I do? I don’t want people I like to think with your son didn’t work out. (It’s true.) Tell I don’t like them, or I’m not happy to see her you have grown to love her as a daughter them. But I’m fed up with faking it and and hope that, in spite of the divorce, you participating in this ritual that makes me so will always be close. Do NOT discuss any uncomfortable. If there’s a polite, clear way intimate details or assign blame, if you can to convey this to people without seeming possibly avoid it, and try to keep your visits cold or unappreciative, please let me know upbeat while concentrating on your grand- what it is. — Bracing For The Embrace children. Dear Bracing: You are not alone in feeling Dear Abby: My wife and I will soon the way you do. Not everyone is comfortable attend a weekend wedding. We will be with being hugged. I think you should simply meeting a large number of people for the first be honest about your feelings and tell the time. huggers that you become claustrophobic My problem is I have a hard time remem- when people hug you, and to please under- bering people’s names. I suggested to my wife stand that your reluctance isn’t personal. If that I carry a pocket-size notebook and write you make it about you rather than them, it down names followed by a brief description. shouldn’t come across as rejection. She thinks it’s a great idea as long as no one Dear Abby: My son and daughter-in-law catches me doing it. I think, in addition to are splitting up. I’m devastated for them and being practical, it will provide a bit of humor my two young grandchildren, with whom to the occasion. What say you? — Sensible I’m very close. In Seattle They live in another state, so I stay with Dear Sensible: I agree with your wife. them when I go visit. Although we’ve always Be discreet, if you can. Rather than carry had a great relationship, I’m terrified that my a notebook, it might be less obvious if you daughter-in-law will not want me to visit her enter or dictate the information in the notes after the divorce. I’m heartsick and don’t section of your phone. DAYS GONE BY BEETLE BAILEY GARFIELD BLONDIE BY MORT WALKER BY JIM DAVIS 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Dec. 7, 1917 Philip Parcher and Paul Amort, supervisor and assistant respectively of the manual training department of the Pendleton schools, will leave tonight to enlist in the U.S. navy. Parcher will go to Spokane to enlist as a second class mechanic and Amort will first go to Corvallis to visit his parents and will then return to Portland to enlist as a second class mechanic. Neither has resigned his position in the school and will not until finally accepted into the service. In the event that either is rejected, the department will be kept open but should both be accepted there is a probability that the department will be closed owing to inability to secure instructors. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Dec. 7, 1967 Robert Gentner, operator of Pendleton Community Ambulance Service, Tuesday told the city council he will liquidate the business if he doesn’t “get help.” The ambulance is subsidized by the city. Gentner complained the agreement between him and the city on operating the ambulance service is “not practical.” He said a banker had told him the business was not being conducted “in a business-like manner.” Gentner touched on no specific points of the agreement in his plea to the council for help. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Dec. 7, 1992 It was vintage Heppner football — the 1992 vintage, one the Mustangs will savor for years. Heppner powered its way to the state Class 2A high school football title with a 24-12 victory over two-time defending champion Vale. Vale’s loss ended the longest high school football winning streak in state history at 38 games. The Mustangs dominated the Vikings in a chilly drizzle at Parker Stadium, rolling to a 24-0 lead with two scores in the opening quarter and two more in the third quarter. A 6-yard touchdown run by Heppner running back Scott Coe late in the third quarter put a lid on Vale rally hopes and a 31-yard fumble return by Mustangs line- backer Shane Munkers for another touchdown just 1 minute, 13 seconds later nailed it down. BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE THIS DAY IN HISTORY DILBERT THE WIZARD OF ID LUANN ZITS BY SCOTT ADAMS BY BRANT PARKER AND JOHNNY HART BY GREG EVANS BY JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN Today is the 341st day of 2017. There are 24 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 7, 1941, during a series of raids in the Pacific, Imperial Japan’s navy launched a pre-emptive attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing 2,400 people, about half of them on the battleship USS Arizona. (The United States declared war against Japan the next day.) On this date: In 43 B.C., Roman statesman and scholar Marcus Tullius Cicero was slain at the order of the Second Triumvirate. In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1842, the New York Philharmonic performed its first concert. In 1909, chemist Leo H. Baekeland received a U.S. patent for Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic. In 1917, during World War I, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary. In 1946, fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta; the blaze killed 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff. In 1967, the Beatles opened the Apple Boutique in London; the venture proved disastrous, and the shop closed the following July. In 1972, America’s last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Imelda Marcos, wife of Phil- ippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was shot dead by her bodyguards. In 1987, 43 people were killed after a gunman aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger, the pilots and himself, causing the plane to crash. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Ronald Reagan. Today’s Birthdays: Linguist and political philos- opher Noam Chomsky is 89. Bluegrass singer Bobby Osborne is 86. Actress Ellen Burstyn is 85. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is 80. Broadcast journalist Carole Simpson is 77. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 70. Actor-director-producer James Keach is 70. Country singer Gary Morris is 69. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 68. Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, is 65. Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 61. Actress Priscilla Barnes is 60. Former “Tonight Show” announcer Edd Hall is 59. Rock musician Tim Butler (The Psychedelic Furs) is 59. Actor Patrick Fabian is 53. Actress Kimberly Hebert Gregory (TV: “Kevin (Prob- ably) Saves the World”) is 45. Singer Aaron Carter is 30. Thought for Today: “The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” — Thornton Wilder, American playwright and author (born 1897, died this date in 1975). PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE