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