COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, December 8, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 5C
Beloved gift shop turtle
celebrates 50th birthday
BRISTOL, N.H. (AP) — A
turtle given to a bedridden little
boy in New Hampshire back in
1968 celebrated her 50th birthday
with party hats, a sheet cake with
the right number of candles and
many well-wishers.
Diane the Turtle was given to
Jim Tonner when he was 12 and
being treated for hip arthritis at
his home in Braintree, Massachu-
setts. Years later, Jim, and his twin
brother, Brad Tonner, opened a
gift shop in Bristol, New Hamp-
shire, which became Diane’s
home. Her tank is surrounded by
photos of store visitors.
On Saturday, the store was
crowded with visitors singing
“Happy Birthday” to Diane, who
wore a tiny party hat.
“Another animal might put
their head back in their shell,”
Jim Tonner said Monday. “Her
head went straight out. It’s one
of the funniest things you’ve ever
seen.”
The brothers have written and
illustrated books about Diane and
set up a turtle webcam in their
shop.
Tonner said when he was a
child, turtles like Diane were
popular pets, but many didn’t live
that long. That’s why she’s so
unusual, he said.
Today, the 4-pound turtle is
thriving. Her favorite foods are
strawberries and romaine lettuce.
But don’t worry about the ban on
that salad green; Tonner grows
his own romaine.
“That’s why she’s 50 years
old,” Tonner said with a laugh.
Brad Tonner via AP
Diane the Turtle, wearing a party hat, cel-
ebrates her 50th birthday with her own-
er, Jim Tonner, at a gift shop he and his
brother Brad run in Bristol, N.H.
OUT OF THE VAULT
Wayward card becomes holiday mystery
By RENEE STRUTHERS
East Oregonian
On Dec. 28, 1939, a card
was delivered to Pendleton
resident Lorin Hecker by
Andy Dalrymple, a railroad
conductor for the Union
Pacific Railroad. Dalrymple
said he found the card on the
Portland Rose, an upscale
passenger train established
by the UP in September of
1930 that made the run from
Chicago to Portland. He
said the card had not been
found in a mail bag.
But here’s the mystery:
Hecker’s
grandmother,
Mrs. M.E. Calbreath of The
Dalles, mailed the Wash-
ington’s birthday card to
him on Feb. 19, 1914, when
Hecker was just a young
man. It mysteriously van-
ished en route to his home
in Biggs, just 21 miles from
his grandmother’s house.
The front of the card was
fairly well worn, and no
other postmarks were on
the envelope to show where
the card had been during its
28-year hiatus.
Hecker treasured the
card, because his grand-
mother had passed away
some years after mailing
it to him. Hecker planned
to investigate the card’s
strange journey, if possible,
in order to submit a story
to “Ripley’s Believe It Or
Not.”
DEAR ABBY
Drunk driver’s wife has dire warning for other spouses
Dear Abby: Many wives
with an alcohol problem who
write you about problems with
gets behind the wheel of a car,
their husbands who drink too
for their own protection, they
much. If they live in a com-
should consult their lawyer and
munity property state, there’s
their insurance agent about what
something important they need
the ramifications could lead to.
to know. If the husband drives
Dear Abby: I’m a sopho-
more in high school, and I’m
drunk and causes an injury, both
in love with a senior. I met him
the wife and husband may be
Jeanne
named as co-defendants — even Phillips a year ago when we had some
Advice
classes together. We liked each
if the wife wasn’t involved. And
other, but because of our age
if the injured party is successful
difference, we never dated.
in the lawsuit, the co-defendants
I thought I would get over him over
together must pay.
Wives who tolerate their husband’s the summer, but I didn’t. We don’t
refusal to stop drinking need to be see each other at all this year, and I’m
aware of the economic hammer the law almost sure he’s moved on. I feel like
could have hanging over them. I just I need to move on, too, but deep down
went through this experience. Had I I really don’t want to. I’m worried I’ll
known the law in our community prop- never find someone I like as much as
erty state would lump me in, I would him. Help me get on with my life. —
have had a powerful reason to divorce Totally Stuck In Montana
my husband years ago after I realized
Dear Stuck: A way to move for-
he would never give up drinking. — ward would be to give yourself less
time to think about him. Stay busy and
Getting The Word Out In Phoenix
Dear Getting: Thank you for teach- keep your mind occupied with your
ing me and my readers something. If studies. If you can get into new activ-
someone has a spouse of EITHER sex ities, do it. Not only will they distract
you, but they will also give you the
opportunity to learn something new as
well as make more friends and perhaps
meet someone equally special.
That said, do not expect to banish
him completely from your heart. If
he was your first love, he may always
occupy a tiny portion of the real estate
there.
Dear Abby: This has been happen-
ing for years, and I would like your
advice, please. I like my meat well
done. But whenever I order a steak
that way, someone at the table invari-
ably has to comment that I am ruining
the texture, killing the taste, etc. Red or
rare meat disgusts me. If I see blood on
my plate, I can eat only the well-done
parts around the edges. Is there a nice
way of telling other people to mind
their own business and let me order my
food the way I want it? — Still Mov-
ing On My Plate
Dear Still Moving: Sure there is.
All you have to do is smile and say,
“That’s my preference. This is the way
I like it.” Then chow down and change
the subject.
DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 8-9, 1918
Fred Lockley, formerly of Pendle-
ton, Portland, France, England, Ireland
and the high seas, came back to his
old town last evening and was given
a reception that shows times a news-
paper man may not be without honor
in his own country. The audience at
the Methodist church was all that the
large auditorium could hold and those
present sat for an hour or more with-
out sneezing, coughing or thinking of
the influenza. They listened eagerly
to a gripping tale of adventure, humor
and sadness from a man who was in
the game for many months and had
splendid chances for observation. At
the request of Judge S.A. Lowell, Mr.
Lockley told eloquently of the Red
Cross service at the front and made an
appeal for prompt and general response
in the membership drive.”The boys
have been ready to die; let us do every-
thing we can for them.”
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 8-9, 1968
“This is Mercury Control … every-
thing is go …” echoed a raspy voice
over the loudspeaker. At exactly 8:45
a.m. Pacific Standard Time today four
Pendleton astronauts blasted off for a
rendezvous with space. The capsule,
christened Centaur I, was to complete
nine orbits around the earth and splash
down six hours later somewhere in the
Pacific Ocean, having traveled a total of
108,000 miles. Quite a feat for the sixth
grade science class at West Hills school.
The capsule, complete with instrumenta-
tion and specially prepared space food,
was the end result of a month long proj-
ect supervised by instructor Jim Chris-
tensen. Every step of the countdown,
including a recording from an actual
flight, was carefully prepared and exe-
cuted as realistically as possible. Two
more flights are planned, one to include
a docking with another space craft.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 8-9, 1993
Trouble, it seems, has been simmer-
ing this winter in the Milton-Freewa-
ter Senior Center kitchen. On Tuesday,
because the kitchen was so cold cooks
couldn’t cook, CAPECO temporarily
canceled the meal program. That left
more than 100 senior citizens looking
for their mid-day meal somewhere else.
However, food was bought at a local
restaurant for about 50 seniors who
rely on CAPECO meals that are deliv-
ered. In the wake of the canceled meal,
volunteers who use the facility met
Tuesday evening to organize a recall
petition remove the three Senior Cen-
ter board members they believe have
kept the kitchen cold as a cost-saving
measure.
ODDS & ENDS
Minnesota church ends 70-year tradition of lutefisk dinner
FOREST LAKE, Minn.
(AP) — A Minnesota church
has ended its 70-year tra-
dition of serving a dinner
of lutefisk, a Nordic dish
of dried cod soaked in lye,
and the pastor has penned a
eulogy for the dinner’s end.
Faith Lutheran Church
in Forest Lake, Minnesota,
would serve a Scandinavian
dinner featuring the pun-
gent, jellylike fish the first
Tuesday in December.
But the Rev. John Klaw-
iter wrote an obituary for the
annual dinner in the commu-
nity newspaper last month.
Klawiter wanted the obit
to read as a tribute to the
seven decades the church in
east-central Minnesota has
served hundreds of pounds
of lutefisk at the annual din-
ner, dubbed “Holy Tues-
day,” the Minneapolis Star
Tribune reported .
“There was a lot of pride
that this made it to 70 years,”
said Klawiter, a self-de-
scribed “lutefisk convert.”
The dinner would require
about 190 volunteers. Plan-
ners had to find ways to fill
gaps left by volunteers who
had died or grown too frail.
This fall, the group also
wondered how the event
could draw more young
families from the congrega-
tion and from Forest Lake,
a town of about 20,000
about 25 miles (40 kilome-
ters) northeast of Minneapo-
lis. Most of the 500 people
who went to the church and
waited their turn for the $20
meal were not members of
Faith Lutheran or even res-
idents of Forest Lake.
Planners wondered if a
turkey dinner would be a
better option, but decided
a menu change would not
make things easier for the
volunteers.
While no immediate
replacement was announced,
the pastor says the focus
now will be on creating a
new tradition. And the obit
notes that lutefisk lovers still
have other options nearby,
with Scandinavian dinners
in other area towns listed as
“survivors.”
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
On Dec. 8, 1941, the
United States entered
World War II as Con-
gress declared war against
Imperial Japan, a day after
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In
1813,
Beetho-
ven’s Symphony No. 7
in A Major, Op. 92, was
first performed in Vienna,
with Beethoven himself
conducting.
In 1854, Pope Pius IX
proclaimed the Catholic
dogma of the Immaculate
Conception, which holds
that Mary, the mother of
Jesus, was free of original
sin from the moment of
her own conception.
In 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln issued
his
Proclamation
of
Amnesty and Reconstruc-
tion for the South.
In 1972, a United Air-
lines Boeing 737 crashed
while attempting to land
at Chicago-Midway Air-
port, killing 43 of the 61
people on board, as well as
two people on the ground;
among the dead were Dor-
othy Hunt, wife of Water-
gate conspirator E. How-
ard Hunt, U.S. Rep.
George W. Collins, D-Ill.,
and CBS News correspon-
dent Michele Clark.
In 1980, rock star John
Lennon was shot to death
outside his New York City
apartment building by an
apparently deranged fan.
In 1982, a man demand-
ing an end to nuclear
weapons held the Wash-
ington Monument hostage,
threatening to blow it up
with explosives he claimed
were inside a van. (After a
10-hour standoff, Norman
D. Mayer was shot dead
by police; it turned out
there were no explosives.)
In 1987, President Ron-
ald Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gor-
bachev signed a treaty at
the White House calling
for destruction of inter-
mediate-range
nuclear
missiles.
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In 1991, AIDS patient
Kimberly Bergalis, who
had contracted the disease
from her dentist, died in
Fort Pierce, Fla., at age 23.
In 1992, Americans got
to see live television cover-
age of U.S. troops landing
on the beaches of Somalia
as Operation Restore Hope
began (because of the time
difference, it was early
Dec. 9 in Somalia).
In 1998, struggling
to stave off impeach-
ment, President Bill Clin-
ton’s defenders forcefully
pleaded his case before the
House Judiciary Commit-
tee. The Supreme Court
ruled that police cannot
search people and their
cars after merely ticket-
ing them for routine traffic
violations.
Today’s
Birthdays:
Flutist James Galway is
79. Actress Kim Basinger
is 65. Political commen-
tator Ann Coulter is 57.
Actress Teri Hatcher is
54. Singer Sinead O’Con-
nor
(AKA
Shuhada’
Davitt) is 52. Actor Dom-
inic Monaghan is 42. Rock
singer Ingrid Michaelson
is 39. Country singer Sam
Hunt is 34.
Thought for Today:
“The unknown is what it
is. And to be frightened of
it is what sends everybody
scurrying around chasing
dreams, illusions, wars,
peace, love, hate, all that.
Unknown is what it is.
Accept that it’s unknown
and it’s plain sailing.” —
John Lennon (1940-1980).
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