B6 East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Wednesday, January 23, 2019 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ Kiss shared with a co-worker puts marriage on shakier ground FOR BETTER OR WORSE BY LYNN JOHNSTON B.C. BY JOHNNY HART PICKLES BY BRIAN CRANE BEETLE BAILEY BY MORT WALKER GARFIELD BLONDIE BY JIM DAVIS BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE Dear Abby: I may be having The crush didn’t work out. Now, a midlife crisis. I’m not happy in more than a year later, Mike and my marriage and haven’t been for I are close friends. I visited him quite some time. I pray every night recently and realized I still have that my husband will find someone feelings for him. I want to get back else so he will leave our marriage. I together, but I don’t think I should tried to leave him before, but finan- say it unless I am 100 percent cially I couldn’t make it. I’m now at certain I won’t break up with him again. the point where I don’t care about J eanne P hilliPs Abby, I wonder if I might be the financial side of it. ADVICE gay. I don’t know what to do. I I recently kissed a co-worker. It love Mike, but I’m paranoid that was really hot, heavy and I want I’ll eventually regret getting back more. I haven’t felt this alive in together with him. I couldn’t betray his years. My co-worker is not the reason I trust again. What should I do? — Confused want a divorce, but now, feeling desired by 20-Something someone makes me want out even more. Dear Confused: You may be gay; you But I’m a coward. I don’t know how to tell might also be bisexual or simply curious. my husband I’m no longer in love with him. You owe it to yourself and to Mike to talk — Coward in the South to a counselor and explore what your sexual Dear Coward: Not knowing you, I can’t orientation is. If you and Mike have worked determine whether you may be having a through your other differences, only the midlife crisis. However, you definitely do two of you can decide whether to resume need to talk to your husband, if only to ask your relationship or just be friends. (Friend- if he feels the same emptiness that you do. It ships have been known to sometimes last would be better for both of you if you tried longer than romantic relationships.) counseling to see if it’s possible to heal Dear Abby: My question is, is it ethical your marriage before you run out the door. to “try” the fruit at the grocery store? I am I caution you about involving yourself in amazed at the number of shoppers who a workplace romance while you are feeling open the bags of grapes and help them- this needy. If it doesn’t work out — and selves to a snack. Shouldn’t they buy most of them don’t — you could find your- self not only without a husband but also a without sampling? — Craig in Florida job. Dear Craig: Theoretically, shoppers should buy without sampling. Talk to the Dear Abby: I dated a man I’ll call Mike manager of the grocery store about it. for several years. We eventually broke up Some establishments leave a bag of grapes, because of distance and a difference of cherries, etc. open for shoppers to sample opinion about where we wanted to live. to see if they would like to buy. If that’s I also had developed a crush on a female not happening in the store you patronize, friend, which contributed to my decision to consider suggesting it. break off with him. DAYS GONE BY 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Jan. 23, 1919 Pendleton suffered one of the most severe windstorms on record this morning, the wind blowing with terrific fury between 5 and 6 o’clock, leaving the town in dark- ness. With the exception of the subsequent disastrous fire at The Peoples Warehouse, caused indirectly by the failure of the elec- tric current, little actual damage occurred in Pendleton. The heavy wind blew an electric power line pole near the Riverside end of the Wild Horse cut clear out of the ground, brace pole included. The uprooting of the pole threw the wires to the ground and the current was shut off at Athena because of the mishap. It was after 11 o’clock before the current came on again. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Jan. 23, 1969 The one man in the West End district of Umatilla County who really knows his town and its people is R.D. “Tex” Wilson, Echo Police Chief and city employee on several jobs over a span of 18 years. Recently he was reappointed to his job for the 10th time. He was first appointed in 1950 after serving a few years as a relief police officer to help police at Friday and Saturday night dances in Echo. When for 18 years you have been the police officer in a town of 450, and added to the police work the duties of maintaining the water and street departments, taking care of the cemetery, plus driving the city’s ambulance and working with the youth of the community in baseball and basketball, you “come to know” your folks. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Jan. 23, 1994 Nellie Pennington says there are two important traits for anyone taking care of babies all day — the ability to cope with a room full of crying children and a dimin- ished sense of smell. “I can’t smell anything any more,” the 15-year veteran of the infant and toddler room at the Hermiston Day Care Center says after countless diaper changes. “It’s going to be really hard to leave,” Pennington said. Next week will be her last. “I tried not to take them home with me too often, but sometimes I did.” Her husband didn’t mind Pennington bringing her work home, because he loves babies too and often visited the center during the day to play with the children, she said. TODAY 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 On Jan. 23, 1845, Con- gress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. In 1368, China’s Ming dynasty, which lasted nearly three centuries, began as Zhu Yuanzhang was for- mally acclaimed emperor following the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. In 1789, Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C. In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presi- dential nomination. In 1933, the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the so-called “Lame Duck Amendment,” was ratified as Missouri approved it. In 1950, the Israeli Knes- set approved a resolution affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In 1962, Jackie Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1964, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, elim- inating the poll tax in fed- eral elections, was ratified as South Dakota became the 38th state to endorse it. In 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy intel- ligence ship USS Pueblo, commanded by Lloyd “Pete” Bucher, charging its crew with being on a spy- ing mission; one sailor was killed and 82 were taken prisoner. (Cmdr. Bucher and his crew were released the following December after enduring 11 months of bru- tal captivity at the hands of the North Koreans.) In 1998, a judge in Fair- fax, Virginia, sentenced Aimal Khan Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people. (Kasi was executed in November 2002.) Today’s Birthdays: Actress Chita Rivera is 86. Actor-director Lou Antonio is 85. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jerry Lawson is 75. Singer Anita Pointer is 71. Actor Richard Dean Anderson is 69. Thought for Today: “The trouble is that hardly anybody in America goes to bed angry at night.” — George J. Stigler, American economist (1911-1991). PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE