COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, February 9, 2019
East Oregonian
C5
DEAR ABBY
Family registers disapproval by unfriending man’s fiancée
Dear Abby: After two
aren’t outright rude, but they
years of dating, my boyfriend
make me feel uncomfortable,
and I recently got engaged.
like I’m not good enough for
We’re in our 30s and grew up
their son/brother.
in the same town. It will be
All of a sudden, his broth-
ers/sister and their spouses
a second marriage for both of
have stopped talking to me.
us. We were each previously
They have deleted me on
married close to 10 years. I
social media. We have never
have four children; he has
J eanne
gotten into an argument or
none.
P hilliPs
He loves my children like
anything, so I’m at a loss.
ADVICE
they are his own, and they
Should I marry him? — Get-
ting the Cold Shoulder
love him. His family was nice
Dear Getting: This is something
to me at the beginning, thinking that
you and your fiance must decide
it wouldn’t last. I know they aren’t
together with your eyes wide open.
fond of the fact I have four kids, and
You say his family hasn’t been out-
they think he should find a woman
right rude, but I beg to differ. Mak-
who doesn’t have any.
ing people feel uncomfortable, giv-
We have been very happy together,
but when we got engaged, his family
ing them the silent treatment and
unfriending them is rude.
got very upset because he didn’t ask
These appear to be extremely con-
them how they felt or tell them he was
trolling people. You need to decide if
going to do it. I think they would have
you can coexist with in-laws like this,
discouraged it immediately.
I feel awful because he’s very close
and your fiance needs to decide which
with his family. He always backs me
family is more important — the one
100 percent, but I don’t want to tear
he will form with you and your chil-
dren, or the one he was born into. He
them apart. I don’t want him to not
may not be able to have both. You
want to see them. He’s very family
have my sympathy.
oriented, and it breaks my heart that
Dear Abby: I am a gay male in my
he wants all of us to be close. They
late 20s, finishing up my grad school
program. My boyfriend is older than
I am by seven years. We met in 2017,
but I suffered a loss in my family and
was grieving for about six months.
We met again over the summer and
continued our relationship from June
to the present.
He just texted me about the future,
saying he wants children in a year or
two. I am anxious and sad because
this feels like a make-or-break deci-
sion. I do want children and think I
will be a good father. However, a
child is a huge responsibility, and I am
well aware of that. I don’t know how
soon I’ll be ready. I don’t even know
what the next year will bring. What
say you, Dear Abby? — Lacks Cer-
tainty in Minnesota
Dear Lacks Certainty: I say you
need to return your boyfriend’s text
and tell him exactly what you have
written to me. Your feelings are hon-
est, and your thinking is clear. Now
that you know where he stands, it is
important he knows where you do.
That said, I’m surprised this sub-
ject was brought up in a text and not
during a one-on-one conversation
because of its importance.
DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 9-10, 1919
A strong appeal is being made for the preservation of the
national game reserve in Harney county as a memorial of
Colonel Roosevelt by William L. Findley, state biologist.
It was Roosevelt, when president of the United States, who
issued the proclamation making a federal game preserve of
Harney and Malheur lakes. The reserve is now the greatest
natural breeding ground for water fowl in the United States.
An effort is being made to get a bill through the Oregon leg-
islature permitting the draining of the lakes to permit the
faming of the land. Pendleton men are asked to send protests
against the passage of the law to members of the legislature.
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 9-10, 1969
Two Pendleton men may have saved the lives of three
people Saturday on snow-swept Highway 204 near Tollgate.
Jerry Keown and Lyle Zink, employes of Pacific Power and
Light Co., were on their way to work on the Walla Walla-En-
terprise transmission line about noon when they saw a car
buried in snow but its motor still running. They investigated
and found the car’s occupants nearly overcome, probably
by carbon monoxide from the engine’s exhaust. Keown and
Zink, trained in first aid, got the people out of the car and
rendered resuscitation, reported Charles McQueary, PP&L’s
Pendleton district manager. The car’s passengers were not
identified, but all recovered rapidly in the fresh air outside
the vehicle.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 9-10, 1994
Emergency planners have been budgeted money to create
safe rooms in Hermiston-area schools to protect them from
a chemical weapons emergency. About $2 million from the
federal government will be used for “positive overpressur-
ization” rooms in each of the schools. In such a room, air
leaks would be sealed off and the air intake would be fil-
tered. The air pressure would be higher inside than outside,
keeping contaminated air from seeping in. Hermiston’s
Good Shepherd Community Hospital and Good Samari-
tan Center nursing home also would be outfitted with safe
rooms under the program.
ODDS & ENDS
In year of pig, Hong Kong
debates its boar problem
By ALICE FUNG
Associated Press
HONG KONG — Like
many Asian communities,
Hong Kong ushers in the
astrological year of the pig.
That’s also good timing to
discuss the financial center’s
contested relationship with
its wild boar population.
While some argue for
an ongoing cull to keep the
boar numbers down, others
urge preservation, a position
the government has lately
embraced.
A growing human pop-
ulation and encroaching
urbanization have brought
humans and wild pigs into
increasing proximity, with
the boars making frequent
appearances on roadways,
in housing developments and
even in shopping centers.
The debate about how to
handle them comes as the
densely populated city of
more than 7 million peo-
ple is being festooned with
pig-themed decorations in
preparation for the holiday
that officially began on Feb.
5.
Not far from its cramped
apartment blocks and neon
lights, Hong Kong has plenty
of green land, traditionally
home to a variety of animals,
including wild boars. Some
areas where homes are close
to parks or forests, such as
Aberdeen in Hong Kong
Island’s south, have become
popular spots for growing
numbers of boars to forage
for food amid the garbage
cans.
The boars often don’t hes-
itate to get close to people
and traffic.
The government’s Agri-
culture, Fisheries and Con-
servation Department says
it doesn’t know how many
wild boars there are in Hong
Kong. But it has acknowl-
edged a big increase in pub-
lic complaints about the ani-
mals over the past five years
AP Photo/Vincent Yu/
A wild boar scavenges for food while local residents watch at a country park in Hong Kong.
— from 294 in 2013 to 738
in 2017.
That prompted a review
of policy starting last year,
which included a halt to
hunts by volunteer teams for
boars deemed to be threats
to property or public safety.
Instead, the government is
extending a policy of steril-
izing the animals and feed-
ing them contraceptives,
as well as discouraging the
public from providing them
food. It also captures and
tries to relocate wild boars
away from residential areas
as an alternative to killing
them.
However, one local orga-
nization, “Wild Boar 70,”
is lobbying for the renewed
culling of the wild boar
population.
Other countries with large
populations of wild pigs have
a policy of controlling them
by killing 70 percent of their
numbers every year, accord-
ing to spokesman Wesley
Ho.
“Our goal is hopefully to
raise public concern about
Hong Kong’s current prob-
lem of wild boar overpopula-
tion, and about exactly what
kind of animal these wild
boars are,” Ho said.
Nations such as France
and the U.S. have to deal
with large-scale damage to
agriculture wrought by feral
pigs, largely appealing to
hunters as a solution.
Denmark this month
began erecting a 43.4-mile
fence along the German bor-
der to keep out wild boars
in an attempt to prevent the
spread of African swine
fever, which could jeopar-
dize the country’s valuable
pork industry.
With agriculture a minor
player in the local economy,
such concerns aren’t much of
an issue in Hong Kong’s cur-
rent debate.
However, Roni Wong, of
the Hong Kong Wild Boar
Concern Group, says that
development expanding into
Hong Kong’s green areas is
causing the increasing con-
frontation between humans
and animals.
“The situation that we
are seeing is that their habi-
tats are slowly being urban-
ized,” Wong said. “So their
chances of feeding, and their
habitat, are being destroyed
and affected.”
By now, Hong Kong
social media users are highly
familiar with videos of wild
boars taken by drivers and
pedestrians. Sometimes they
show a herd rushing across
a road in front of cars in a
manner that looks danger-
ous to both themselves and
drivers.
Other times, they come
across as cute, cuddly and
unthreatening, often raising
a snout to the camera as if in
greeting.
Hong Kong’s government
says it hopes to complete its
policy review of wild boar
management within the year.
Until then, the year of the pig
seems primed for many more
encounters between boar and
man in Hong Kong’s mix of
hilly forest and urban sprawl.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
On Feb. 9, 1964, The
Beatles made their first
live American television
appearance on “The Ed
Sullivan Show,” broadcast
from New York on CBS.
In 1825, the House of
Representatives
elected
John Quincy Adams pres-
ident after no candidate
received a majority of elec-
toral votes.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis
was elected provisional
president of the Confed-
erate States of America at
a congress held in Mont-
gomery, Alabama.
In 1942, the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff held its first
formal meeting to coor-
dinate military strategy
during World War II. Day-
light-saving “War Time”
went into effect in the
United States, with clocks
moved one hour forward.
The SS Normandie, a for-
mer French liner being
refitted for the U.S. Navy
at a New York pier, caught
fire (it capsized early the
next morning).
In 1943, the World War
II battle of Guadalcanal
in the southwest Pacific
ended with an Allied vic-
tory over Japanese forces.
In 1950, in a speech in
Wheeling, West Virginia,
Sen. Joseph McCarthy,
R-Wis., charged the State
Department was riddled
with Communists.
In 1960, Adolph Coors
Co. chairman Adolph
Coors III, 44, was shot to
death in suburban Denver
during a botched kidnap-
ping attempt. (The man
who killed him, Joseph
Corbett Jr., served 19 years
in prison.)
In 1964, the G.I. Joe
action figure was intro-
duced at the American
International Toy Fair in
New York.
In 1971, a magnitude
6.6 earthquake in Califor-
nia’s San Fernando Val-
ley claimed 65 lives. The
crew of Apollo 14 returned
to Earth after man’s third
landing on the moon.
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In 1984, Soviet leader
Yuri V. Andropov, 69, died
15 months after succeed-
ing Leonid Brezhnev; he
was followed by Konstan-
tin U. Chernenko.
In 2002, Britain’s Prin-
cess Margaret, sister of
Queen Elizabeth II, died in
London at age 71.
In 2005, Hewlett-Pack-
ard Co. chief executive
Carly Fiorina was forced
out by board members,
ending her nearly six-year
reign.
In 2017, a federal
appeals court refused to
reinstate President Don-
ald Trump’s ban on trav-
elers from seven predom-
inantly Muslim nations,
unanimously
rejecting
the administration’s claim
of presidential authority,
questioning its motives
and concluding that the
order was unlikely to sur-
vive legal challenges.
Today’s
Birthdays:
Television journalist Roger
Mudd is 91. Actress Janet
Suzman is 80. Nobel
Prize-winning author J.M.
Coetzee is 79. Actress-pol-
itician Sheila James Kuehl
(TV: “The Many Loves of
Dobie Gillis”) is 78. Sing-
er-songwriter Carole King
is 77. Actor Joe Pesci is 76.
Singer Barbara Lewis is
76. Author Alice Walker is
75. Actress Mia Farrow is
74. Former Sen. Jim Webb,
D-Va., is 73. Singer Joe Ely
is 72. Actress Judith Light
is 70.
Thought for Today:
“The man who has eaten
enough will never believe
a hungry one.” — Alba-
nian proverb.
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