A12
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ
Grandma is collateral damage
in man’s war with mother
FOR BETTER OR WORSE
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
B.C.
BY JOHNNY HART
PICKLES
BY BRIAN CRANE
BEETLE BAILEY
BY MORT WALKER
Dear Abby: I’m close to 70 and
heart he’s a very private person. I
have three grown children. I’ve
was successful in my field, and I’m
more outgoing.
been a widow for 15 years. My old-
est son, age 45, has pretty much cut
He is proud to show me off at
parties because people find me
himself off from our fairly close
interesting and witty, but without
family. His reason: Two years ago,
fail, at the end of the night he will
after I had surgery for lung cancer,
tell me that somewhere during the
he claims I told him I wished I had
J eanne
evening I “crossed the line.” Per-
never had children. This couldn’t
P hilliPs
haps I spent too much time talking
be further from the truth. All three
ADVICE
with another man, or said some-
of mine were planned.
thing he found inappropriate. If
My other children decided the
I look the wrong way, he accuses
hospital was overmedicating me
me of flirting with someone. Invariably I
and that most of what I was babbling was
get a lecture on the way home or the next
nonsense. I only remember bits and pieces
morning.
and have no idea whether my recollections
I told him this morning that I hate to
are accurate.
go out with other people now because of
I have no problem dealing with my son’s
it. He took great offense at that and said,
attitude; I’m a realist. The problem is the
“You are not the victim here. You are the
way it’s affecting my 90-year-old mother,
perpetrator.”
who lives with me. She feels he has cut her
Sometimes I do say things that come out
out of his life, too, because of me, and it
wrong, but I don’t mean them. It would kill
appears she’s right.
me to know that I hurt someone with my
How can we convince him he’s ripping
words. I am not interested in any other man.
his grandmother’s heart out when he won’t
I love my husband. What can I do? — Life
talk to either of us? She doesn’t deserve
of the Party in Virginia
such treatment, and he has no right to hurt
Dear Life: Not knowing either of you,
her this way. — Bewildered in Florida
I cannot determine if your husband is
Dear Bewildered: If this is the only rea-
extremely controlling, jealous and inse-
son for the estrangement from your son
cure, or whether you are doing something
— which I doubt — have his siblings talk
out of line. You and your husband could
to him and point out that: (1) You were so
benefit from discussing this with a licensed
drugged up after your surgery you were not
marriage and family therapist. If he refuses
in your right mind, therefore you shouldn’t
to go — and he may — you should go with-
be punished or held responsible for any gib-
out him.
berish that came out of your mouth during
If your behavior at these gatherings was
that period, and (2) it is wrong to pun-
ish Granny in such a heartless fashion for
really unacceptable or an embarrassment,
he would not want to “show you off at par-
something that has nothing to do with her.
ties.” You shouldn’t have to worry that
Perhaps they will be able to get through to
you’ll be lectured the next day for just being
him where you cannot.
yourself. Something is definitely wrong
Dear Abby: My husband is a success-
here, and I don’t think it’s with you.
ful man. He is charming in public, but at
DAYS GONE BY
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
BY JIM DAVIS
BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 20, 1919
Among possible improvements for
Pendleton in the near future comes a large
new hospital or an extensive addition to
St. Anthony’s Hospital. At the Methodist
church last evening a representative meeting
was held including members from five local
churches. The meeting was called with the
purpose of discussing the hospital subject.
The predisposition of a new hospital, non
sectarian in nature, was broached and dis-
cussion also turned to the question whether
the Sisters of St. Francis intended more
building soon. On a motion it was decided
to appoint a committee to consult with the
Commercial Club and with the Sisters of St.
Francis as to the plans of the sisters for the
future.
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 20, 1969
A Ketchum, Idaho, man said Wednesday
his car traveled between 160-170 miles an
hour on Interstate 80 near Stanfield Junc-
tion Dec. 16 while the vehicle was being
pursued by two Oregon State Police patrol
cars.
The defendant, Daniel James Gruener,
23, whose home is at Sun Valley, was found
guilty by District Judge Richard Courson of
attempting to elude a police officer and was
fined $200. Gruener testified that another
man was driving the car, a 1966 Ferrari.
Testimony of two state police officers indi-
cated Gruener was the driver.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Feb. 20, 1994
It all comes down to teamwork, explains
Hawthorne Elementary School counselor
Barbara Hodgen as she watches two dozen
first-graders pull ropes in different direc-
tions. It takes them a few minutes of con-
certed coordination, their young faces
straining with the effort, before they have
stretched an old bicycle inner tube and
placed it around a metal can. “They actually
experience their part in working out a prob-
lem,” says Hodgen, 42, who was recently
named Oregon Elementary Counselor of
the Year by the Oregon School Counselors
Association.
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 Feb. 20, 2003, a fire
sparked by pyrotechnics
broke out during a concert
by the group Great White at
a nightclub in Rhode Island,
killing 100 people and injur-
ing about 200 others.
In 1792, President George
Washington signed an act
creating the United States
Post Office Department.
In 1862, William Wal-
lace Lincoln, the 11-year-
old son of President Abra-
ham Lincoln and first lady
Mary Todd Lincoln, died at
the White House, apparently
of typhoid fever.
In 1905, the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld
compulsory
vaccination
laws intended to protect the
public’s health.
In 1907, President The-
odore Roosevelt signed
an immigration act which
excluded “idiots, imbeciles,
feebleminded persons, epi-
leptics, insane persons”
from being admitted to the
U.S.
In 1950, the U.S.
Supreme Court, in United
States v. Rabinowitz, ruled
5-3 that authorities making a
lawful arrest did not need a
warrant to search and seize
evidence in an area that was
in the “immediate and com-
plete control” of the suspect.
In 1962, astronaut John
Glenn became the first
American to orbit the Earth
as he flew aboard Proj-
ect Mercury’s Friendship 7
spacecraft, which circled the
globe three times in a flight
lasting 4 hours, 55 min-
utes and 23 seconds before
splashing down safely in the
Atlantic Ocean 800 miles
southeast of Bermuda.
Today’s
Birthdays:
Socialite Gloria Vanderbilt
is 95. Actor Sidney Poitier
is 92. Racing Hall of Famer
Roger Penske is 82. Hockey
Hall of Famer Phil Esposito
is 77. Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is
77. Newspaper heiress Patri-
cia Hearst is 65. Basketball
Hall of Famer Charles Bar-
kley is 56.
Thought for Today:
“The life of the nation is
secure only while the nation
is honest, truthful, and vir-
tuous.” — Frederick Doug-
lass, American abolitionist
(born 1817, died this date in
1895).
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE