B6 East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Friday, May 17, 2019 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ Guests glued to cellphones can wear out their welcome FOR BETTER OR WORSE BY LYNN JOHNSTON B.C. BY JOHNNY HART PICKLES BY BRIAN CRANE Dear Abby: My husband and sidering rolling up the welcome I live in a nice home in the desert mat, explain to your guests that you have given them an open invita- Southwest with an in-ground pool tion so you can enjoy each other’s and guesthouse. Our friends and company, and you are hurt that they relatives from back east have an spend so much time on their elec- open invitation to visit whenever tronic devices. Nobody gets some- they please. We enjoyed these visits thing for nothing, and it seems the until recently. J eanne “quid” has gone missing from the The problem is their ever-pres- P hilliPs “pro quo” you have been offering. ent compulsion to be connected to ADVICE Dear Abby: I am a male who an electronic device. We are not was molested 30 years ago. It yet retired, but in the past we didn’t has troubled me into adulthood. mind taking a few days off work to Recently, my boss informed my crew that spend time with folks who came all the way a convicted pedophile will be working on a out here to spend a few days with us. But it trial basis on our shift. The moment he said seems like nowadays our guests have their it, it started setting off triggers in my head, noses pointed at a phone or computer most and I am very angry about it. of the time they are here. They have actually When I told my boss about my childhood missed the beauty of our area, which we are experience, he acted like he didn’t want to missing work to show them, because they hear it. Do I have any rights in this mat- are otherwise engaged. ter? I really can’t work with a man who has Is there a pleasant way to ask them to dis- connect for a bit while we are enjoying their hurt another child like I was. — Troubled Victim visit, or should I just get in the grumpy old Dear Troubled Victim: You absolutely lady line? I want our visitors to have a good do have rights. You have the right to request time, but I find this behavior especially rude. a different shift, if that’s possible. If it isn’t, — Almost Done in the Southwest you also have the right to look for another Dear Almost Done: It’s possible that your job. If that’s the case, it will be interesting to guests don’t realize how much time they’re know how many of the other employees will spending on their computers and cellphones. follow you out the door. Because you are so turned off you are con- DAYS GONE BY BEETLE BAILEY GARFIELD BY MORT WALKER BY JIM DAVIS 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian May 17, 1919 Birds of a feather flock together? No, not always. A staid, old Plymouth Rock hen strut- ted proudly into the front yard of her home at Mrs. J.E. Troxell’s dairy ranch near Havana this morning with a pair of tiny China pheas- ant chicks. She clucked and she chided, just as mother-lovingly as any hen to her chirping offspring, for she had raised them from eggs she found in the field. Mrs. Troxell is feeding the hen and her adopted young ones in hopes that the little pheasants may be domesticated. So far there is complete domestic tranquility in the peculiar little family and Mrs. Troxell is wondering if the birds will return to their natural haunts when they grow older. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian May 17, 1969 The Pendleton Buckaroos will go into the district 7-A-1 best of three baseball playoff with the Redmond Panthers here at 8 tonight with- out the services of one of its top pitchers and its leadoff batter. After walloping La Grande 11-1 and 11-0 Tuesday to clinch the subdistrict title and with everyone in good condition, Lady Luck made an unwanted appearance Wednes- day. David Michael, junior pitcher, became ill and won’t be available for action tonight, and Victor Gehling, who usually is top man in the batting order, injured his shoulder in a fall during a physical education class. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian May 17, 1994 From the look of things, the Umatilla Army Depot’s 53-year-old mission to store ammunition is coming to an end. In a burst of flame and smoke, thousands of pounds of old rocket propellant vanished Monday as part of the depot’s stepped-up efforts to clear out the conventional ammunition. Already, about 700 of the 911 concrete bunkers known as “igloos” that store conventional ammunition have been emptied of their contents, thanks to the Base Closure Act of 1988. By Sept. 1, the depot’s conventional ammunition will be gone for good. TODAY IN HISTORY BLONDIE DILBERT THE WIZARD OF ID LUANN ZITS BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE BY SCOTT ADAMS BY BRANT PARKER AND JOHNNY HART BY GREG EVANS BY JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN On May 17, 2004, Massa- chusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages. In 1536, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cran- mer declared the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn invalid after she failed to produce a male heir; Boleyn, already condemned for high treason, was exe- cuted two days later. In 1792, the New York Stock Exchange had its beginnings as a group of bro- kers met under a tree on Wall Street and signed the Button- wood Agreement. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delay- ing — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engi- neers and trainmen. In 1954, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka deci- sion which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional. In 1968, nine men and women, including brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan, entered the Selective Service office in Catonsville, Mary- land, seized several hun- dred draft files and burned them outside to protest the Vietnam War before being arrested. (The “Catons- ville Nine,” as they came to be known, received federal prison sentences ranging from 24 to 42 months.) In 1973, a special com- mittee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal. In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami’s Liberty City after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Peter Gerety is 79. Singer Taj Mahal is 77. Rock musi- cian Bill Bruford is 70. Sing- er-musician George Johnson (The Brothers Johnson) is 66. TV personality Kathleen Sullivan is 66. Boxing Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard is 63. Actor-comedian Bob Saget is 63. Sports announcer Jim Nantz is 60. Producer Simon Fuller (TV: “Ameri- can Idol”) is 59. Singer Enya is 58. Actor-comedian Craig Ferguson is 57. Rock sing- er-musician Page McConnell is 56. Actor David Eigenberg is 55. Singer-musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is 54. Actress Paige Turco is 54. Rhythm-and-blues musi- cian O’Dell (Mint Condition) is 54. Actor Hill Harper is 53. TV personality/interior designer Thom Filicia is 50. Singer Jordan Knight is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Darnell Van Rensalier (Shai) is 49. Actress Sasha Alexan- der is 46. Rock singer-mu- sician Josh Homme is 46. Rock singer Andrea Corr (The Corrs) is 45. Actor Sendhil Ramamurthy is 45. Actress Rochelle Aytes is 43. Singer Kandi Bur- russ is 43. Actress Kat Fos- ter is 41. Actress Ayda Field is 40. Actress Ginger Gon- zaga is 36. Folk-rock singer/ songwriter Passenger is 35. Dancer-choreographer Derek Hough is 34. Actor Tahj Mowry is 33. Actress Nikki Reed is 31. Singer Kree Harrison (TV: “Amer- ican Idol”) is 29. Actress Leven Rambin is 29. Actress Samantha Browne-Walters is 28. Actor Justin Martin is 25. Thought for Today: “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be bet- ter than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be bet- ter than yourself.” — William Faulkner, American author (1897-1962). PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE