A12
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
FOR BETTER OR WORSE
COFFEE BREAK
BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ
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
Friday, July 12, 2019
DEAR ABBY
Shop owner reluctant to fire
employee in personal crisis
Dear Abby: I own a small retail
to Sara again. Explain that you are
receiving complaints from cus-
shop. One of my employees (I’ll
tomers and what they have been
call her Sara) has been with us for
saying. Give her another chance
a number of years. Until recently
to improve. If one of your other
she’s been a stellar employee. She
employees can cover for Sara for a
has been through several trau-
mas during the past year, includ-
week or two, let Sara have a brief
ing the death of her father, unex-
leave of absence to regroup. How-
pected injuries and medical bills,
ever, if the complaints persist, let
J eanne
and finding out that her husband
her go, because what’s going on
P hilliPs
had molested her teenage daughter
isn’t about her or you, it’s about the
ADVICE
health of your business.
and other girls as well. It has been
Dear Abby: My husband is 67
enough to drive anyone over the
and at least 45 pounds overweight.
edge of emotional stability, and she
His breasts could fill a C-cup bra, and his
has been noticeably struggling.
belly looks nine months pregnant. Prob-
Sara has seen a doctor and is seeing a
lem is, he wears running shorts around the
therapist for this, but she’s still having a
house and no shirt. Everything hangs out
difficult time. These things don’t heal over-
night. I understand that.
regardless of whether we’re alone or have
family visiting. It’s embarrassing.
Brick-and-mortar retail pretty much
When I ask him to dress or at least put on
runs on presenting a cheerful face, hap-
pily engaging with customers and answer-
a shirt, he says it’s his home, he can dress
ing their questions — something Sara has
any way he wants, and if someone disap-
proves, they can leave. That’s exactly what
been emotionally unable to do. Customers
I am ready to do. I am disgusted seeing him
have begun complaining to me about her
look like this. Also, when we are alone, he
moodiness and saying she has been ignor-
ing them. I’ve talked to her about this a cou-
tends to skinny dip in our swimming pool.
ple of times now, and each time she says
I’m afraid our 18-year marriage is
she’ll do better, but she hasn’t.
over. For the last five years we have lived
Abby, she’s been through so much, I’m
like roommates with separate bedrooms.
reluctant to add to her trauma by letting her
Do you agree I should leave? He flat-out
refuses any counseling for us. — Looking
go, but I feel I’m being backed into a corner
The Other Way
here. Is there a solution I’m not seeing or
Dear Looking: You are asking me a
something I can say that will help resolve
question I can’t answer for you. Because
this without having to let her go? There isn’t
your husband refuses counseling doesn’t
any work currently available that doesn’t
mean you couldn’t benefit from talking to
require customer interaction, or else I’d ask
someone, in light of the fact that you are
her to do that. — Bad For Business
contemplating such a life-changing deci-
Dear B.F.B.: You are a caring employer
sion. Please go, because the answer to your
— more than most would be, considering
question lies within yourself.
the shape that retail is in these days. Talk
DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 12, 1919
The Red Cross canteen in Pendleton will
continue its activities for some time although
canteens in many parts of the northwest are
closing save for special occasions, such as
the arrival of troop trains. Because trains
pass through Pendleton during the break-
fast, luncheon and dinner hours, it is thought
advisable to keep the canteen open for the
regular meals as well as for the arrival of
special troop trains.
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 12, 1969
The Condon City Council will share the
cost of helping to keep the old landfill in
order — with a bulldozer — until the Gil-
liam County Road Department builds a
road to a new location for the landfill. That
decision was made Wednesday when Elmer
McKinney, who has the garbage franchise,
asked for help. State health authorities have
ordered McKinney to open a new landfill
this month. But he said county crews can’t
work the new road into their construction
schedule until fall.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 12, 1994
Smith Frozen Foods, Inc. in Weston,
one of the region’s largest vegetable pro-
cessors, will be sending a different kind of
green to the Centerville Medical Center in
Athena. Up to $10,000. “It’s fantastic,” said
organizer Cathy Roscoe. “If we can raise
$10,000 and have them match it we can fin-
ish the clinic.” Roscoe, along with her hus-
band, Dick, has spearheaded the effort to
open a health clinic in Athena’s old print-
er’s building. Smith promised last week to
match dollar for dollar up to $10,000 during
1994. That means there may be enough
money to pay for a full renovation after
more than a year of fund raising. Around
$20,000 is needed to complete the clinic,
Roscoe says, and if the community contin-
ues to contribute it may open its doors as
early as Sept. 1.
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 July 12, 1984, Dem-
ocratic presidential can-
didate Walter F. Mondale
announced his choice of U.S.
Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro
of New York to be his run-
ning-mate; Ferraro was the
first woman to run for vice
president on a major-party
ticket.
In 1543, England’s King
Henry VIII married his sixth
and last wife, Catherine Parr.
In 1817, author, poet and
naturalist Henry David Tho-
reau was born in Concord,
Massachusetts.
In 1862, during the Civil
War, President Abraham
Lincoln signed a bill autho-
rizing the Army Medal of
Honor.
In 1957, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower was flown by
helicopter from the White
House to a secret mountain-
top location as part of a drill
involving a mock nuclear
attack on Washington.
In 1960, the Etch A
Sketch Magic Screen draw-
ing toy, invented by French
electrician Andre Cassa-
gnes, was first produced by
the Ohio Art Co.
In 1967, rioting erupted
in Newark, New Jersey, over
the police beating of a black
taxi driver; 26 people were
killed in the five days of vio-
lence that followed.
In 1977, President Jimmy
Carter defended Supreme
Court limits on government
payments for poor women’s
abortions, saying, “There
are many things in life that
are not fair.”
In 1994, President Bill
Clinton, visiting Germany,
went to the eastern sector of
Berlin, the first U.S. presi-
dent to do so since Harry
Truman.
In 2003, the USS Ron-
ald Reagan, the first carrier
named for a living president,
was commissioned in Nor-
folk, Virginia.
In 2005, Prince Albert
II of Monaco acceded to
the throne of a 700-year-old
dynasty.
Today’s
Birthdays:
Movie director Monte Hell-
man is 90. Actress Denise
Nicholas is 75. Actress Mel
Harris is 63. Actor Buddy
Foster is 62. Olympic gold
medal figure skater Kristi
Yamaguchi is 48. Rhythm-
and-blues
singer
Tra-
cie Spencer is 43. Actress
Michelle Rodriguez is 41.
Actor Bernard David Jones
is 34. Actress Ta’Rhonda
Jones is 31. Actress Rachel
Brosnahan is 29. Actor Erik
Per Sullivan is 28. Nobel
Peace
laureate
Malala
Yousafzai is 22.
Thought for Today: “A
man who fears suffering is
already suffering from what
he fears.” — Michel de Mon-
taigne, French philosopher
(1533-1592).
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE