B6 East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Tuesday, August 27, 2019 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ Single mother by choice wants positive support from friends 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’m a single woman secure. If you need help with your who has always wanted children. child, you can get it. Please do not As much as I would’ve liked, mar- allow yourself to be intimidated by riage isn’t in the cards for me yet and what these “friends” are sharing, maybe not ever, which I’ve accepted. and do not seek their validation. I’m I have decided to not allow my not implying you should distance single status to prevent me from yourself and end the relationships, becoming a mother. I have spent because you may welcome some of their advice in the future. Remem- years hearing my friends and fam- J eanne ily tell me how great being a parent ber, this journey is one you have P hilliPs thoughtfully chosen. is and how I’m missing out. In fact, ADVICE Dear Abby: My husband is an there was a time or two when I felt only child. When his parents retired, certain people were trying to make his mother, who was always social, me feel inadequate. After careful stayed home with his dad because he wanted consideration, I chose to utilize donor sperm. her home with him. Because of this, she spent I am now 40 and expecting my first child, a great deal of time texting my husband. and I couldn’t be happier. The only thing I My father-in-law passed away recently, find upsetting is that those same friends who and the texting has increased. It goes on all spent years telling me how great motherhood day, every day, even after we go to bed. I is and asking when I would have children, want to be sensitive to the fact that everyone now speak of nothing but the tribulations is getting used to the new normal without my of motherhood — the pain of delivery, the father-in-law, but the constant phone buzzing fatigue, the expense, and how they couldn’t and interruptions are getting old. do it alone, etc. My husband is defensive about the tex- I’m an educated woman in a profession ting. We have a happy marriage, and I want that pays well, and I consider myself to be to keep it that way. How should I handle this? fortunate. I didn’t decide to become a sin- gle mother on a whim. I don’t know what to — Overloaded in Oklahoma expect but want to think positive and enjoy Dear Overloaded: Your husband, rather than you, should handle his mother. Because my pregnancy. I’m confused and hurt by my your father-in-law’s death is recent, she may friends’ reactions now that I am pregnant. Is need time to adjust to being alone. If her con- it the pregnancy hormones, or do I need to stant, intrusive texting persists beyond a rea- distance myself from these friends? — Con- founded in North Carolina sonable amount of time, he should suggest Dear Confounded: Parenting involves that she cut back. He should also encourage her to re-establish the friendships and activi- many emotions — some of them conflict- ing. It’s a joy, an adventure, a challenge and a ties she gave up for her husband and, if neces- sary, consider joining a grief support group. commitment. The experience is also an indi- vidual one. Her doctor or religious adviser can suggest one that would be appropriate for her. You are a mature person and financially DAYS GONE BY 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Aug. 27, 1919 While sundry local patrons of the Hagen- beck-Wallace circus were being entertained at a “quiet” nut shell game in a dressing room of one of the side shows yesterday a little event not in the advertising was pulled off. A man with a wicked looking gun entered the tent, cov- ered the dealer, took his money and then pro- ceeded to rob the others present. Some say he bagged $500 or $600 all told. He then exited, leaving the bunch with their hands still in the air. Reports state that only a select few were invited to attend the game and that they were first charmed by the announcement about a hootch dance. Following the dance a sure thing game was introduced. According to Chief of Police Roberts he has had various complaints as to short changing and he is plain spoken in condemnation of the circus attaches. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Aug. 27, 1969 The Gwyn Watkinses have four unusual plants growing among their colorful zinnias. Early this spring, Mrs. Watkins sent east for some cotton seed, and the four healthy plants came from those seeds. The blossoms, when fully opened, are an ivory white. They’re hoping to produce some cotton balls. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Aug. 27, 1994 There’s no end in sight to the battle over siting of a solid waste transfer station on Air- port Hill. Negotiations have failed to muster a solution to the nagging dilemma involv- ing Pendleton Sanitary Service, Pendair Citizens Committee and the city of Pendle- ton. The discord derives from the proposed refuse station — Pendleton Sanitary wants to place it amid a residential area, the area’s residents adamantly oppose it. The Pendair Committee had offered to back away on condition that it be reimbursed for attorney fees and the costs associated with the fight to keep the transfer station out of their neigh- borhood. The Sanitary Service is willing to relocate to a site along Rieth Road, so the reimbursement issue appears to be the hur- dle blocking a solution. 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 August 27, 2008, Barack Obama was nom- inated for president by the Democratic National Con- vention in Denver. In 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States, at Titusville, Pa. In 1928, the Kellogg-Bri- and Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes. In 1949, a violent white mob prevented an outdoor concert headlined by Paul Robeson from taking place near Peekskill, New York. (The concert was held eight days later.) In 1963, author, jour- nalist and civil rights activ- ist W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana, at age 95. In 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson accepted his party’s nom- ination for a term in his own right, telling the Dem- ocratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, “Let us join together in giv- ing every American the full- est life which he can hope for.” In 1975, Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethio- pia’s 3,000-year-old monar- chy, died in Addis Ababa at age 83 almost a year after being overthrown. In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, includ- ing his 14-year-old grand- son Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army. In 1989, the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida — a Delta booster carrying a British communications sat- ellite, the Marcopolo 1. In 2005, Coastal resi- dents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of the way of Hur- ricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans. Today’s Birthdays: Author Lady Antonia Fraser is 87. Actress Tuesday Weld is 76. Actor Paul Reubens is 67. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 58. Movie direc- tor Tom Ford (Film: “Noc- turnal Animals”) is 58. Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 52. Rapper Mase is 42. Actress-singer Demetria McKinney is 41. Actor Pat- rick J. Adams is 38. Actress Karla Mosley is 38. Actress Amanda Fuller is 35. Singer Mario is 33. Actress Alexa PenaVega is 31. Actor Ellar Coltrane is 25. Thought for Today: “Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn’t the dream destroy reality?” — G.E. Moore, British philos- opher (1873-1958). PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE