COFFEE BREAK Saturday, February 1, 2020 East Oregonian C5 DEAR ABBY Siblings come home to visit, but not with family members Dear Awkward: Do not be confron- Dear Abby: I have a problem I haven’t seen in your column before. tational, but when plans are being made for the next visit, you and your husband My husband comes from a large fam- ily with siblings spread far and should ask his relatives which wide. We live in the home state days or evenings you should and are happy to accommodate expect to entertain them. That his brothers and sisters (families, way you won’t have needlessly dogs) when they come home to cleared your calendar only to be visit and ask to stay with us. left standing at the curb. While it’s never said openly, Dear Abby: My fiancee, J eanne it quickly becomes clear that “Mia,” lost her dad two years P hilliPs ADVICE the purpose of their visit is to ago, and her mother recently do activities with people other announced to the family that she than my husband and me. In the past, is seeing someone. She has been staying we cleared our calendars and expected over at his house, and she is planning to entertain and feed these visitors. It to sell her home and move in with him. becomes awkward when they unex- Mia is very upset about it. pectedly leave for events with other Her mom is now in the process of people — once a Christmas Eve dinner! getting rid of her father’s belongings. Advice? — Awkward in the Midwest She feels like her mom is erasing her father from their lives. How long should her mother have waited? Is Mia being selfish? Shouldn’t she be happy for her mother? — Going Forward in the East Dear Going: I hesitate to call your fiancee selfish as much as self-cen- tered. Her mother has waited a respect- ful amount of time. She isn’t erasing her late husband from her life or her chil- dren’s as much as going on with hers, which is healthy. I wish you had mentioned how long she has been seeing the man she’s plan- ning on moving in with, because it might be pertinent. For her own protec- tion, she should discuss her plans with her lawyer to ensure that she — and her assets — are safeguarded before she sells her house. DAYS GONE BY 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Feb. 1, 1920 Reports from Ukiah say the frost is fast leaving the ground, the roads are very muddy and the ice has raised the creeks. The bridge across Desolation Creek near Dale was washed out a few days ago and the mail between Ukiah and Long Creek is tied up for the time being. Phil Fair- banks, proprietor of the line, was in Ukiah when the bridge went out and is doing everything he can to get connections through. Abe Martin, driver for the Ukiah end of the route, was caught on the Long Creek side with nothing to do but care for his horses. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Feb. 1, 1970 Hermiston City Police have recovered over $100 worth of whisky that was taken from the Elks Lodge in a break-in after midnight Saturday. Police said a local juvenile admit- ted the theft Sunday. This is the second time in two months that the lodge has lost whisky in a break-in. Some time Sunday night, for the second time in 10 days, the Handout Drive-In at 225 Highland was hit by vandals. Entry was gained through a window, police said, and whipped cream was smeared over the interior of the building. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Feb. 1, 1995 Dave Green is very familiar with the halls of Umatilla’s high school and middle school. He’s walked them as a stu- dent and a teacher. Green is retiring this year from Clara Brownell Middle School after 30 years as a seventh and eighth grade science teacher. After graduating from Uma- tilla High School in 1960, Green earned a degree at Eastern Oregon State College in 1965. By the fall of ’65 he was back at his old school as a teacher. When Green stepped into his first classroom there was only a stack of text books on the floor and a box with some assorted science teaching aides. From those humble beginnings Green has built a modern science lab. But Green’s replacement will have to take the science class to the next level by integrating computers into the curriculum. “I’ll leave that for them to do,” Green said. THIS DAY IN HISTORY On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during reentry, killing all seven of its crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; pay- load commander Michael Anderson; mission special- ists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space. In 1942, during World War II, the Voice of Amer- ica broadcast its first pro- gram to Europe, relaying it through the facilities of the British Broadcasting Corp. in London. In 1960, four black col- lege students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greens- boro, North Carolina, where they’d been refused service. In 1979, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumul- tuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile. In 1982, “Late Night with David Letterman” pre- miered on NBC. In 1994, Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-hus- band, pleaded guilty in Port- land, Oregon, to racketeer- ing for his part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in exchange for a 24-month sentence (he ended up serving six) and a $100,000 fine. Thought for Today: “It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn’t know — and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything.” — Joyce Cary, English author (1888-1957). Universal Crossword Edited by David Steinberg February 1, 2020 ACROSS 1 Eager kids’ plea 6 Spine line? 11 Small shot 14 What Bernese Mountain Dogs do a lot 15 To no ___ (in vain) 16 Snakelike fish 17 Lloyd of the U.S. women’s soccer team 18 Put down new turf 19 X, in sorority names 20 Gave some alone time 22 Enter on tiptoe, perhaps 24 James with a posthumous Pulitzer 25 Popular drinking game 26 Mars 2020 org. 28 Key ring? 30 They may be loose or split 31 Very strong hold 33 T. follower 35 Self-important tyrants 36 Made small waves 40 Vessel for boiling water 41 Coconut or almond cookie 42 Light brown 45 Not smooth 47 “Frozen 2” queen 48 (Jackpot!) 50 Birth control options: Abbr. 52 Sarcastic comment after a misfortune 53 Draws new boundaries, say 55 Biblical couples’ cruise 56 Love, on an Italian valentine 58 Starting players 60 Angry feeling 61 Dovetail joint component 62 Polynesian Disney heroine 63 Reel’s partner 64 Trapped in branches 65 Rubbed the wrong way DOWN 1 Org. concerned with outbreaks 2 Shrinking Asian sea 3 “Just ‘cuz” 4 Chef who owns Spago 5 The 1% 6 Weigh station factor 7 “___ changed” (ex’s claim) 8 Graduation cap attachment 9 ‘80s funk balladeer 10 Respected one, in many cultures 11 Signal to come over 12 In support of 13 Arm rests? 21 Hipster’s grooming tool 23 Animal that isn’t preyed upon, and a hint to the first four letters of 4-, 9- and 21-Down 25 Fast-tempo jazz style 26 “Pick” lead-in 27 Singer Grande, to fans 29 “___ better to have loved and lost ...” 32 Slimy substance 34 Pollution regulator, for short 36 Mechanic’s cloth 37 Text in a cat meme 38 Dawn goddess 39 It may include the sequence CAT 41 Cocoa holder 42 Dessert whose name is French for “lightning” 43 Fried, sugar-covered pastry 44 Amassed, with “up” 46 New Year’s Day, informally 49 Hilton competitor 51 Savory taste 53 Tear apart 54 Rational 57 Caviar 59 ___ Hatter Top of the Food Chain by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau sudoku answers