A14 East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Tuesday, November 24, 2020 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ Cranky friend at work may be threat to advancement FOR BETTER OR WORSE BY LYNN JOHNSTON B.C. BY JOHNNY HART PICKLES BY BRIAN CRANE BEETLE BAILEY BY MORT WALKER Dear Abby: I moved to town not my baby dad helping me with our long before the pandemic and don’t 2-year-old daughter. I don’t like the idea of putting him on child sup- have many close friends here. One port. I have tried counseling with of my best friends is a co-worker, him. In addition to asking him to “Ronna,” whom I love dearly. step up, I have tried giving him lists Ronna has had an extremely of what our daughter needs, and he rough past, including an extensive still isn’t helping. Instead he’s ask- history of parental abuse that has J eanne ing me to help with his bills. left her thin-skinned and suspicious P hilliPs I don’t know what to do. I really of authority figures. Because of ADVICE don’t want to go after child support this, she’s constantly butting heads since he now has two jobs. I need with our management team and his help, but I don’t know how to get confronting them about perceived him to contribute. Any ideas? — Struggling slights. Mom in Ohio While some of the points she makes are Dear Mom: You have tried asking, you reasonable, many are taken too personally or have tried counseling. The only option left blown way out of proportion, and she tends to convince him to step up to the plate and to act very dramatic/livid about it. I’m look- ing to move up in the company, and I’m torn fulfill his obligations as a father is to contact Child Support Services and ask for help. between loyalty to my friend and the need to P.S. You absolutely should not pay his remain on good terms with our higher-ups. bills! I’m also worried that my friendliness with Dear Abby: I have been asked by a close management will lead to Ronna resenting or friend to officiate at his wedding. I’m hon- distrusting me. How can I safely navigate? ored to have been asked, and it would be easy — In The Middle in Colorado for me to get the credentials, but I am not Dear In The Middle: Do not involve comfortable doing it for personal reasons. I yourself in Ronna’s problems on the job. If know it’s his special day, and he really wants you do, they will spill over onto you. Main- me to do it. How can I politely decline with- tain your personal relationship with her out hurting our friendship? I don’t know how away from the office, while networking and to word my refusal. — Not For Me trying to widen your circle of friends. Dear Not: Be honest to the degree that From what you have written, I doubt that you can be without causing hurt feelings. Ronna will be working for your employer Explain that you are honored to have been much longer. Workers who react in a “very asked to officiate (which is true), but would dramatic/livid” manner are usually laid off not be comfortable in that role (also true). because their behavior is unprofessional and Then deflect by offering to support your disruptive. friend in some other way on his special day. Dear Abby: I am having problems with DAYS GONE BY GARFIELD BLONDIE BY JIM DAVIS BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Nov. 24, 1920 Alfalfa growers in Hermiston do not wish stockmen any bad luck but they would not mind it if something would happen that would make a brisk demand for hay and would restore the alfalfa price to the good old days when it sold around $25 a ton or more. They are not getting any such price now. In fact, hay at Stanfield has been selling for as low as $16 per ton baled, which means about $10 in the stack and there is not much demand even at that. With nearly 70 percent of the hay still in the hands of the growers the situation is not all that could be asked for. Nevertheless, Hermis- ton and the surrounding country look prosper- ous. The women are well dressed and there are a lot of men who do not do all their travelling on foot or behind horses. The writer counted 22 automobiles parked on the two sides of the Main street block by the Oregon hotel yes- terday. They were not purchased however on money derived from $10 hay. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Nov. 24, 1970 Earlier this week a massive storm hit Ore- gon. While Eastern Oregon was one of the more fortunate areas with Pendleton and Mil- ton-Freewater recording one inch of snow, the low temperature was 8 degrees Saturday and Sunday’s high was 18. Periods of freezing rain and icy roads made for hazardous driving con- ditions. But by Tuesday, downtown Pendleton was the warmest spot in the state with a high of 66. Springtime, huh? Forget it. More snow is on the way. Temperatures are expected to begin dropping late today with mixed rain and snow tonight, and Eastern Oregon may settle down to the Thanksgiving turkey amid white. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian Nov. 24, 1995 Students in Amy Dickeson’s Pendleton Junior High School science class were hun- gry Wednesday for more than knowledge. They wanted pizza, even if it was the day before American’s unofficial eating festival of Thanksgiving. Students ladled sauce over English muffins and added cheese and top- pings. The ordinary ingredients represented parts of a cell, something the biology class has been studying for several weeks. “That’s the cell membrane,” said Robin Binschus, 13, as she pointed at an olive on her hand-made pizza. Before students could enter the buffet line of toppings, they had to turn in a complete illustration of a cell and all its inner work- ings. The students agreed that eating pizza is a good reward for studying biology’s tiny build- ing blocks. “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Amanda Henshaw, 13. “They’re in your body, they’re important and we’re eating them.” 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 Nov. 24, 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection. In 1865, Mississippi became the first South- ern state to enact laws that came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed Blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed. In 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene cap- tured on live television. In 1974, the bone frag- ments of a 3.2 million-year- old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nick- named “Lucy.” In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles. (The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the following month.) In 1991, rock singer Fred- die Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agree- ing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida. In 2014, it was announced that a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, had decided against indict- ing Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown; the deci- sion enraged protesters, who set fire to buildings and cars and looted businesses in the area where Brown had been fatally shot. Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Johnny Carver is 80. Rock drummer Pete Best is 79. Rock musi- cian Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 66. Rock musician John Squire (The Stone Roses) is 58. Actor Lola Glaudini is 49. Actor Colin Hanks is 43. Actor Katherine Heigl is 42. PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE