A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M . SCHULZ
Girlfriend notes change
in man’s talks with ex
FOR BETTER OR WORSE
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
B.C.
BY JOHNNY HART
PICKLES
BY BRIAN CRANE
BEETLE BAILEY
BY MORT WALKER
Dear Abby: I am dating a
leaving our hometown. Recently,
slightly older divorced man. He and
she’s been saying she wants me to
his ex-wife have been divorced 15
visit, but she is anti-vax. I’m not
years. They remain civil. Their two
comfortable visiting her until she
children are now adults. Recently,
gets vaccinated. Please advise. —
a friend of my boyfriend and his
Staying Away in Oregon
ex passed away. They spoke on the
Dear Staying: I assume you
phone, caught up a bit and that was
have been vaccinated. If so, and
Jeanne
the end of that.
your mother is willing to wear a
Phillips
Another tragic event happened
mask and socially distance during
ADVICE
last week that caused them to talk
your visit, then you could go. Of
again. Early in our relationship, he
course, my response is predicated
told me he and his ex don’t really
upon your desire to visit your
communicate unless tragic events or things
mother, and from the tone of your letter,
involving the kids come up. However, there
I have the distinct impression you would
has been an increase in dialogue between
rather not. (And for good reason.)
them beyond these events. It seems odd to
Dear Abby: My mother passed away
me that out of the blue their communica-
from dementia in January 2020. When she
tion has increased. Granted, it was sparked
was diagnosed in 2016, I started keeping all
by unfortunate events, but while those
her appointments and anything else import-
have come and gone, the talking remains,
ant in a journal. During those four years,
even though it never used to. Should I be
my life was so involved with hers that writ-
concerned? Should I bring this up? — Ex
ing daily became an outlet for my feelings. I
Issue in New England
have 11 small journals I still read occasion-
Dear Ex Issue: I am sorry you didn’t
ally, and it would be a shame to throw them
mention how long you and this man have
away. Please tell me what to do with them.
been seeing each other. If your exclusive
— Remembering in Texas
relationship has been going on longer than
Dear Remembering: The course of your
six months, you are within your rights to
dear mother’s illness must have been pain-
ful. The intimate thoughts and feelings you
point out that this is a change in his pattern
kept in those journals might be of some value
of behavior and ask him what’s up.
Dear Abby: My mom and I haven’t
to your children, if you have any. Because
the writings are of such a personal nature,
been close in 20 years. We live on oppo-
site sides of the country, talk monthly and
offer the journals to them. If they refuse, you
FaceTime on holidays. She has abused alco-
might also contact the Alzheimer’s Associa-
hol for years, and has gone through phases
tion and ask what others do with these kinds
of phoning me drunk and berating me for
of sensitive documents.
DAYS GONE BY
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
BY JIM DAVIS
BY DEAN YOUNG AND STAN DRAKE
From the East Oregonian
100 Years Ago
July 6, 1921
With a view of having a test suit brought
to settle the constitutionality of the grain
grading law passed by the last legislature a
meeting of the farm bureau will be held this
evening. The move is the immediate result
of the stand taken by exporters at Portland
that the law is not valid because it conflicts
with the federal grain standards. The ques-
tion is a mooted one and local farmers take
the position the law should be tested as soon
as possible. In the event the law is held uncon-
stitutional, steps will then be taken to have the
federal grades changed so as to make them
more fair to the farmers.
50 Years Ago
July 6, 1971
John Hays survived a 27-hole playoff
with Don Cessnun to win the Lester Hamley
Memorial Golf Tournament at the Pendle-
ton Country Club last weekend. Hays and
Cessnun finished in a dead heat after the first
day’s competition with low net 66s. The pair
went into an 18-hole showdown and again
wound up at a standoff. Both shot 70s. It was
on to a nine-hole playoff and this time Hays
survived with a 33½ net to Cessnun’s 35.
Robert Kirkpatrick added a little excitement
to the tourney himself. He used a nine-iron on
the 17th hole for his first hole-in-one.
25 Years Ago
July 6, 1996
Ever wondered exactly what those prickly
plants are at the side of the road? What about
the wind-ravaged wildflowers that toss their
heads on nearby hillsides? Bruce Barnes
wanted to know. And now he’s making sure
everyone else — from beginning botanists
to plant biologists — have a new tool to solve
such eco-puzzles. “I knew there had to be an
easier way,” says Barnes, 53, a Pendleton clin-
ical social worker with a penchant for plants.
On evenings and weekends, Barnes has spent
two years compiling on computer every plant
species native to the Northwest. It’s a project
that would have daunted even the most dedi-
cated green thumb. It took more than 4,000
hours, including entering up to eight million
pieces of plant data such as size, shape, flower
and a myriad other descriptions. The computer
program, named Flora ID Northwest, breaks
down the states of Oregon, Washington and
Idaho into 14 separate regions.
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 6, 1854, the first
official meeting of the Repub-
lican Party took place in
Jackson, Michigan.
In 1777, during the Amer-
ican Revolution, British
forces captured Fort Ticon-
deroga.
In 1885, French scien-
tist Louis Pasteur tested an
anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-
old Joseph Meister, who had
been bitten by an infected
dog; the boy did not develop
rabies.
In 1917, during World
War I, Arab forces led by
T.E. Lawrence and Auda
Abu Tayi captured the port
of Aqaba from the Ottoman
Turks.
In 1933, the first All-Star
baseball game was played
at Chicago’s Comiskey
Park; the American League
defeated the National
League, 4-2.
In 1942, Anne Frank, her
parents and sister entered a
“secret annex” in an Amster-
dam building where they
were later joined by four
other people; they hid from
Nazi occupiers for two years
before being discovered and
arrested.
In 1944, an estimated
168 people died in a fire that
broke out during a perfor-
mance in the main tent of the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum
& Bailey Circus in Hartford,
Connecticut.
In 1945, President Harry
S. Truman signed an exec-
utive order establishing the
Medal of Freedom.
In 1957, the Harry S.
Truman Library, the nation’s
first presidential library, was
dedicated in Independence,
Missouri.
In 1971, jazz trumpeter
and singer Louis Armstrong
died in New York at age 69.
In 1988, 167 North Sea
oil workers were killed
when explosions and fires
destroyed a drilling platform.
In 2005, New York Times
reporter Judith Miller was
jailed after refusing to testify
before a grand jury investi-
gating the leak of under-
cover CIA operative Valerie
Plame’s identity (Miller was
jailed for 85 days before
agreeing to testify).
In 2015, Pope Francis
received a hero’s welcome in
Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest
city, as he celebrated the first
public Mass of his South
American tour.
Today’s Birthdays: The
14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin
Gyatso, is 86. Former Pres-
ident George W. Bush is 75.
Actor Nathalie Baye is 73.
Actor Geoffrey Rush is 70.
azz musician Rick Braun is
66. Rapper Inspectah Deck
(Wu-Tang Clan) is 51. NBA
star Zion Williamson is 21.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE