A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Longtime friendship is
complicated by arrest
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
cently went back to his home
Dear Abby: I have a former
state 1,000 miles away for what I
high school classmate who I’ve
thought would be a two-day trip
gotten close to. He lives several
to grab some things from his late
hours away, but we talked al-
mother’s estate. He has been un-
most daily.
employed for most of this past
A few months ago I stopped
year due to the pandemic, so
hearing from him, and his social
I’m somewhat conflicted about
media profile went dark. I had
J EANNE
something he told me when I
a bad feeling, so I Googled him
P HILLIPS
called to ask when he was com-
and was shocked to see he had
ADVICE
ing home. He said he found a
been arrested! While it wasn’t
job and decided he wants to stay
a violent crime, it was horrible
there and work for some months
just the same. He has called me
several times from prison, declaring his to save up enough money to pay off the
innocence — always requesting money. bulk of our debt.
He did not consult me before making
Abby, I live paycheck to paycheck. Even
if I had extra money, I wouldn’t feel com- this decision. He told me he has worked
out a COVID-safe housing arrangement
fortable giving it to him.
I feel hurt and used. Part of me says with his sister and his aunt. The type
I need to end the friendship; the other of work he will be doing there is some-
part says he needs friends right now and thing he could do here, where our home
it’s not my place to judge him. I have re- is. I don’t want to discourage him, but it
fused to accept his last few calls because baffles me that he would take a job 1,000
I really don’t know what to do. Your miles away. What if something were to
thoughts are appreciated. — Blindsided happen to me or our animals? When I
told him I didn’t agree with his decision,
In Pennsylvania
Dear Blindsided: This person hasn’t he told me I should be happy he’s no lon-
used you — yet. The next time he reaches ger unemployed. How should I handle
out, accept the call. When you do, make this? — Far Away In Missouri
Dear Far Away: Your husband
clear that you can offer moral support,
but you cannot give him money because shouldn’t have taken a job 1,000 miles
you live paycheck to paycheck. You may away without first talking with you. That
not hear from him after that. But if he said, what’s done is done, and you need
continues to ask, take a giant step back- to let this play out. There’s nothing to
ward and recognize this friendship has stop you from visiting. Fortunately, you
and the animals are all doing well. If cir-
run its course.
Dear Abby: My husband and I have cumstances change, he can always quit
been together for three years. He re- the job and come back.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY FROM THE EAST OREGONIAN
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
BY JIM DAVIS
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
100 Years Ago
Sept. 21, 1921
There’s another town in Pendleton today. Its
population numbers a minimum of 500 souls
— that was the estimate this morning — and
it is growing by leaps and bounds, at the same
rate that has often been recorded in the case of
campes who are centers of oil finds or newly
discovered gold fields. In this case, the twelfth
Pendleton Round-Up is the attraction. Housed
under white and khaki canvas, the residents
of “Little Pendleton,” drawn here from every
section of the United States, are fraternizing in
the auto camp grounds at the east end of the city.
Every conceivable kind of camping and cooking
outfit is doing service. There are several carloads
from the eastern border of the country. Vermont,
Florida, Ohio, several cars from Wisconsin and
other states are well represented.
50 Years Ago
Sept. 21, 1971
The McNary Golf Club is important in the
life of Gene Hiatt, manager of the Umatilla
Toll Bridge. And the club is about to take on a
new meaning for Hiatt. Friday, at 2 p.m., Hiatt
and Fern Gilham, owner and operator of Fern’s
Beauty Shop at McNary, plan to be married on
the golf club’s hole No. 9. Why did they select
No. 9? The prospective bridegroom says he
made a hole in one on that green a few years
ago. Hiatt worked for five years in expanding the
club’s facilities and helping bring it up to what is
considered an excellent 18-hold course. He was
president three years and one of the club’s most
dedicated members. Hiatt’s father, the late Ursel
Hiatt, also figured prominently at the club, and
the lake on the course is named for him.
25 Years Ago
Sept. 21, 1996
Customer service is alive and well and exists
in the person of Sharon Parker, who postponed
collecting hier $100,000 Powerball winnings to
handle hungry Round-Up crowds at Kentucky
Fried Chicken. Sharon and her husband, Ronald
Parker, knew Sunday that they had drawn the
100th winning Powerball ticket sold in Oregon,
but they didn’t leave for Salem to pick up their
$72,000 check — their actual winnings after
taxes — until Monday. Sharon Porter decided
instead it was more important to stay and push
the poultry to hungry patrons during Round-Up.
“She knew it was Round-Up week so she
decided to work,” said Kentucky Fried Chicken
owner and manager Karl Lutz. “We have great
employees working for us.” And working for the
Colonel is what the 55-year-old Sharon Porter
will continue to do, for now. “It’s going to mean
debt-free retirement,” she said.
TODAY IN HISTORY
DILBERT
THE WIZARD OF ID
LUANN
ZITS
BY SCOTT ADAMS
BY PARKER AND HART
BY GREG EVANS
BY JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN
Today’s Highlights in
History:
On Sept. 21, 1989, Hur-
ricane Hugo crashed into
Charleston, South Caroli-
na (the storm was blamed
for 56 deaths in the Carib-
bean and 29 in the Unit-
ed States). Twenty-one
students in Alton, Texas,
died when their school
bus, hit by a soft-drink de-
livery truck, careened into
a water-filled pit.
In 1912, magician
Harry Houdini first pub-
licly performed his “Water
Torture Cell” trick at the
Circus Busch in Berlin.
In 1938, a hurricane
struck parts of New York
and New England, caus-
ing widespread damage
and claiming some 700
lives.
In 1961, the first Boe-
ing CH-47 Chinook mili-
tary helicopter made its
first hovering flight.
In 1981, the Senate
unanimously confirmed
the nomination of Sandra
Day O’Connor to become
the first female justice on
the Supreme Court.
In 1982, Amin Gemayel,
brother of Lebanon’s as-
sassinated president-elect,
Bashir Gemayel, was
himself elected president.
National Football League
players began a 57-day
strike, their first regular-
season walkout ever.
In 1985, in North Ko-
rea and South Korea,
family members who had
been separated for decades
were allowed to visit each
other as both countries
opened their borders in
an unprecedented family-
reunion program.
In 1987, NFL play-
ers called a strike, mainly
over the issue of free agen-
cy. (The 24-day walkout
prompted football owners
to hire replacement play-
ers.)
In 1996, President Bill
Clinton signed the De-
fense of Marriage Act de-
nying federal recognition
of same-sex marriages, a
day after saying the law
should not be used as an
excuse for discrimination,
violence or intimidation
against gays and lesbians.
(Although never formally
repealed, DoMA was ef-
fectively overturned by
U.S. Supreme Court deci-
sions in 2013 and 2015.)
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE