A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Half-sister’s appearance
brings awful memories
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
Dear Abby: I am a 46-year-old
Dear Abby: A year ago, I
widow. My husband of 18 years
was contacted by a half-sister
passed away 14 months ago. My
I’ll call “Shyla,” who my mother
three children are adults. Two of
placed for adoption at birth. My
them are still in the house, and
mother passed away five years
one, my son “Charlie,” has seri-
ago. She was a horrible mother
ous health issues. My husband
who physically, verbally and
was sick for five years prior to
emotionally abused my brother
J EANNE
his death.
and me. Giving Shyla up was the
P HILLIPS
Charlie gets upset when I
best thing she ever did. I have
ADVICE
talk about being interested in
spent years in therapy to work
starting to date. He thinks I am
through my painful childhood.
going to abandon him again and
Shyla barreled in like a train.
I was honest with her about our mother that I should pay more attention to re-
and how I grew up. But Shyla wants me connecting with my children.
Charlie refuses to leave the house.
to visit her and video-call her like we are
close. When she asks questions about my I don’t think he loves me; I feel he just
mother, I’m honest because I refuse to wants to control me. My other children
are supportive, but they are independent.
create a person who didn’t exist.
I do not want a relationship with this Am I wrong for wanting to pursue life
sister, or to have to talk about my abuser outside my home and grown children?
for the rest of my life. Shyla makes me — Attempting To Go Forward
Dear Attempting: You aren’t wrong
feel horrible because I haven’t met her
yet. I don’t WANT to meet her. Other for wanting companionship, and I’m not
adoptees I have spoken to chide me on referring to the kind you can get from
this, saying Shyla “has a right” to her your children. If Charlie is unable to live
birth family. Advice, please. — Freaking independently and needs constant super-
vision, you should be discussing options
Out In North Carolina
Dear Freaking Out: You have given for him such as respite care, so you can
your half-sister what information you have a break.
Because you mentioned that he has
could. You are NOT obligated to have
more contact with this half-sister than serious health issues, what are the plans
you are comfortable with. If she asks to for him if you should predecease him?
meet again, tell her it has taken years of This is an issue that should be hashed
therapy to get past what was done to you out before there is a crisis, so there will
and your brother, and that talking with be no surprises and Charlie can be reas-
her is bringing back all of that trauma. If sured, which may allay his fears and help
him to become less needy.
she persists after that, block her.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
BY JIM DAVIS
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
100 years ago — 1922
The sport of skiing is a part of the fun
and amusement of Umatilla county people.
Of course, to take steep hills on the skis has
been practiced for more years than one, but
the sport has achieved a popularity this winter
which indicates that it has a hold which never
can be forgotten. About 30 people enjoyed the
sport at Kamela yesterday. There were young
people from Pendleton, Adams and La Grande,
besides people of Kamela who spent the greater
part of the day in skiing and coasting down the
rugged sides of old Mount Baldy. The coast-
way is about three-quarters of a mile long, local
sportsmen report.
50 years ago — 1972
Farmers, rejoice! Though 1971 was near
normal in every other way, it did bring above
average precipitation, especially in the snow-
pack in the Blue Mountains for this early in the
season. All signs point to an abundant water
supply next summer. McKay reservoir contains
43,700 acre feet of water, double the 22,070 of
last year. Battle Mountain has a current snow
depth of 25.6 inches; water content is 6.7. A
year ago Battle Mountain, at 4,340 feet, had
10.4 inches of snow with a water content of 1.7.
Emigrant Springs, at an elevation of 3,925 feet,
has 42 inches of snow with a water content of
10.5. This compares with 10.2 inches of snow
and water content of 2.5 last year.
25 years ago — 1997
The top 10 local stories of 1996: 1) Gordon
Smith edges Tom Bruggere to earn a seat in
the U.S. Sentate. 2) Umatilla will be home to a
state prison, bringing 500 jobs. 3) State tenta-
tively approves permits for construction of an
incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
4) Voters approve a $13-million bond measure
for a new county jail that will hold three times
as many inmates. 5) Murder, past and pres-
ent: A 1992 murder is solved when a tip leads
to the body and an eventual guilty plea by the
victim’s husband, LuRay Batterton. Ernest
Taber of Pendleton is charged in the murder of
a 6-year-old Umatilla boy. 6) Pendleton opens
its new City Hall/Library in the remodeled
Helen McCune building. 7) February flooding
ravages parts of Umatilla County. 8) Deputy
John Trumbo defeats Sheriff Gordon Campbell
in a contentious November election. 9) Hermis-
ton volunteers build a 13,000-square-foot play-
ground in five days. 10) Wal-Mart — a store
in Pendleton and plans to begin construction
of a regional distribution center at Hermiston
next spring.
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
On Jan. 4, 2007, Nan-
cy Pelosi was elected the
first female speaker of the
House as Democrats took
control of Congress.
In 1821, the first na-
tive-born American saint,
Elizabeth Ann Seton, died
in Emmitsburg, Mary-
land.
In 1935, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, in
his State of the Union ad-
dress, called for legislation
to provide assistance for
the jobless, elderly, impov-
erished children and the
disabled.
In 1948, Burma (now
called Myanmar) became
independent of British
rule.
In 1964, Pope Paul VI
began a visit to the Holy
Land, the first papal pil-
grimage of its kind
In 1965, President Lyn-
don B. Johnson delivered
his State of the Union ad-
dress in which he outlined
the goals of his “Great
Society.”
In 1974, President
Richard Nixon refused to
hand over tape recordings
and documents subpoe-
naed by the Senate Water-
gate Committee.
In 1987, 16 people were
killed when an Amtrak
train bound from Wash-
ington, D.C., to Boston
collided with Conrail
locomotives that had
crossed into its path from
a side track in Chase,
Maryland.
In 1990, Charles Stu-
art, who’d claimed that
he’d been wounded and
his pregnant wife fatally
shot by a robber, leapt
to his death off a Boston
bridge after he himself be-
came a suspect.
In 1999, Europe’s new
currency, the euro, got off
to a strong start on its first
trading day, rising against
the dollar on world cur-
rency markets. Former
professional wrestler Jesse
Ventura took the oath of
office as Minnesota’s gov-
ernor.
In 2002, Sgt. 1st Class
Nathan Ross Chapman,
a U.S. Army Special
Forces soldier, was killed
by small-arms fire during
an ambush in eastern Af-
ghanistan; he was the first
American military death
from enemy fire in the war
against terrorism.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE