A12 East Oregonian PEANUTS COFFEE BREAK Thursday, February 17, 2022 DEAR ABBY BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ Cousin desperate to help with an abusive romance FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE B.C. PICKLES BEETLE BAILEY BY LYNN JOHNSTON BY MASTROIANNI AND HART BY BRIAN CRANE through constant criticizing and Dear Abby: I have always belittling. Say you realize she been extremely close to my has invested 10 years of her life cousins. The problem I’m hav- in that relationship, but if she ing is with the boyfriend of one ever has doubts or changes her of them. They have been dating mind about living away from for almost 10 years. the family, you will be there for For the first few years we her. Then give her the contact were all close. The past three J EANNE information of the National years, however, have been heart- P HILLIPS Domestic Violence Hotline breaking. He’s rude to her and ADVICE (800-799-7233; thehotline.org) her mother and belittles and if there have been and instances ridicules everything she says and in which he has hit or threatened does. We all walk on eggshells her — or the dog — when he’s angry. when he’s around. Dear Abby: My husband will not do They recently moved hours away for his job. I feel he has purposely isolated things unless I “remind” him. He has a her from all of us, and is mentally and medical issue and experiences painful emotionally abusing her. She used to symptoms if he forgets to take the medi- want to get married and have a family cation his doctor prescribed. He’ll then with him, but now she is calling me self- have a flare-up, take his medicine and ish for being pregnant. He’s dragging her not take it again until another flare-up down and has bought himself more time happens. Also, he’ll need to have an important by getting her a dog. Even if they did get engaged, I’d feel doctor’s appointment for a procedure sad she’s spending her life with this man. and he won’t even think about making If he treats her like this in front of all of the call to schedule it. I’m not his moth- us, what is he doing behind closed doors? er. I’m his wife. Please help. — Not His My cousin is very prideful and shuts Mother Dear Not His Mother: It’s hard to be- down any criticism. How can I explain to her that I’m worried about her without lieve someone who has a chronic condi- risking our relationship? — Scared For tion that brings painful flare-ups would forget to take a medication that would Her In The East Dear Scared: Tell your cousin you avert them, which makes me wonder love her dearly and will be saying this about your husband’s mentation. Doc- only once, so you want her to remem- tor visits can sometimes be uncomfort- ber it. Then repeat to her what you have able, which may be why he hesitates to written to me. Explain that abusers erode schedule them. If you love him, please the self-esteem of their “love object” shoulder that responsibility. BY MORT WALKER DAYS GONE BY 100 years ago — 1922 GARFIELD BY JIM DAVIS “You stepped on my toes the last time we played together so I’m not coming over to your house!” That is the pouty, little-boy attitude of the Walla Walla high school toward Pendleton in regard to a return basketball game. Defeated to a nice brown turn earlier in the season by a score of 23 to 13, Walla Walla has been hedging ever since. The return game on the Pendleton floor, originally sched- uled for Wednesday night, which was post- poned until tonight was cancelled early this afternoon. On the surface, the cause of the rupture came over selection of a referee, but local sport followers are laughing up their sleeves at what they call Walla Walla’s lack of courage. 50 years ago — 1972 BLONDIE BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL J. Joseph Barnes pleaded guilty in Umatilla County Circuit Court to nine felony counts involving his fraudulent operation of Skyview Memorial Park. Judge Henry Kaye gave him a suspended five-year prison sentence and ordered him to pay back $15,000 to the business. No provision was made for repay- ment of money to any individual. Skyview, a cemetery a few miles south of Pendleton near McKay Reservoir, is now in the hands of a bankruptcy trustee. Judge Kaye said “the desirable thing to do that’s most beneficial to the community and investors” is to salvage the Memorial Park so that it can be sold and redeveloped. According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Doherty, Barnes’ sales scheme “was based on pure misrepresentation of almost every conceivable fact.” 25 years ago — 1997 This is how it should end every year — the top two teams in the Columbia River Basin Conference meeting in the final game of the season to decide the championship. At least that’s how the Umatilla Vikings liked it this year. The Vikings trounced Weston-McEwen 71-56 to win the CBC boys championship. Umatilla finished with an 11-1 record and the TigerScots ended 10-2. It was a close game through three quarters. In the final quarter, the Vikings went off for 29 points, breaking the game open with a 13-2 run in the first two-and-a-half minutes to gain a dominat- ing lead. The streak started and ended with Lee Lafferty draining two from long range. First, he popped a 17-footer and 30 seconds later nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner. 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 Feb. 17, 1801, the U.S. House of Represen- tatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jef- ferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson presi- dent; Burr became vice president. In 1815, the United States and Britain ex- changed the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. In 1863, the Inter- national Red Cross was founded in Geneva. In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand- cranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank. In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces in- vaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little ini- tial resistance from Im- perial Japanese troops. (The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.) In 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, a satellite that carried meteorological equip- ment. In 1964, the Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that con- gressional districts within each state had to be rough- ly equal in population. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon de- parted the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China. In 1988, Lt. Col. Wil- liam Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, was kidnapped in south- ern Lebanon by Iranian- backed terrorists. In 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” In 2015, Vice Presi- dent Joe Biden opened a White House summit on countering extremism and radicalization, saying the United States needed to ensure that immigrants were fully included in the fabric of American soci- ety to prevent violent ide- ologies from taking root at home. PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN BY DANA SIMPSON BIG NATE BY LINCOLN PEIRCE