A12
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Thursday, February 24, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Brother’s dying wish has
become one-sided effort
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
hear.) We were using American
Dear Abby: I am one of six
Sign Language to communicate.
adult siblings. Our youngest
A group walked past us, saw we
brother, “Clark,” died of cancer
were using sign language and as-
five years ago. He was my best
sumed neither of us could hear.
friend. As he was dying, Clark
One of them told her friends
asked me to keep his wife, “Liz,”
we were deaf and dumb. When
and his children in the family. I
the server came to my table to
have tried my best.
J EANNE
take our order and they realized
Every year, I have a large
P HILLIPS
I could hear, they were visibly
family Christmas party. Liz and
ADvICE
surprised.
her children attend and seem to
The speaker did not appear
have a good time. I call or text
to be embarrassed by what she
her monthly, but I rarely receive
a reply. She did text me happy birthday. I had said. The woman’s back was turned
was OK with this until I heard from my to my friend, so my friend was unaware
nephew (Clark’s son) that there was a of it. (Thank heavens, because my friend
memorial service for him. When I asked can read lips.) I didn’t say anything at the
him who was there, he said everybody. time and let it go.
Should I have? I didn’t because their
It really hurt because I wasn’t informed,
table was near ours, and I was afraid the
nor were any of my siblings.
I want to respect Clark’s wishes, but woman would have gotten ruder and
even before this, Liz didn’t seem to re- made the whole dining experience bad.
spect my nuclear family. I don’t know Should I have said something to the man-
what to do going forward because I have ager or server and sat at another table? If
such sad and angry feelings over not be- the manager had said something to her, I
ing invited to his memorial. — Conflicted doubt she would have admitted what she
said. — Not Right In Ohio
Sis In The East
Dear Not Right: You were right
Dear Sis: Please accept my sympathy
for the loss of your brother. What you not to challenge the woman who said
should do is call your former sister-in-law that. If she wasn’t embarrassed when it
and ask her WHY you and your siblings turned out you could hear clearly, little
were excluded from the memorial, which you could say would have shamed her.
is a shocking oversight. Then, if her apol- There was nothing the restaurant man-
ogy is not satisfactory, consider yourself ager could do about this woman’s breach
relieved of that deathbed promise, which of etiquette. You, however, could have
asked to change your table if you were
clearly hasn’t been appreciated.
Dear Abby: I was recently in a res- no longer comfortable seated next to that
taurant with a friend who is deaf. (I can party.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
100 years ago — 1922
GARFIELD
BY JIM DAVIS
Monsieur La Grippe is an unwelcome guest
at many houses in Pendleton and Umatilla
county, and because of his presence, there are
a great many persons who are unable to be at
their desks or in their offices to transact busi-
ness as usual. Men and women alike are feeling
the effects of the disease, but so far it has been
in a mild form, and sufferers from the winter
complaint have not been seriously ill. James
H. Sturgis, Pat Lonergan, Roy Ritner and C. I.
Barr, local men who planned to attend the meet-
ing of the Baker Chamber of Commerce were
prevented from going on account of illness.
50 years ago — 1972
BLONDIE
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
Two Umatilla county undercover narcotics
agents have been arrested in Spokane, Wash.,
and charged with the strongarm robbery of an
18-year-old youth. As a result, Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Jones has charged the
pair with unauthorized use of a vehicle that
he loaned them for their undercover work.
The pair have also been charged with posses-
sion of amphetamines. The complaint Jones
filed against them in Umatilla County District
Court says they had agreed to use the car only
in Umatilla County for transportation while
investigating narcotics traffic. The two men
were financed in their narcotics undercover
work by $200 obtained for them by Jones from
the Umatilla County Court. The money came
from the budget of Dist. Atty. R. P. Smith who
said it was done without his approval.
25 years ago — 1997
Jack Palmer was an employee of Boardman
rather than an independent contractor the entire
time he worked as city manager, the Public
Employees Retirement System concluded after
an investigation was launched when a newspa-
per reporter contacted PERS about Palmer’s
employment status as part of a follow-up to a
grand jury indictment. A Morrow County grand
jury indicted Palmer on 18 counts of theft and
official misconduct Dec. 11, alleging he used
city employees and equipment to further a
personal project. The Boardman City Council
suspended Palmer on Dec. 24 but voted to use
him as a consultant for ongoing city affairs while
continuing to pay his $3,700 monthly salary. He
is scheduled to enter a plea in Morrow County
Circuit Court on March 7. The city could owe
as much as $50,000, or up to 15% of Palmer’s
earnings since he began working there in 1993.
Boardman’s city attorney, M. D. Van Valken-
burgh has said the city will fight the PERS deci-
sion classifying Palmer as an employee.
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. 24, 1942, the
SS Struma, a charter ship
attempting to carry nearly
800 Jewish refugees from
Romania to British-man-
dated Palestine, was tor-
pedoed by a Soviet sub-
marine in the Black Sea;
all but one of the refugees
perished.
In 1868, the U.S.
House of Representatives
impeached President An-
drew Johnson by a vote
of 126-47 following his
attempted dismissal of
Secretary of War Edwin
M. Stanton; Johnson was
later acquitted by the Sen-
ate.
In 1981, a jury in
White
Plains,
New
York, found Jean Harris
guilty of second-degree
murder in the fatal shoot-
ing of “Scarsdale Diet”
author Dr. Herman Tar-
nower.
In 1986, the Supreme
Court struck down, 6-3,
an Indianapolis ordinance
that would have allowed
women injured by some-
one who had seen or read
pornographic material to
sue the maker or seller of
that material.
In 1988, in a ruling
that expanded legal pro-
tections for parody and
satire, the Supreme Court
unanimously overturned
a $150,000 award that the
Rev. Jerry Falwell had won
against Hustler magazine
and its publisher, Larry
Flynt.
In 2002, the Salt
Lake
City
Olympics
came to a close, the same
day Canada won its first
hockey gold in 50 years
and three cross-country
skiers were thrown out
of the games for using a
performance-enhancing
drug.
In 2011, Discovery,
the world’s most traveled
spaceship, thundered into
orbit for the final time,
heading toward the Inter-
national Space Station on
a journey marking the be-
ginning of the end of the
shuttle era.
In 2015, the Justice
Department announced
that George Zimmerman,
the former neighborhood
watch volunteer who fa-
tally shot Trayvon Martin
in a 2012 confrontation,
would not face federal
charges.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE