A12
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Thursday, March 3, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Drug abuse, bad finances
derail life of a caregiver
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
for their grandkids throughout
Dear Abby: I’m conflicted
the year, especially at holidays.
about a relationship I have de-
They also buy multiple gifts for
veloped with a 77-year-old lady
my husband and me. We are
I’ll call “Martha.” I have been
drowning in too much stuff and
acting as her caregiver.
constantly battling clutter in our
For the first three years, I
home.
was addicted to pain pills, which
None of these gifts are from
Martha and I both get. She ex-
J EANNE
our family’s wish lists, nor are
pects me to be there every free
P HILLIPS
they particularly thoughtful.
minute, which, under different
ADvIce
In years past, I have asked my
circumstances, would be fine.
mother-in-law to limit her pur-
But I have a husband and a dog.
chases to three gifts — one toy,
I have since gotten sober, while
Martha is still strung out. She threatens one outfit, one book — with no success. I
to destroy my life if I won’t do what she also have pleaded with her to stop buying
wants, and I’m scared to quit because we me small knickknacks, and have suggest-
ed more experience-based gifts. Still, year
have loans together.
How do I start having a healthy bal- after year, we come home with a bunch
ance with her and my life? Now that I’m of stuff we neither need nor want.
How can I get my in-laws to respect
sober, I realize how badly she has been
treating me the whole time. Can you our wishes? To make matters worse, my
please advise me how to distance from husband becomes defensive of his par-
ents when I get frustrated, even though he
her? — Sober Woman In Georgia
Dear Sober Woman: For the sake of fundamentally agrees with me. How do
your sobriety, your relationship with I help his parents understand that what
Martha must end. Do not allow yourself they are really giving us is a fight? And, if
to be blackmailed into continuing one none of them care about my wishes, how
with her. She needs to find another care- do I get past feeling disrespected and dis-
giver, and you need to find another job. regarded? — Buried In Stuff
Dear Buried: By now you should have
Because your name is on those loans, you
may be obligated to pay them off if she realized that your mother-in-law, “Lady
doesn’t. This is why you should discuss Bountiful,” isn’t going to change. You
this mess with an attorney. That Martha will spend less time being frustrated if
still abuses her meds means you may have you let go of your resentment about her
spending sprees. My heartfelt advice to
some leverage.
Dear Abby: My husband and I argue you is to develop a sense of humor where
about returning gifts his parents give us. she’s concerned. If you can’t use her gifts,
They are well-off and buy excessively donate, regift or sell them.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
100 years ago — 1922
GARFIELD
BY JIM DAVIS
Pendletonians young and old who own
dogs had better get busy and pay their city
licenses because if they don’t the municipal-
ity is planning to have a vicious dogcatcher
go the rounds during the night and grab all of
the dogs for which the 1922 licenses have not
been secured. “Ten licenses have been issued
so far,” Judge Fitz Gerald told the council last
night, “and there are about 1,600 dogs in this
town. That means we are permitting about
1,590 dogs to chase around without licenses.
I think it’s time to put a stop to this sort of
thing.” Mayor Hartman suggested that the
identity of the official chaser of canines be
kept secret. That will make it hard for the
pups to dodge when the round-up of outlaws
begins.
50 years ago — 1972
BLONDIE
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
Area cattlemen — alarmed by an outbreak
of calf rustling — cast a wide loop today for
“two-legged coyotes.” Lincoln Porter, Pilot
Rock rancher, added a $500 personal reward
for the rustlers, who stole four of his calves,
to the $1,000 reward being offered by the
Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. Besides the
calves stolen from Porter’s feed yard at Nye
Junction, at least five other calves have been
rustled from ranches on Butter Creek the last
few days. The calves are only about a week
old. They weigh 60 to 100 pounds and at the
sales yard would bring $50 to $75. Porter said
cow-calf operations like his usually won’t sell
the calves until they attain a weight of 500
pounds or so. At that time, the calves each
could bring $180 or more.
25 years ago — 1997
Good news for mushroom hunters could
mean bad news for law enforcement officers
this year. With three significant fires in the
Blue Mountains last August, those burns
should produce healthy patches of morel
mushrooms this spring. But since those were
the major burns in all the Northwest, hordes
of hunters will probably concentrate on the
area southeast of Ukiah and northwest of
Sumpter. Regardless of how the fire season
goes, officials from the three national forests,
state police and sheriffs’ offices brace them-
selves for the influx of pickers every year —
particularly commercial pickers that converge
in camps that can swell to hold more than 100
people. Problems stem from turf wars during
the season, which usually begins in early
April and can continue to the first of August.
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 March 3, 1974, a
Turkish Airlines DC-10
crashed shortly after take-
off from Orly Airport in
Paris, killing all 346 peo-
ple on board.
In 1791, Congress
passed a measure taxing
distilled spirits; it was the
first internal revenue act
in U.S. history.
In 1845, Florida be-
came the 27th state.
In 1849, the U.S. De-
partment of the Interior
was established.
In 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln signed
a measure creating the
National Academy of Sci-
ences.
In 1931, “The Star-
Spangled Banner” be-
came the national anthem
of the United States as
President Herbert Hoover
signed a congressional
resolution.
In 1943, in London’s
East End, 173 people died
in a crush of bodies at
the Bethnal Green tube
station, which was being
used as a wartime air raid
shelter.
In 1945, the Allies fully
secured the Philippine
capital of Manila from
Japanese forces during
World War II.
In 1960, Lucille Ball
filed for divorce from her
husband, Desi Arnaz, a
day after they had finished
filming the last episode of
“The Lucille Ball-Desi
Arnaz Show.”
In 1966, death claim-
ed
actors
William
Frawley at age 79 and
Alice Pearce at age 48 in
Hollywood.
In 1969, Apollo 9 blast-
ed off from Cape Kennedy
on a mission to test the lu-
nar module.
In 1991, motorist Rod-
ney King was severely
beaten by Los Angeles
police officers in a scene
captured on amateur
video. Twenty-five people
were killed when a United
Airlines Boeing 737-200
crashed while approach-
ing the Colorado Springs
airport.
In 2020, in a surprise
move, the Federal Reserve
cut its benchmark inter-
est rate by a half-point, its
largest cut in more than
a decade, to support the
economy in the face of the
spreading coronavirus.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE