A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Woman’s patience with
man’s addiction runs out
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
Dear Abby: I am currently in
Dear Abby: I have been with
a relationship that is approach-
my boyfriend for five years. We
ing the seven-year mark. We
do not live together, nor do
dated in our 20s and rekindled
we share any children. He has
in our 40s. We live together, but
been a smoker since he was very
I’m afraid we are growing apart.
young, and when we got togeth-
Due to health issues, I don’t
er, he said he would like to quit.
work; he works second shift. I
Well, it still hasn’t happened.
J EANNE
cry easily.
As the child of an addict (al-
P HILLIPS
When there are disagree-
cohol) I understand how diffi-
ADVICE
ments, we can usually work it
cult quitting can be. Luckily, my
out. I think about the discus-
father quit cold turkey 20 years
sion later and have more to say
ago and never relapsed. Abby, I
or ask. He then tells me we have already
do not want a future with a smoker.
Am I within my rights to put my talked about it and he’s not discussing
foot down? I brought up quitting this it again. He says I “overanalyze every-
week. He became very defensive and thing.” It’s not that. I just have another
made me seem like a monster for ask- question or something I left out.
His refusal to talk makes me feel as
ing for a real timeline about quitting. He
struggles with anxiety and thinks try- though things are unresolved. Please
ing to quit will send him over the edge. help me to understand if I am too de-
How do I navigate future conversations? manding and should just leave it alone.
— Unanswered In Illinois
— Choking In Pennsylvania
Dear Unanswered: It isn’t “too de-
Dear Choking: Tell your boyfriend
you care about him and about his health, manding” to want to discuss something
but you can no longer tolerate watching further. If revisiting the issue would re-
him damage it because of his tobacco ad- kindle the disagreement, your partner is
diction. If he doesn’t already know that far too controlling. If you have a ques-
the smell on his breath, body and cloth- tion, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t
ing is offensive, point it out, and also that be able to ask without it leading to con-
secondhand smoke is unhealthy for you. flict. To deny you that opportunity seems
Then tell him he has a choice to make: disrespectful.
Give it more time after a disagree-
It’s the smoking or you. The decision
is his. There are many effective smok- ment and decide if it’s really necessary to
ing cessation programs available, and he revisit the subject. When you do, avoid
should discuss them with his physician, reapproaching it in a way that could be
who may be delighted to know he is in- perceived as an invitation to another ar-
gument.
terested.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
100 years ago — 1922
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
BY JIM DAVIS
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
A simple definite plan whereby taxpayers
may cut school costs approximately $75,000 in
Umatilla county was placed before the meeting
at the court house yesterday afternoon by W.
W. Green, county superintendent of schools,
during the sessions held under the auspices of
the state tax investigating commission. Mr.
Green’s plan is to eliminate several high schools
in the smaller towns of the county which he
informed the taxpayers will cut expenses. “At
Umatilla the high school has eight pupils, and
the cost per pupil of operating that high school
is $650,” Mr. Green said. “There is a good
gravel road between Hermiston and Umatilla,
and wouldn’t it be good business to take these
eight pupils from the Umatilla high school and
educate them in the Hermiston school?” He
suggested that the same thing at Echo and Stan-
field be practiced and also indicated that a great
saving could be made in the north end of the
county by the same practice.
50 years ago — 1972
A hearing has been set for May 2 by the
Pendleton City Council on closing the railroad
crossing at SW 5th near Frazer. A 25-day test
closure that ended April 6 brought comments
both for and against the closure. The hearing is
intended to give everyone in the area a chance
to state their views. Closure of the crossing was
recommended some months ago after a study of
all crossings in Pendleton. The purpose of the
closure is to improve safety.
25 years ago — 1997
For the past five years, Pendleton High
School’s Life Skills students have participated
in a variety of odd jobs. This spring they are
selling “No-Stink-Mink” fertilizer, thanks to
job coach Pam Wachter. The fertilizer, a natu-
ral by-product of minks, is “94 percent nitrogen
and all organic,” Wachter pointed out. And it
really doesn’t stink — unlike the minks. Local
mink rancher Brad Wheeler used a tractor
provided by the FFA at the high school to make
a manageable pile of the fertilizer produced
by more than 1,000 minks at his area farm.
Students from Life Skills Class shovel the prod-
uct into buckets provided by Burger King of
Pendleton and Hermiston. The journalism class
at PHS designed fluorescent orange labels. The
fertilizer, available at PGG or through PHS,
sells for $3 per bucket. The class will make a
percentage of every bucket sold that will help
fund a class field trip to Portland.
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 April 19, 1775, the
American
Revolution-
ary War began with the
battles of Lexington and
Concord.
In 1865, a funeral was
held at the White House
for President Abraham
Lincoln, assassinated five
days earlier.
In 1897, the first Bos-
ton Marathon was held;
winner John J. McDer-
mott ran the course in two
hours, 55 minutes and 10
seconds.
In 1912, a special sub-
committee of the Senate
Commerce
Committee
opened hearings in New
York into the Titanic di-
saster.
In 1977, the Supreme
Court, in Ingraham v.
Wright, ruled 5-4 that
even severe spanking of
schoolchildren by faculty
members did not violate
the Eighth Amendment
ban against cruel and un-
usual punishment.
In 1993, the 51-day
siege at the Branch Da-
vidian compound near
Waco, Texas, ended as fire
destroyed the structure
after federal agents began
smashing their way in;
about 80 people, including
sect leader David Koresh,
were killed.
In 2013, a 19-year-old
college student wanted
in the Boston Marathon
bombings, was taken into
custody after a manhunt
that had left the city vir-
tually paralyzed; his older
brother and alleged ac-
complice, 26-year-old, was
killed earlier in a furious
attempt to escape police.
In 2015, Freddie Gray,
a 25-year-old Black man,
died a week after suffer-
ing a spinal cord injury in
the back of a Baltimore
police van while he was
handcuffed and shack-
led. (Six police officers
were charged; three were
acquitted and the city’s
top prosecutor eventually
dropped the three remain-
ing cases.)
In 2018, Raul Castro
turned over Cuba’s presi-
dency to Miguel Mario
Diaz-Canel
Bermudez,
the first non-Castro to
hold Cuba’s top govern-
ment office since the 1959
revolution led by Fidel
Castro and his younger
brother Raul.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE