A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Family’s gift is too much
for their hospice volunteer
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
Dear Abby: For a few years,
Dear Abby: My husband of
I volunteered to tend to an
55 years never talks to me any-
elderly woman through a
more. Unless I initiate conver-
hospice
organization.
My
sation, he sits in silence, staring
role was to visit with her while
off into space. He says he has
her son ran errands or enjoyed
“nothing to say.” It drives me
an evening of entertainment. I
crazy. I suppose, after all these
grew fond of her and her fam-
years, anything he says has been
J EANNE
ily.
said before, but still, it leaves me
P HILLIPS
For my 70th birthday, her
feeling lonely and unloved.
ADVICE
daughter, son and daughter-in-
When I tell him how it makes
law hosted an at-home dinner
me feel, he says it isn’t the case,
in my honor. It was good fun.
but he never changes. We don’t
In addition to a tasty dinner and home- have TV, and I can read and do cross-
made birthday cake, there were presents: word puzzles by myself for just so long. I
wine, gag wine glass and a birthday card really look forward to the evening, when
with a gift card enclosed. The wine is I can start drinking my whiskey, so I have
long gone, and I have used the wine glass a little pleasure in my life. I don’t have
ever since.
more than a couple of drinks because I
I left the gift card in the birthday understand the health risks, but tell me,
card and set it aside. I recently wanted what else can I do? — Talking To Myself
to buy a $20 coffee mug online, so I In Texas
pulled out the gift card and was shocked
Dear Talking: What you can do is quit
to see the value of the card is almost drinking to ease your loneliness and get
four times more than the mug I fancied. out of the house. Socialize with others
I feel the gift is too much. How do I at least once a week. Look into oppor-
gracefully return the very generous gift? tunities to volunteer in your community.
— Overwhelmed In Washington
Take your husband with you if you can
Dear Overwhelmed: Your heart is in pry him out of his chair. The only thing
the right place, but please do not reject you should NOT do is continue on the
that family’s gift of gratitude for what path you’re on.
you did for their mother — and for them
P.S. If your husband’s passivity is new
— during a difficult time. To do other- behavior, consider going with him to the
wise would be a breach of etiquette. Your doctor so he can be screened for depres-
acts of kindness are worth every penny, sion. (While you’re there, it might not be
and you are deserving of what was given a bad idea for you to be screened for it
to you.
as well.)
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
100 years ago — 1922
GARFIELD
BY JIM DAVIS
Beginning Friday morning a branch
office of the Oregon Tourists’ and informa-
tion bureau for Eastern Oregon will be estab-
lished here. The office will be on the first floor
of the Elks building and will be in the charge
of Miss Mellie Parker, assistant to Secre-
tary C. I. Barr of the Pendleton Commercial
Association. The property of the old Eastern
Oregon Auto club has been taken over by the
new office, and will be used in giving service.
Maps and folders will be used for the accom-
modation of tourists and local people. Infor-
mation on the condition of roads will be kept
in as up-to-date a manner as possible, and this
service will be strengthened by the practice of
cooperation with other similar organizations.
50 years ago — 1972
BLONDIE
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
The Hermiston plant of Mayflower Farms
that has been processing half a million pounds
of milk a week is closing its processing
plant, and the plant will be used as a depot
for Darigold Products, manager Herman
Plass announced this week. Plass, who has
managed the plant since 1941, will retire the
first of the month, and Ben Coombes, 15-year
employee, will manage the plant. The plant
employs 17 people. Under the depot execu-
tives are studying the possibility of convert-
ing the plant into a cheddar cheese operation.
Plass says he can see a much larger dairy farm
development in this region because of the
increasing availability of feed.
25 years ago — 1997
Kenn Evans calls the Boer the beef goat. He
believes the Boer will do for the goat industry
what the Charolais did for the cattle indus-
try: put a tremendous amount of size into the
animals. And that means more money to the
producer. With some Boer pumped into the
bloodline, kids at weaning age will weigh
from 10 to 12 pounds more, bringing another
$15 per kid back to the producer. But here’s
the best part, Evans says: The market for
goat meat is already established. And with
the increase in the Northwest’s Hispanic and
ethnic populations, it can only grow. Evans
maintains about 150 head of Boers and sells
everything he produces, meat animals and
breeding stock, right off his ranch, Elite Boer
Goats. He’s getting about $1.25 a pound live
weight, less than the prices of the late 1980s
and early 1990s when the first Boers came into
this country from South Africa. “The whole
thing boils down to one simple fact: The Boer
goat industry is based on meat goat prices.”
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 May 17, 1954, a
unanimous U.S. Supreme
Court handed down its
Brown v. Board of Edu-
cation of Topeka decision
which held that racially
segregated public schools
were inherently unequal,
and therefore unconstitu-
tional.
In 1946, President Har-
ry S. Truman seized con-
trol of the nation’s rail-
roads, delaying — but not
preventing — a threatened
strike by engineers and
trainmen.
In 1973, a special com-
mittee convened by the
U.S. Senate began its tele-
vised hearings into the
Watergate scandal.
In 1980, rioting that
claimed 18 lives erupted in
Miami’s Liberty City after
an all-white jury in Tam-
pa acquitted four former
Miami police officers of
fatally beating Black in-
surance executive Arthur
McDuffie.
In 1987, 37 American
sailors were killed when
an Iraqi warplane at-
tacked the U.S. Navy frig-
ate Stark in the Persian
Gulf. (Iraq apologized for
the attack, calling it a mis-
take, and paid more than
$27 million in compensa-
tion.)
In 1996, President Bill
Clinton signed a measure
requiring neighborhood
notification when sex of-
fenders move in.
In 2004, Massachu-
setts became the first state
to allow same-sex mar-
riages.
In 2010, the Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 that
young people serving life
prison terms should have
“a meaningful opportuni-
ty to obtain release” pro-
vided they didn’t kill their
victims.
In 2015, a shoot-
out erupted between
bikers and police out-
side a restaurant in
Waco, Texas, leaving
nine of
the bikers
dead and 20 people in-
jured.
In 2020, New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
was tested for the coro-
navirus on live TV as
he announced that all
people in the state who
were experiencing flu-like
symptoms were eligible
for tests.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE