A16
East Oregonian
PEANUTS
COFFEE BREAK
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
DEAR ABBY
BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ
Empty nest reveals lack
of connection for couple
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
B.C.
PICKLES
BEETLE BAILEY
BY LYNN JOHNSTON
BY MASTROIANNI AND HART
BY BRIAN CRANE
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Dear Abby: I got pregnant at
and Dysfunctional Families
15 and had my oldest daughter
(adultchildren.org) and attend
at 16. I met my husband at 18,
some of the meetings. They are
and went on to have four more
sometimes held online, so you
daughters. I have been with him
could do it on a computer.
for more than 30 years (I just
Dear Abby: I am a widow
turned 49).
with three serious illnesses, one
My girls are living their own
J EANNE
of which is potentially deadly.
lives now. The thing is, now that
P
HILLIPS
I hesitate to confide in some of
I’m alone with my husband, I
ADVICE
my friends because the major-
have come to discover that we
ity of them go into a litany of
have nothing in common. I want
their illnesses. For the most part,
to leave him, but I have no mon-
their ailments are common and require
ey, no car and no job.
My husband ignores me and drinks a just a small change in diet or perhaps
lot. When we visit family, it’s a free-for-all losing some weight. What makes it un-
drunk fest for him. I just don’t have the comfortable for me is they act like they
energy at my age to deal with a drunk. I are in a life-threatening situation, which
dealt all my life with an alcoholic father they aren’t.
I find it increasingly difficult to em-
and I don’t want to do it anymore. How
do I begin to rebuild my life and start pathize with their common colds, achy
joints, etc. How can I explain to these
over? — At A Crossroads In Ohio
Dear At A Crossroads: I agree that re- folks how much they upset me? For the
building your life is something you need most part, they are good people, just
to do for yourself. The surest way to ac- very self-centered. — Challenged In New
complish it would be to get a job. This Hampshire
Dear Challenged: It may be unreal-
may eventually equip you to survive on
your own. If you need transportation, istic to expect friends who don’t know
ask your daughters for help, or take pub- about your serious medical conditions
to empathize with you or stop complain-
lic transportation.
If you prefer not to attend “fam- ing about their aches and pains. Rather
ily” gatherings, have your husband go than say their complaints are annoying,
alone. Your father’s alcoholism may have tell them the truth about what’s going
contributed to the fact that you mar- on with you. After that, try to remember
ried someone with an alcohol problem, that regardless of how minor, every per-
thinking it was “normal.” If that’s the son’s health challenges are important to
case, consider finding a nearby chap- them, even if on the grand scale of things
ter of Al-Anon (al-anon.org/info) or they don’t seem that way to you.
BY MORT WALKER
DAYS GONE BY
100 years ago — 1922
GARFIELD
BY JIM DAVIS
Will the Chinese tong war which has been
breaking out at intervals during this past
winter and spring extend to Pendleton? That is
a question local Chinese residents are asking,
and their fears are aroused. Their suspicions
were excited early this week when an oriental
of Japanese nativity arrived in Pendleton. He
said he was a cook and started looking for a
job. His inquiries caused the Chinese in the
local colony to become suspicious, and they
sought help from the police, and told of their
fears. Chief W. R. Taylor has advised the son
of Japan to depart from Pendleton, but the
Nipponese declares that he is not interested
in tong battles and is merely looking for work.
50 years ago — 1972
BLONDIE
BY DEAN YOUNG AND JOHN MARSHALL
City councilman Mel Lyon doesn’t like
the erosion motorcycles are causing on the
hill behind the Milton city park. “We’ve got
a nice park there, and lots of people use it.
We don’t want to see the hill slide into the
park.” He also referred to many complaints
by residents about noise the bikes make.
Bob Talbott agreed that the hill is becoming
eroded. “But bike riders are just as entitled
to a place for their hobby as anyone else,”
he said. “I suggest that we close off the hill
behind the park and let them use the hill west
of the water tank.” This suggestion met with
council approval.
25 years ago — 1997
In an innovative arrangement with
the region’s short haul railroad, 3 million
bushels of grain will move from five East-
ern Washington country elevator sites to a
Wallula barge loading facility. Touted as
a grain shuttle, grower groups in St. John,
Endicott, Whitman and Columbia coun-
ties have agreed to use the rail-barge link.
Dave Gordan, manager of Walla Walla Grain
Growers, a growers’ cooperative, is credited
with developing the idea. The shuttle will
move grain that currently goes by truck and
will provide additional revenue to help ensure
the short line railroad stays in business, he
said. Mark Blazer, regional vice-president of
Watco and Companies, which operates the
Palouse River/Coulee City Railroad, said the
short line railroad has been missing out on
grain movement because of lack of cars from
Union Pacific. As part of the shuttle program,
however, two complete unit trains have been
purchased and refurbished.
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 June 21, 1788, the
United States Constitu-
tion went into effect as
New Hampshire became
the ninth state to ratify it.
In 1834, Cyrus Hall
McCormick received a
patent for his reaping ma-
chine.
In 1954, the American
Cancer Society presented
a study to the Ameri-
can Medical Association
meeting in San Francisco
which found that men
who regularly smoked
cigarettes died at a con-
siderably higher rate than
non-smokers.
In 1964, civil rights
workers Michael H. Schw-
erner, Andrew Goodman
and James E. Chaney were
slain in Philadelphia, Mis-
sissippi; their bodies were
found buried in an earth-
en dam six weeks later.
(Forty-one years later on
this date in 2005, Edgar
Ray Killen, an 80-year-old
former Ku Klux Klans-
man, was found guilty
of manslaughter; he was
sentenced to 60 years in
prison, where he died in
January 2018.)
In 1973, the U.S. Su-
preme Court, in Miller
v. California, ruled that
states may ban materi-
als found to be obscene
according to local stan-
dards.
In 1982, a jury in Wash-
ington, D.C. found John
Hinckley Jr. not guilty by
reason of insanity in the
shootings of President
Ronald Reagan and three
other men.
In 1989, a sharply di-
vided Supreme Court
ruled that burning the
American flag as a form
of political protest was
protected by the First
Amendment.
In 1997, the WNBA
made its debut as the New
York Liberty defeated the
host Los Angeles Sparks
67-57.
In 2011, the Food and
Drug Administration an-
nounced that cigarette
packs in the U.S. would
have to carry macabre
images that included rot-
ting teeth and gums, dis-
eased lungs and a sewn-up
corpse of a smoker as part
of a graphic campaign
aimed at discouraging
Americans from lighting
up.
PHOEBE AND HER UNICORN
BY DANA SIMPSON
BIG NATE
BY LINCOLN PEIRCE