B6 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2022
COFFEE BREAK
‘Amazing’ connection with married man destined to fizzle out
contacted me. By this time I knew he
was married with four older children
(all but one over 18). We started out
just talking, then realized we could
talk to each other about anything. We
not only knew we had good physical
chemistry, but suddenly found we had
formed an intellectual and emotional
connection unlike anything either of us
had experienced before. I did feel guilty
but, at the same time, I don’t subscribe
to societal norms regarding monog-
amy, and neither does he.
He wants to keep his family intact
while the two youngest finish school.
Also, he and his wife don’t have a typ-
ical love relationship — it was an ar-
ranged marriage. We have the most
DEAR ABBY: Right before the
COVID pandemic began, I was work-
ing in D.C. and met a man who lives
there. We had amazing chemistry, but
soon afterward I was no longer able to
travel. We stayed in touch for a bit, but
out of the blue he stopped communicat-
ing. I didn’t think much of it because I
was stuck back in the Midwest, so there
was nowhere for the relationship to go.
Two years later, out of the blue, he
amazing conversations and have fallen
hard for each other.
I suspect, however, that at the end of
the day, I may be hung up on a fairytale
that will never happen and there will
always be a reason for him not to leave
his marriage. Any advice is appreciated.
— STRUCK BY LOVE
DEAR STRUCK: I’m glad to offer it:
run while you still can. The odds of this
working out the way you dream of are
low. If you follow my advice, I won’t be
reading a letter from you in the next 10
years or so bemoaning the end of a re-
lationship that was destined from the
beginning to go nowhere.
DEAR ABBY: My wife of 15 years is a
cat lover. When we were first married,
she begged me to allow the cat she had at
her mother’s house to live with us. I re-
luctantly agreed on the condition that the
litter box was tended to and the cat would
not be allowed on the kitchen counters.
We are now living in a house instead
of a trailer home. I’m surrounded by
more than 12 cats, and my wife does a
terrible job of cleaning the litter boxes.
Our house and everything we own
smells terrible. I have asked her repeat-
edly to find homes for some of the cats,
and every time it becomes a fight. I love
my wife, but I can no longer tolerate
the nasty smell and constantly having
my life affected by these cats. I don’t
know what to do. — OVER IT IN MIN-
NESOTA
DEAR OVER IT: Tell your cat-loving
wife that this isn’t what you signed on
for. She has reneged on your agree-
ment. Explain, as calmly as possible,
that although you love her, you are no
longer willing to live in a dirty, urine-
soaked house and it’s you or the cats —
and be prepared to leave. Nothing will
change unless you draw the line. If she
agrees, it may take a forensic cleaning
crew to get the house back in shape.
You have my sympathy.
█
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren,
also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded
by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear
Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box
69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Gross or great? Fancy butter boards soar as shortage looms
with Vegetables.”
“I think the draw is that it’s super
customizable,” Doiron told The Associ-
ated Press. “You can be so creative with
it, and people are always looking for
something they’ve never seen before.
It’s a low effort way to have some fun
with food.”
Side note: She has a plant named
Butter.
Doiron went viral with her busy
butter board and hand swipes with
thick, crusty slices of bread. Copycat
videos under the #butterboard hashtag
have since racked up more than 240
million views on TikTok. Searches re-
lated to the topic have reached 10 bil-
lion on the platform, with decorated
mountains of butter also going strong
on Instagram.
And the boards themselves have
spawned sweet sister versions, vegan
cousins and ice cream aunts and uncles.
Magnolia Bakery posted a video
of buttercream frosting being spread
artfully on a cake stand with pieces of
cookie, brownies, rainbow sprinkles
and other goodies for swiping. Tooth-
picks were involved, as opposed to all
hands in. Ben & Jerry’s filmed a frozen
version.
Private chefs are fielding lots of re-
quests from clients now looking for
spreadables on boards. Kevin Hart’s
Los Angeles chef, Kai Chase, said she
created several of the boards for him as
BY LEANNE ITALIE
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Legit gross or crazy
delicious?
Butter boards, the polarizing step-
child of charcuterie, have taken TikTok
to new food-craze heights as some hor-
rified safety and nutrition experts look
on. And now, heading into the holi-
days, the boards are landing on tables
as quick, inexpensive alternatives to the
meat- and fancy cheese-laden OG de-
spite a winter butter shortage projected
for the U.S. that could drive up prices
and make it more difficult to find in su-
permarkets.
“I wish they’d just go away. The idea
of smearing something on a wood
board with other food, sharing that
with other people and having them all
dip into it. It’s a bacteria heaven,” said
Laura Cipullo, a registered dietitian in
New York City.
Justine Doiron, who creates food
content as @justine-snacks on TikTok
and Instagram, got the butter board
party started on Sept. 15. She is cred-
ited with coining the term in a video
that has her spreading it with abandon
on a cutting board and topping it with,
among many other things, edible flow-
ers.
She got the idea — jazzed up but-
ter on wood — from chef Joshua Mc-
Fadden’s 2017 cookbook with Martha
Holmberg, “Six Seasons: A New Way
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
my video was swiping it because I only
had 28 seconds. But I think just like a
charcuterie board, serve it with a knife,
let people serve themselves. But it’s re-
ally up to personal preference,” she said.
Suzie Cornell in Boca Raton, Flor-
ida, brought along a lox and cream
cheese board to break the Yom Kippur
fast in early October when her fam-
ily got together with a small group of
friends. Assembling food on a board
(in her case, stone) appeals for a simple
reason: “I don’t cook. I mean, literally, I
don’t cook.”
Cornell tossed out the communal
swipe situation and went for cutlery
because the hand-swiping grosses her
out.
In Salina, Ohio, Emily Westerfield
has a small catering company that spe-
cializes in boards and bites. Boards
smeared with spreads and toppings are
on the tongues of many clients these
days.
“I’m getting requests like crazy. A
friend who’s hosting her book club
asked for a cream cheese board since
they meet in the morning,” she said.
Darin Detwiler, an assistant teaching
professor of food policy at Northeast-
ern University and an expert on food
industry regulation, sees the poten-
tial for pathogens everywhere when it
comes to butter boards. Wood boards
crack and those cracks can’t adequately
be cleaned, he said.
Valerie Allen/Contributed Photo
Butter boards, the polarizing stepchild
of charcuterie, have taken TikTok to new
food-craze heights.
a splurge.
While some eateries have been
smearing butter on boards for years,
Magnolia, for one, has no plans to sell
boards of its own. As for the notion of
promoting sugar overload, Magnolia’s
CEO and chief baking officer, Bobbie
Lloyd, said: “We believe that modera-
tion is the key to a sweet, balanced life.”
Doiron has some butter board re-
grets, food handling wise, though she’s
reluctant to put the “yuck in anybody’s
yum.”
“I prefer a knife. The big mistake in
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
46/56
Kennewick
46/56
St. Helens
47/57
48/58
Condon
48/60
50/58
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Partly cloudy
Rather cloudy
Times of clouds
and sun
Showers
around; cooler
Clouds and sun;
chilly
56 35
45 25
44 19
Eugene
5
0
0
47/61
58 39
47 28
44 24
8
0
0
La Grande
35 59 41
Comfort Index™ 10
Enterprise
5
8
35 57 40
Comfort Index™
9
46 26
42 24
9
0
1
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 90°
Low: 1°
Wettest: 0.60”
50°
18°
51°
27°
53°
31°
0.00
0.33
0.53
5.71
7.39
0.00
1.30
1.30
10.93
13.30
0.10
1.84
1.75
20.35
18.62
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
35%
SSW at 4 to 8 mph
2.9
0.06
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
1% of capacity
24% of capacity
8% of capacity
34% of capacity
5% of capacity
1% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
Burnt River near Unity
Umatilla River near Gibbon
Minam River at Minam
Powder River near Richland
Plant City, Fla.
Daniel, Wyo.
Albion, Neb.
OREGON
High: 65°
Low: 11°
Wettest: 0.01”
Hermiston
Burns
Seaside
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Florence
On Oct. 29, 1991, a storm dumped up to
a foot of snow in Utah. Another storm
dropped nearly 5 inches of rain on Little
Rock, Ark. A third storm sank boats along
the Massachusetts coast.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
7:27 a.m.
5:44 p.m.
12:44 p.m.
8:49 p.m.
SUN.
7:28 a.m.
5:43 p.m.
1:44 p.m.
9:59 p.m.
MOON PHASES
770 cfs
1 cfs
12 cfs
56 cfs
72 cfs
9 cfs
First
Oct 31
Full
Nov 8
Last
Nov 16
Beaver Marsh
Powers
50/62
New
Nov 23
47/64
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
29/59
Frenchglen
Paisley
31/61
27/62
29/60
42/68
Klamath Falls
26/61
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Hi/Lo/W
56/51/r
61/39/c
59/38/pc
61/48/c
59/27/pc
62/49/c
61/48/c
54/33/pc
59/42/c
61/45/c
62/45/c
58/48/c
61/47/c
59/33/pc
55/38/pc
64/49/c
61/29/c
61/25/pc
Hi/Lo/W
56/41/sh
56/33/c
65/42/c
57/45/c
62/33/c
58/45/r
58/41/r
58/38/c
58/40/c
55/42/r
64/43/pc
59/43/sh
62/43/pc
60/36/pc
58/37/c
66/43/c
62/33/c
64/33/c
30/60
Lakeview
24/61
McDermitt
25/61
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
Grand View
Arock
28/60
28/64
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
30/60
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
35/59
45/68
48/61
28/63
28/62
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
25/59
29/59
26/60
Roseburg
Ontario
30/59
Burns
Brothers
44/62
Coos Bay
Huntington
27/57
35/61
Oakridge
29/54
31/57
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
31/59
35/61
Council
26/57
John Day
34/62
Sisters
48/62
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
28/57
Baker City
Redmond
46/55
47/58
Halfway
Granite
27/54
45/57
47/60
48/62
59 38
8
Corvallis
38/64
45/61
Newport
Enterprise
35/57
35/59
Monument
42/60
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
9
Elgin
36/59
La Grande
41/57
Maupin
Comfort Index™
47/62
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
45/57
Lewiston
40/59
Hood River
42/64
45/57
26 57 33
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
45/64
Vancouver
46/57
TIllamook
Baker City
Detwiler went into his field after los-
ing his 16-month-old son in the 1993
E.coli outbreak tied to contaminated
beef at Jack in the Box restaurants.
More than 700 people fell ill in four
states and three other children died as
well.
“Personally, I would use a plastic
board, something that can be sanitized
in a dishwasher,” he said. “The second
hidden danger is the idea of so many
hands in a butter board. People think
big. People don’t think about doing
small butter boards. They’re think-
ing about doing these big beautiful
displays. If any of those hands aren’t
washed, you’re just inviting opportu-
nity.”
Paul Zahn, an entertaining expert
in Los Angeles, has a workaround for
that: “jarcuterie.”
“Make individual jars or boards for
guests,” he said. “That way people keep
their germs to themselves and you’re
giving them portion control.”
Some decry the fatty nature of butter
in general and the almighty devil, bad
cholesterol. Moderation would help
there, too. Less fraught spreadables are
also being used, including hummus.
“It’s kind of a silly trend in a way,”
said Lori Shemek, a nutritionist in Dal-
las. “I saw one comedian who said,
‘Oh, butter boards. That’s like butter on
bread.’”
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
59/49/c
56/52/r
57/40/c
68/40/pc
55/51/c
55/49/r
59/33/pc
64/50/c
64/45/c
58/50/r
62/49/c
62/36/c
64/44/c
60/49/c
52/46/c
60/48/c
57/37/c
62/50/c
Hi/Lo/W
62/45/c
57/42/r
55/36/c
62/45/c
56/43/r
53/38/sh
61/41/pc
66/43/pc
64/44/pc
59/43/r
59/43/r
58/34/c
59/44/r
59/45/r
57/38/c
59/44/c
56/34/pc
62/43/pc
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
43
29
54
32
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
50
37
58
37
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
45
29
55
37
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Partly sunny
Mostly cloudy
55
38
64
46
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Rather cloudy
Rather cloudy
57
33
59
41
LAST CHANCE!
for discounted season passes
Prices increase after October 31!
Purchase:
online at anthonylakes.com
in la grande at the Mountain Works
in baker city at The Trailhead or kicks sportswear
AnthonyLakes.com