The BulleTin • Thursday, OcTOBer 21, 2021 A7
DEAR ABBY
Write to Dear Abby online at dearabby.com
or by mail at P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Dear Abby: Over the week-
end, while I was cleaning and
reorganizing our bedroom,
I found the engagement ring
my boyfriend plans on pro-
posing to me with. I didn’t
know he was planning this,
and I’m thrilled that he is go-
ing to. I haven’t even hinted
that I know anything is going
on because I don’t want to
ruin the surprise more than I
already have.
My problem is, I hate the
ring he chose. It’s beautiful,
but it’s so big. I like dainty
jewelry, and it is the complete
opposite of anything I would
ever choose for myself. What
do I do? I love this man with
my whole heart. He’s my best
friend, and we have been
there for each other through
the lowest of lows and the
highest of highs. We have
great communication and al-
ways keep things completely
honest between us. I sup-
pose I should suck it up. He
chose this ring for me, and I
don’t want to hurt his feelings.
Please tell me what to do.
— Disappointed in Illinois
Dear Disappointed: Con-
gratulations on your up-
coming engagement. Your
problem is unique because
most of the letters I receive
about engagement rings come
from women who are disap-
pointed that the stone is so
small. However, if the size
of the stone in the ring your
boyfriend is giving you makes
you uncomfortable, your re-
sponse — after an enthusias-
tic “YES!!!” — could be, “But,
darling, this stone is so large
we will have to hire an armed
guard to accompany me if
I wear it outside the house.
Are you sure it’s WISE for
me to wear this every day?
I would be very happy with
something more modest, you
know.” (It’s worth a try.)
Dear Abby: I have always
been too kind and polite. I
give money I shouldn’t, say
yes to favors I don’t want to
do and keep my mouth shut
in situations where I should
speak up. My best friend once
told me I shouldn’t say what
she needed to hear, but only
what she wanted to hear.
I have been in therapy for
two years now, and have fi-
nally reached the point where
I’m learning to say no. I love
that when I meet strangers, I
can use the skills I’m learning
and be more assertive.
My friends and family are
having a hard time with it. I
broke up with the bestie be-
cause our relationship had
been long, toxic and abusive.
Other people seem shocked if
I say no or voice an opinion.
They proceed to pressure me
to change my mind, which
makes me transform back
into a mouse and comply so
I won’t seem rude. How can I
get them to understand that
I am changing for the better,
which includes putting myself,
my needs and my decisions
between yes and no first?
— Looking Out for Number One
Dear Looking Out: You
and your therapist appear to
have been doing some good
work. Of course people who
hear you say no or state your
honest opinion are having
trouble with it. That’s not
the person you WERE. You
are becoming a new person,
someone with whom they
are not used to dealing. Keep
in mind that when someone
asks you to do something
you would rather not do, you
ALWAYS have the right to re-
fuse. And when you are pres-
sured to change your opinion,
what you should say is, “In-
telligent minds can differ,” or,
“I’m entitled to my opinion.”
It’s the truth.
YOUR HOROSCOPE
By Georgia Nicols
Stars show the kind of day you’ll have
dynaMic | POsiTiVe | aVeraGe | sO-sO | diFFiculT
MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important deci-
sions today. The Moon is in Taurus.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR THURSDAY, OCT. 21, 2021: you have
a wide emotional range because you are a sensitive person. you are capable
of passion and subtlety. you are charming, intelligent and capable of inspir-
ing others. This is the last year of a nine-year cycle for you, which means you
will be wrapping up things that need to be finished to make room for new
beginnings next year.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
There’s tough energy in the air today. For some, it will trigger argu-
ments and disputes with partners, close friends and authority figures. how-
ever, you also can use this same feisty energy to get things done — a wiser
and more productive choice. Tonight: Patience.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
disputes about politics, religion or racial issues might easily arise today.
don’t even go there. This is a waste of energy. instead, use this same energy
to be productive at work. you also can use this energy to work out and get
physical exercise. your choice. Tonight: choose.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Parents must be patient with their kids today to avoid confronta-
tions. likewise, romantic partners need to be patient with each other to avoid
nasty arguments. Meanwhile, this same energy to fight can be channeled in
a different way and used in sports or creative ways. Tonight: Be smart.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Family conflicts and domestic arguments might take place today.
however, you have a choice. instead, you can use this same energy to move
furniture around and make improvements at home, especially improve-
ments that require physical energy. This choice is a no-brainer. Tonight: relax.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today you are high-viz, which is why people might know personal
details about your private life. (like, what’s with that?) This might put you on
edge, which, in turn, could trigger arguments. do not say something you will
regret later. Tonight: Keep busy.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Money disputes are likely today, or perhaps disputes about some-
thing that you own. To put a positive spin on this, look for ways to improve
what you already own. you might see new uses and applications for it. (could
that rusty barbecue be a shabby chic floor lamp?) Tonight: Get creative.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
right now, the sun, retrograde Mercury and fiery Mars are all in your
sign, which totally hypes your energy! you can use this energy to argue with
others, or you can use this energy to improve something, especially your
own body or your appearance. Tonight: Get pumped!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
you might feel rankled or suspicious about something going on be-
hind the scenes. don’t let this get you down. you are excellent at dealing with
hidden agendas. (“secrets” is my middle name.) Be investigative and resist
the urge to retaliate against someone. Tonight: easy does it.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
This is a popular time for you, especially because you might be in-
volved with younger people or people you haven’t seen in a while — people
from your past. you’re very good at keeping your trapline fresh, because you
know how to stay in touch with others. Tonight: avoid arguments.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
People admire you now; meanwhile, some of you are involved with
parents or bosses you haven’t seen in a while. This could be an opportunity
for some serious catching up. resist the urge to defy authority, be rebellious
or challenge someone today. it’s not worth it. Tonight: Be mellow.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
you might be involved in feisty discussions about politics, religion
or racial or social issues today. They could be nasty. it’s impossible to fight
prejudice, because prejudice was never based on logical facts in the first
place. avoid these disputes. Tonight: enjoy discussions with creative pals.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
you might be at odds with someone today about shared property,
inheritances, insurance issues or something to do with debt or what you hold
jointly with someone else. This could involve shared responsibilities. don’t
waste today fighting. use this energy to find a win-win solution. Tonight: Peace.
TODAY
IN HISTORY
By The Associated Press
Today is Thursday, Oct. 21, the
294th day of 2021. There are 71
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
in 1966, 144 people, 116 of them
children, were killed when a coal
waste landslide engulfed a school
and some 20 houses in aberfan,
Wales.
in 1797, the u.s. navy frigate con-
stitution, also known as “Old iron-
sides,” was christened in Boston’s
harbor.
in 1805, a British fleet com-
manded by adm. horatio nelson
defeated a French-spanish fleet
in the Battle of Trafalgar; nelson,
however, was killed.
in 1879, Thomas edison perfected
a workable electric light at his lab-
oratory in Menlo Park, new Jersey.
in 1944, during World War ii, u.s.
troops captured the German city
of aachen.
in 1945, women in France were
allowed to vote in parliamentary
elections for the first time.
in 1967, the israeli destroyer ins
eilat was sunk by egyptian mis-
sile boats near Port said; 47 israeli
crew members were lost. Tens of
thousands of Vietnam War pro-
testers began two days of demon-
strations in Washington, d.c.
in 1969, beat poet and author
Jack Kerouac died in st. Peters-
burg, Florida, at age 47.
in 1971, President richard nixon
nominated lewis F. Powell and
William h. rehnquist to the u.s.
supreme court. (Both nominees
were confirmed.)
in 2001, Washington, d.c., postal
worker Thomas l. Morris Jr. died
of inhalation anthrax as officials
began testing thousands of postal
employees.
in 2012, former senator and 1972
democratic presidential candidate
George McGovern, 90, died in
sioux Falls, south dakota.
in 2014, north Korea abruptly
freed Jeffrey Fowle, an american,
nearly six months after he was
arrested for leaving a Bible in a
nightclub. Former Washington
Post executive editor Ben Bradlee,
93, died in Washington.
in 2015, Vice President Joe Biden
announced he would not be
a candidate in the 2016 White
house campaign, solidifying hil-
lary rodham clinton’s status as
the democratic front-runner.
Ten years ago: President Barack
Obama declared that america’s
long and deeply unpopular war
in iraq would be over by the end
of 2011 and that all u.s. troops
“will definitely be home for the
holidays.”
Five years ago: cyberattacks
on server farms of a key internet
firm repeatedly disrupted access
to major websites and online
services including Twitter, net-
flix and PayPal across the united
states.
One year ago: republican sen.
Mitt romney of utah, the party’s
2012 presidential nominee, told
cnn that he had voted in the nov.
3 election, but not for donald
Trump. Former President Barack
Obama made his first in-person
campaign pitch for Joe Biden,
urging voters in Philadelphia,
especially Black men, not to sit
out the election and risk seeing
Trump reelected. spain became
the first western european coun-
try to reach more than 1 million
confirmed coronavirus cases.
The Justice department said
drugmaker Purdue Pharma, the
company behind the powerful
prescription painkiller Oxycon-
tin that experts said had helped
touch off an opioid epidemic,
would plead guilty to federal
criminal charges as part of a set-
tlement of more than $8 billion.
at least 10 bodies were found in
an unmarked mass grave in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, where investigators
were searching for the remains
of victims of the 1921 Tulsa race
Massacre.
Today’s Birthdays: actor Joyce
randolph is 97. rock singer Man-
fred Mann is 81. Musician steve
cropper (Booker T. & the MG’s) is
80. singer elvin Bishop is 79. TV’s
Judge Judy sheindlin is 79. ac-
tor everett McGill is 76. Musician
lee loughnane (chicago) is 75.
actor dick christie is 73. Former
israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
netanyahu is 72. actor laTanya
richardson Jackson is 72. Musician
charlotte caffey (The Go-Go’s) is
68. Movie director catherine hard-
wicke is 66. singer Julian cope is
64. rock musician steve lukather
(Toto) is 64. actor Ken Watanabe
is 62. actor Melora Walters is 62.
rock singer-musician nick Oliveri
(Mondo Generator) is 50. christian
rock musician charlie lowell (Jars
of clay) is 48. actor Jeremy Miller
is 45. country singer Matthew
ramsey (Old dominion) is 44. ac-
tor Will estes is 43. actor Michael
McMillian is 43. reality TV star Kim
Kardashian West is 41. actor Matt
dallas is 39. actor charlotte sulli-
van is 38. actor aaron Tveit is 38.
actor Glenn Powell is 33. country
singer Kane Brown is 28.
NFL
League agrees to end race-based
brain testing in $1B settlement
BY MARYCLAIRE DALE
associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — The
NFL agreed to end race-based
adjustments in dementia test-
ing that critics said made it
difficult for Black retirees to
qualify for awards in the $1 bil-
lion settlement of concussion
claims, according to a proposed
deal filed Wednesday in federal
court.
The revised testing plan fol-
lows public outrage over the
use of “race-norming,” a prac-
tice that came to light only after
two former NFL players filed
a civil rights lawsuit over it in
2019. The adjustments, critics
say, may have prevented hun-
dreds of Black players suffering
from dementia to win awards
that average $500,000 or more.
The Black retirees will now
have the chance to have their
tests rescored or, in some cases,
seek a new round of cognitive
testing, according to the set-
tlement, details of which were
first reported in The New York
Times on Wednesday.
“No race norms or race
demographic estimates —
whether Black or white — shall
be used in the settlement pro-
gram going forward,” the settle-
ment said.
The proposal, which must
still be approved by a judge,
follows months of closed-door
negotiations between the NFL,
class counsel for retired players,
and lawyers for the Black play-
ers who filed suit, Najeh Dav-
enport and Kevin Henry.
The vast majority of the
league’s players — 70% of ac-
tive players and more than 60%
of living retirees — are Black.
So the changes are expected to
be significant, and potentially
costly for the NFL.
To date, the fund has paid
out $821 million for five types
of brain injuries, including
early and advanced dementia,
Parkinson’s disease and Lou
Gehrig’s disease, also known
NBA
Continued from A5
“They could look at someone
who had broken a barrier, who
had disproven the mythologies
around white supremacy.”
But it was a gradual climb to
the Celtics dynasty that began
just before the decade ended.
Cousy was the floor leader of
those squads, though when
he finished college in 1950, he
believed he could make more
money by touring New En-
gland for exhibition games with
his Holy Cross teammates than
playing real ones in the NBA.
“There was no interest what-
soever. We were behind base-
ball, football, hockey and then
came basketball in the ’50s,”
Cousy said. “Unless you had
the Globetrotters as a double-
header-type thing. Then you’d
sell out.”
Or maybe if George Mikan
was in town. The NBA’s first
superstar centered its first dy-
nasty, the Minneapolis Lakers.
His teams won five titles in six
years from 1949-54, but almost
Matt rourke/aP file
Former NFL players Ken Jenkins, right, and Clarence Vaughn III, center
right, along with their wives, Amy Lewis, center, and Brooke Vaughn,
left, carry petitions demanding equal treatment for everyone involved
in the settlement of concussion claims against the NFL to the federal
courthouse in Philadelphia in May.
as ALS.
Lawyers for the Black play-
ers suspect that white men
were qualifying for awards at
two or three times the rate of
Blacks. Black NFL retiree Ken
Jenkins and others have asked
the Civil Rights Division of the
Justice Department to open an
inquiry. The first payouts were
awarded in 2017. The fund,
now uncapped, is intended to
last for 65 years, to cover any-
one retired at the time it was
first approved.
To date, about 2,000 men
have applied for dementia
awards, but only 30% have been
approved. In some cases, the
NFL appealed payouts awarded
to Black men if doctors did not
apply the racial adjustment.
The new plan would forbid any
challenges based on race.
The NFL would admit no
wrongdoing under terms of the
new settlement.
The league had agreed in
June, amid the uproar, to halt
the use of race-norming, which
assumes Black players start
with lower cognitive function.
That makes it harder to show
they suffer from a mental defi-
cit linked to their playing days.
More than 20,000 NFL retir-
ees or relatives have registered
for the settlement program,
which offers monitoring, test-
ing and, for some, compen-
sation. The awards average
$715,000 for those with ad-
vanced dementia and $523,000
for those with early dementia.
“If the new process elimi-
nates race-norming and more
people qualify, that’s great,” said
Jenkins, who does not have an
impairment but advocates for
those who do.
“(But) we’re not going to get
everything we wanted,” Jenkins,
an insurance executive, said
Tuesday. “We want full trans-
parency of all the demographic
information from the NFL —
who’s applied, who’s been paid.”
Senior U.S. District Judge
Anita B. Brody, who has over-
seen the settlement for a de-
cade, dismissed the suit filed by
Davenport and Henry this year
on procedural grounds. But she
later ordered the lawyers who
negotiated the 2013 settlement
to work with a mediator to ad-
dress it.Copyright 2021 The
Associated Press. All rights re-
served. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewrit-
ten or redistributed without
permission.
all the attention went to the
6-foot-10 Mikan, who wearing
his glasses looked more profes-
sor than post player.
Mikan ended up in Minne-
apolis after his previous team
folded and he went to the Lak-
ers in a lottery. That’s the same
way Cousy became a Celtic.
An 11-team league when
the 1950-51 season began was
reduced to 10 by the time it
ended, after the Washington
Capitols — coached in the late
1940s by future Celtics leader
Red Auerbach — disbanded
during it.
It was down to nine in time
for 1953-54, when the West
Division consisted of just four
teams and none was anywhere
near the West. It was Milwau-
kee; Minneapolis; Fort Wayne,
Indiana; and Rochester, which
is only West in New York State.
Cousy wasn’t convinced of
the league’s future in 1950. He
and a teammate had started a
business of driving lessons for
women and were planning to
open a string of gas stations
when he was drafted in the first
round by the Tri-Cities Black-
hawks.
“I said, ‘Well, I was a pretty
good student in school. I must
have been asleep in geography
class. What the hell is a Tri-
City?’ ” Cousy remembered
thinking.
It was the team representing
Moline, Illinois, Rock Island,
Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
The franchise traded Cousy to
the Chicago Stags rather than
pay him the $10,000 a year he
sought. He never played there
either, after they folded.
Cousy became a Celtic in
time for the 1950-51 season,
also Cooper’s first season.
Though Cooper was the first
Black drafted in the NBA,
Earl Lloyd was the first to play
in a game that season. And
Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton of
the Knicks was the first Black
player to sign a contract.
“I’m very proud to have at
least helped light the flame,”
Cousy said, “helped set the ta-
ble for what I have seen hap-
pening to the sport in my life-
time.”
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