Colby Free Press Monday, January 9, 2006 Page 7 For Better or Worse • Lynn Johnston How long can meat be frozen? DEAR ABBY: My father-in-law sharing mealtime together and was born during the Depression. My not jumping on or off the furni- question is, what is a safe amount of Abigail ture. And then, if the youngsters time to be able to eat meat from the Van Buren don’t behave, take them aside and freezer? explain that they may act that way We have noticed items that are Dear Abby in their parents’ home, but not in more than 5 years old that my father- • yours because you have rules — in-law insists are still good, “... you and tell them exactly what kind of just cut off the freezer burn.” We’re behavior you expect from them. afraid he’s going to poison himself. life makes me (and other employ- The longer you remain silent, For Better or Worse • Lynn Johnston — CONCERNED DAUGH- ees) uncomfortable? the longer your problem will con- TER-IN-LAW, WELLINGTON, — SQUIRMING tinue. COLO. DEAR SQUIRMING: The wo- DEAR CONCERNED: Accor- man has my sympathy. She is try- DEAR ABBY: I am a female who ding to Mike Herndon, media ing to bond with you folks in the is almost 38 years old. Most of my spokesman for the Food and Drug only way she knows how. It would adult life has been spent in school, Administration, meat can be fro- not be impolite to take her aside working or traveling. It is only in the zen “almost indefinitely.” How- and quietly tell her that it isn’t last two years that I have met some- ever, it must be stored constantly necessary to air her dirty laundry one and settled down somewhat — at zero degrees to be safe. Freezer in order to make friends at the although we are not married. We are burn does not make food unsafe, company. You will be doing her a both artists, so much of our time is but may affect the quality. favor. Please do it now. filled doing the things that we love The following are freezer stor- and believe in. Neither of us feels a age times for quality only: un- DEAR ABBY: When our grand- giant in our relationship or our cooked roasts, steaks or chops, children come to visit, their parents lives that needs to be filled by a baby. Garfield • Jim Davis four to 12 months; whole poultry, do not discipline them. When our In the past year or so, several of 12 months; poultry parts, nine children visited our parents, we my co-workers and other people I months. Also, it’s a good idea to made sure they behaved. As a mat- barely know keep asking, “When check for odor after meat and ter of fact, we did it no matter where are you going to have a baby?” or, poultry have been frozen for too they went. “You only have a couple more years long. If there is a rancid smell, What do you do when the parents — aren’t you going to have a baby?” obviously, do not use it. do not attend to their children? or, “Don’t you want kids?” When I served Christmas dinner, Abby, my family doesn’t even ask DEAR ABBY: A new employee, they did not insist that their 6-year- me these questions! I think they are “Nicki,” was recently hired at the old join the family. He was allowed extremely rude and intrusive, and I company where I work. A group of to continue playing videos. How do resent the simple-minded assump- us eat lunch together, and we have I let them know there are rules here? tion that just because a person has a tried to make Nicki as welcome as It hurts my feelings when my uterus and ovaries she must make a possible by asking her to join our grandchildren treat my good furni- baby. How should I respond to these table. ture as a playground. I don’t see questions? Hagar the Horrible • Chris Browne Usually our conversation consists them often, but I’d rather skip hav- — CHILDLESS AND HAPPY of talk about our families or a movie ing them in my home and visit them. DEAR CHILDLESS AND we saw recently, but Nicki always However, my children rarely offer HAPPY: There are several ways seems to interject a piece of infor- to host the holidays. What’s a per- to handle questions that are no- mation that is so private as to be in- son to do? body’s business. One is to deflect appropriate. Recently she confided — CONFUSED GRANDMA the question by asking another: that her husband had cheated on her, IN INDIANA “Why do you ask?” Or, “Why do and that he had been arrested for DEAR CONFUSED: I’d sug- you think that’s any of your busi- theft. gest a two-pronged approach. Ask ness?” Alternatively, if you really Lunchtime has become less your children to inform the want the person to back down, pleasant because this woman seems grandkids that when they visit you can reply, “If it were any of to have no boundaries. How can I their grandparents there are cer- your business, you’d already politely let her know that giving too tain rules of conduct that must be know the answer to that question. much information about her private observed — and that includes Please don’t ask me again!” Blondie • Chic Young Bridge Family Circus • Bil Keane

Beetle Bailey • Mort Walker

Crossword Zits • Jim Borgman & Jerry Scott Famous Hand It is not at all surprising that in every country where bridge is played — and that means practi- cally every country in the world — different meth- ods of bidding have developed. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the world championships staged every year. Take this deal from the U.S.-Italy match in 1957. At the first table, Italy’s and held the North-South cards. They were playing the Roman Club system, Sally Forth Greg Howard which features many unusual conventions. • Avarelli opened the North hand with one heart. He could not bid one club because that would have indicated either a very powerful hand, or 4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2 distribution! Belladonna responded two diamonds instead of one spade because in the Roman System the shorter suit is normally mentioned first when re- sponder has a good hand. Avarelli then bid three clubs, promising a five- card suit, and Belladonna bid three notrump. South’s spade suit, oddly enough, was never men- tioned. All three suit bids were contrary to the Ameri- can style, which calls for the longer suit to be bid Cryptoquip first. West led the king of diamonds and defeated THANK YOU FOR the contract one trick, scoring four diamonds and a spade. READING THE At the second table, with Boris Koytchou and Harold Ogust North-South for the U.S., the bid- ding went: North East South West 1 C Pass 1 S 2 D Pass Pass Dble Here the bids were all natural, and West (Gug- lielmo Siniscalco) wound up in two diamonds doubled. His was certainly normal, but he scored only four diamond tricks, a spade and a heart to finish down two, minus 300. YOUR LOCAL SOURCE FOR: So Italy lost 400 points on the deal, which NEWS • WEATHER proves virtually nothing other than that the lan- SPORTS guage of bidding is far from universal. Tomorrow: A stitch in time. 155 W. 5th • 785-462-3963 (c)2006 King Features Syndicate Inc.