Table of contents for November 2018 in Reader's Digest

WHEN FREDDIE FULLER arrived to perform in the hospital room in Temple, Texas, Pam Golightly worried it was already too late. Her stepfather, Dennis Strobel, was dying. At 88, Strobel had just been moved to the palliative care unit. After spending five days by his side, Golightly could tell that something had changed in the Korean War veteran. He had become agitated, and a nurse had told her Strobel’s time was near. “You’re probably wasting your time,” Golightly told Fuller. But Fuller, wearing a cowboy hat and toting a Taylor acoustic guitar, shared with her what medical professionals had told him time and time again over the years: Hearing may be the last sense to go. “Let me go in and play,” Fuller said. “It’s as much for you as…

A CRANBERRY like me thinks of itself as the self-sufficient type. Millennia ago, as one of a handful of fruits native to North America (along with blueberries and Concord grapes), I eked out an existence in the sandy, acidic, waterlogged soil of glacier-formed bogs and other inhospitable spots in the continent’s colder regions. In an environment that many plants would have found impossible, my shrubby vines flourished, my little green fruits turning white, then pink, then red as autumn deepened toward winter. Native Americans picked my wild berries, eating them dried with deer meat, mashing them into antibacterial poultices for wound healing, and transforming the red skins into dye. When the Europeans arrived, my vitamin C helped them avoid scurvy. Even after I became a cultivated crop (circa 1816), better-nourished…

IT was a few days before Christmas 2017, and a crowd had gathered in Market Square in Knoxville, Tennessee, for an annual holiday event called Welcome the Stranger. It’s a Christian ritual with Jewish roots, where neighbors greet neighbors, friends, and anyone else who passes by with warmth and compassion, celebrating the season. Only this year, not everyone was in the spirit. As the speakers organized by local churches stood before the crowd to share their holiday thoughts, a man draped in an American flag began yelling that he was out of a job and immigrants were to blame. As it happened, a local restaurateur named Yassin Terou was on the stage preparing to speak. Terou is well-known in Knoxville as the owner of Yassin’s Falafel House. He also emigrated…

KATY, TEXAS, calls itself “the city of churches,” but don’t take the name too literally. The faith of the 18,000 residents of this former farm town extends far beyond the walls of its 100-plus houses of worship. When Hurricane Harvey dumped five feet of rain on southeast Texas in August 2017, Katy, about 30 miles due west of Houston, took a direct hit. Nearly 700 homes and 80 businesses were damaged or destroyed. Two of the town’s beloved citizens, the Reverend Donald Rogers and his wife, Rochelle Rogers, died as they braved the floods to check on Donald’s uncle, who lived nearby on Rogers Road. The road was named after Donald’s grandfather. Like the Rogerses, many Katy residents didn’t wait for the rain to stop before running, driving, and paddling…

ON A CHILLY Saturday night in February 2016, Rich Smith and his son, Tyler, 17, stopped at the Seelye Ford and Kia dealership on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They were standing in the parking lot checking out a blue pickup truck when a man walked up and opened fire, killing them. The shooter, an Uber driver named Jason Dalton, didn’t know the Smiths. He was on a rampage that ultimately left four more people dead and two critically wounded. The story made national news. The 76,000 residents of Kalamazoo were shocked, just as the residents of other cities and towns across America have been when a mass murderer has struck close to home. Folks here also understood that recovering from an episode of gun violence carries its own dangers,…

IN A STATE where the unofficial motto is “Minnesota Nice,” Mower County may just be the nicest place of all. There’s actually a Community Pride and Spirit committee whose sole purpose is to inspire people to do nice things for one another. Among its initiatives are a youth-mentoring program and a “good graffiti” volunteer group. That piece of profanity that once graced a fence near Mill Pond? It disappeared behind a mural that featured three simple words: You Are Beautiful. Gina and Todd Grundmeier learned all about that beautiful spirit shortly after they moved to the county in 2010. Their house burned down, and they and their four kids lost everything. “There were times we were scrounging just to buy a gallon of milk,” says Gina. Right away, neighbors started…

50 Ways to Get Smarter About Your Brain Your article stated that you have more than five senses. It reminded me of when I was teaching my daughter about the senses, and she said there were six. I went through the five senses, and she said, “No, you missed one: the sense of humor!” —EMILY MURPHY Kingwood, Texas The Power of Fake Pills The article affirmed what many moms and kids know: that applying the healing salve of a kiss to a child’s paper cut or skinned elbow or knee really works! —TERI ISMAIL Tallahassee, Florida Wake Up Smarter So the sounds of a waterfall or heavy rain are supposed to help me sleep? No, but they do give me a lot of exercise going back and forth to the…

SOON AFTER Savannah Phillips got buckled into her window seat on a United Airlines flight from Oklahoma to Illinois this past May, she glanced over at her seatmate. He was in his 60s, wore bright yellow sunglasses, and was busy texting. The font was unusually large and the screen was bright, making it easy for Phillips to read what he was tapping out: “Hey Babe, I’m sitting next to a smelly fatty.” “It was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis,” the 33-year-old mother wrote in a Facebook post after the flight. Soon tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged the cabin wall, trying to make herself as small as possible. Sitting a row behind them and across the aisle was Chase…

• “No, octopus, you can’t do that!” • “Spaghetti is hair for meatballs.” • “Where are my pancakes, penguin?” • “I won’t. The toilet said no.” • “Butterfly, you made a mistake walking in front of me.” • “But I wanna be Mary Poppins.” • “Do you know where the TV remote is? No? I’ll just ask the duck.” —BOREDPANDA.COM What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever heard someone say in his or her sleep? Tell us at RD.COM/SLEEPTALK.…

WHY VEGETARIANS SHOULD ADD IN B12 In a National Institutes of Health study, vegan and vegetarian participants tended to score higher than meat eaters on a depression-measuring scale. While the results don’t prove causality, it wouldn’t be surprising if nutritional shortfalls were to blame, the researchers said. In particular, vegetarians and vegans are often low in vitamin B12, and animal products are the only natural source of this nutrient. However, it’s possible to reach the recommended levels by taking supplements or by eating fortified foods such as soy milk and breakfast cereal. Air Pollution Can Harm Your Kidneys Polluted air has long been linked to major health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A new study based on data from nearly 2.5…

IN OCTOBER, I told the eight-yearolds in the religion class I teach in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, about my plan. “I’d like all of you to do extra jobs around the house to earn some money,” I said. “Then we’ll buy food for a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who might not have a nice dinner otherwise.” I wanted the children to experience Acts 20:35—that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. I wanted them to understand that religion is more than nice theological ideas; that people somehow have to make it come alive. I hoped they could experience a sense of their own power to effect change. Early in Thanksgiving week, the boys and girls arrived in class clutching their hard-earned money. They had raked leaves, set tables, washed…

Tired of boiling water every time you make pasta? Boil a few gallons at the beginning of the week and freeze it for later.— @swaglordpat Cooking tip: Quickly slice a block of cheese by throwing it through a harp.— @markleggett Cooking tip: If you put too much water in your rice, toss a few phones in there.— @UniqueDude2 hate cooking, but I am excited to debut my cookbook, Toast on a Paper Towel, 365 Ways.— @LizHackett I tell people that the secret ingredient in my cookies is “love,” but it’s actually “floor.”— @ughrevolution Fill your coffee maker with cake mix for an amazingly delicious yet entirely unexpected Thursday morning.— @8989belinda…

ROBIN ROBERTS has a long history with Reader’s Digest—she was named America’s most trusted newsperson in our 2013 poll—so we were thrilled that she agreed to be the chief judge for this year’s Nicest Places contest. Still, even we were surprised by how actively she worked with our team. She discussed her passion for this project with editor-in-chief Bruce Kelley. READER’S DIGEST What made you so excited to be part of Nicest Places? ROBIN ROBERTS Nicest is a way to wave the flag and say, “Don’t give up hope, folks! There are a lot of good, sweet, thoughtful people in America.” There’s a lot of talk of division in this country. It’s great to show that that’s not the whole story and to create ambassadors all across the country. Did…

FIRST SOMEBODY SHOWED UP with a bunch of balloons. Then a cake. Then a big Happy Birthday banner that was stretched across the parking lot next to the Beca’s Brew coffee stand. And people just kept showing up, dozens in all. It was a party—just as Beca Nistrian had envisioned for her pal Will Tinkham. May 10 was Tinkham’s birthday, and she wanted to surprise him. Tinkham, 32, was born with developmental disabilities and loves people. Nistrian, 30, the spunky owner of the stand in this fast-growing Seattle outpost of 45,000, thought he was wonderful—and a business asset. So she proposed an arrangement: If Tinkham showed up every day for an hour or two and chatted with the customers at her drivethrough window, she’d give him a free drink. Pretty…

IT’S NOON ON a Tuesday in Baltimore, and a line is forming outside the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Pennsylvania Avenue branch. One at a time, people walk up to the end of the line, some clutching folders bulging with papers, others emptyhanded. All are waiting for the clock to strike 1 p.m., when the Lawyer in the Library program will open its doors to anyone looking for advice or assistance from an attorney. Those seeking help range from veterans who can’t navigate their way through the complicated benefits system to get what’s coming to them to folks who got into trouble with the law and aren’t sure how to move forward. Some weeks, 600 or 700 people show up. “Just five to twenty minutes of a lawyer’s time can literally…

THERE’S NOTHING WARMER than a hearty breakfast on a cold morning, especially when it comes with a side order of small-town hospitality. Just ask Steve and Marie Cortes. On a trip from their home in Florida one cold January morning, the Corteses decided to pull into Ellijay, Georgia, a town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 90 minutes north of Atlanta. They parked in the thriving town square not far from the old-fashioned clock tower and walked into the Cornerstone Café, only to find it jam-packed. Just as they prepared to take their bellies elsewhere, one of the diners motioned them over. “We can make room,” he said. In fact, several diners scooched over until there was enough space for the couple to pull up two chairs at the…

♦ During story time, I read a book that mentioned doughnuts growing on trees. Me: “I want to live in a world where doughnuts grow on trees!” Child: “I want to live in a world where bananas grow on trees.” ♦ A patron’s question for the reference desk: “Can you come and get a raccoon out of my house?” ♦ A patron came up to the desk to check out a book. Me: “I’m so sorry, but you won’t be able to check out since you owe $173.” Man: “173? That’s how much I weigh too!” ♦ A six-year-old girl asked me: “Do you have any books about how to make boys cry?” —IWORKATAPUBLICLIBRARY.COM…

Arthritis. If the word makes you think about older folks with creaky knees and jumbo bottles of ibuprofen, you need an update. Arthritis now strikes an estimated 91 million American adults, according to a new study, and 30 percent of them are ages 18 to 64. By far the most common type, which affects 57 percent of Americans with arthritis, is osteoarthritis, followed by gout (27 percent of cases), psoriatic arthritis (14 percent), and rheumatoid arthritis (3 percent). There is no cure for any of them, but science has made several breakthroughs in understanding how to treat the inflammation and pain that come with the condition as well as how to halt the underlying joint damage. The first line of defense: Educate yourself. OSTEOARTHRITIS (OA): Wear and tear of the…

“Careful, now. I don’t like the looks of this.” While serving in Vietnam, my friend and his buddies were hunkered down in a mud-filled hole that had been dug into the side of a berm and covered with lumber for protection. Their one extravagance: a bare light bulb they’d hung from the “ceiling.” One guy was reading a newspaper article from back home about a congressional investigation into why some troops were living in relative luxury. The guy put down the paper, turned to my friend, and said, “Well, there goes the light bulb.” —JAMES VALOUCH New York, New York As A.J. and his platoon of recruits were marching, their sergeant slipped and tumbled down a ravine. The irate sergeant scrambled back up amid guffaws and barked, “Those who laughed,…

•I really liked Word Sudoku. It made me strategize as if I were doing regular sudoku—which really makes your brain work. —Victoria Pruden OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY •Lost Time was so easy that I thought maybe my answer was wrong, although it wasn’t. —Mary Hartshorn WESTERVILLE, OHIO •Do I need to turn in my genius card? In Counting Digits, I’m pretty sure the digit 5 occurs 19 times in the numbers 1 to 100, not 20 as you stated. —Kathy Sevy PECULIAR, MISSOURI FROM THE EDITORS The digits question tricked many of you. It asks how many times “the digit” 5 occurs, and the correct answer includes both 5s in 55.…

Why did you take up turkey calling? I was about ten, and my aunt and uncle had some turkeys out in the yard. I got obsessed with trying to sound as much like a real turkey as I could. I’ve practiced three hours a day for the last twenty-some years. For people who have never heard you—or a turkey—can you describe a call? Kee is a sound the turkey makes when it has been separated from the flock, kind of like a kid at Walmart screaming for his mama. They cluck and purr when they’re eating their favorite foods and they’re happy. Every hen sounds different, just like humans. And you do this all just with the sound of your voice? No, you place what’s known as a call in your…

IN 2009, I rescued a skittish donkey. Bo came from a nearby cattle ranch and now lives peacefully on my ranch in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, along with another donkey, three horses, and two dogs. But the key to Bo’s successful rehab from nervous rescue to happy ranch animal wasn’t anything I did. It was my grandson, Dylan. When he was just shy of four years old, Dylan came with his parents to spend the Fourth of July with me on their way to Canada for a vacation. Bo kept his distance from the grown-ups, but he displayed an unusual fascination with Dylan. So we decided to introduce them. “Move slowly, keep your arms down, be quiet, and stoop down sometimes,” I told my grandson. Dylan cautiously approached Bo,…

1 Charge Your Phone Faster Technology To boost your battery more quickly, turn on airplane mode. That pauses your phone’s “background noise” (such as random notifications and GPS roaming), which tends to drain the battery. The extra juice won’t be much, but when you’re in a hurry, every little bit helps. * From RD.com reporting 2 Save a Tooth That Has Been Knocked Out HEALTH If a permanent tooth is accidentally knocked out of your mouth, don’t panic. Pick up the tooth by the crown (the chewing surface), gently rinse off any debris, and stick it back in your mouth if you can. If not, put it in a cup of milk (not water!), and get to a dentist as soon as possible so it can be reimplanted. 3 Stop Fido’s…

1 Daylight Saving Time The idea of fiddling with the clock has been around since antiquity, but it was not until World War I that governments around the globe officially adopted daylight saving time. Why? To conserve resources such as fuel and extend the workday for the war effort. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians did it first, in 1916, and the Allies followed shortly after. To clear up confusion about the concept, the Washington Times used a comic strip to explain the first “spring forward” in the United States in 1918. 2 Wristwatches Timepieces known as wristlets were sold during the 19th century. However, they failed to take off with men until World War I demonstrated their superiority to pocket watches in battle—particularly for military leaders who were coordinating precision attacks.…

We often talk today about division in this country, but that is clearly not the whole story. The caring and kindness demonstrated in this year’s Nicest Places in America nominations—almost 500 of them—show how innate it is for Americans to help one another. Their stories are seeds of goodness to plant around the country. As for the winning place—well, if your faith has been wavering, it will be restored. Being a judge in the Reader’s Digest Nicest Places search is my personal way of saying hope exists all around us. Feel the pure joy of this year’s ten finalists. —Robin Roberts, Good Morning America co-anchor and Nicest Places in America chief judge…

WHEN WE SAY that residents in the Chicago suburb of North Riverside, Illinois, “wrote the book” on how to be good neighbors, we’re not exaggerating. The residents of North Riverside really did write a book on neighborliness that has helped make their town a remarkable place. Neighbors All: Creating Community One Block at a Time is a 65-page manual filled with friendly suggestions (“Be the first to reach out”; “Be concrete in caring”) and inspiring stories, all designed to build “family bonds” among neighbors. Every household gets a copy, delivered by a volunteer “block captain” tasked with welcoming new arrivals, helping seniors run errands, making sure kids play nice, and more. It’s a big job, but the 90 captains sprinkled across the town of 6,700 don’t do it alone. They’re…

ARMY LT. GEN. Paul E. Funk II is no stranger to stress. He has led soldiers in combat for years, from Operation Desert Shield to recent efforts in Iraq and Syria. After his fifth tour, Funk took the helm at Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas, one of the world’s biggest military bases. He was born there, when his father, Paul Funk Sr., who served in Vietnam and Desert Storm, was commander in chief, and he and his wife, Beth Funk, even got married in the base chapel. As a legacy soldier, the younger Paul Funk knows it’s not just the people wearing uniforms who serve—the whole family lives in the pressure cooker of military life. That’s what motivated Beth and the rest of the Funks to open the Life Moves…

CAN YOU GUESS the location of North Evergreen Street from these descriptions left by residents on its community Facebook page? ♦ “A series of unfortunate events led me to leave my house with my front door wide open. Andre, our mailman, alerted my neighbors, who not only locked my house up for me but checked for any bogeymen too!” —ANN M. ♦ “We recently went on a long weekend getaway only to find that we had forgotten to leave the key with our house/dog sitter. Our neighbors across the street jumped right in to save the day, or days, as it was. They fed our dog, checked her water, made time to play with her, and even took her for walks. This neighborhood is the best I’ve ever lived in,…

A THE CAPITAL A hasn’t always looked the way it does now. In ancient Semitic languages, the letter was upside down, which created a symbol that resembled a steer with horns. B GRAB PAPER and pen and start writing down every number as a word. Do you notice one missing letter? If you kept going, you wouldn’t use a single letter b until you reached one billion. C BENJAMIN Franklin wanted to banish c from the alphabet—along with j, q, w, x, and y—and replace them with six letters he’d invented himself. He claimed that he could simplify the English language. D CONTRARY TO popular belief, the D in D-day does not stand for “doom” or “death”—it stands for “day.” The military marks important operations and invasions with a D…

I want to ask you a favor. I have a pair of pants. Tell me: How many different ways can I put a pair of pants to use? Now imagine you’re an architect. Same question. Now imagine you’re Cher. Bill Gates. A scuba diver. A medieval knight. You still have the pants. What alternative uses come to mind? What you just practiced—the conscious act of “wearing” another self—is an exercise that, according to psychiatrist Srini Pillay, MD, is essential to being creative. One great irony about our collective obsession with creativity is that we tend to frame it in uncreative ways. That is to say, most of us marry creativity to our concept of self: Either we’re “creative” or we aren’t, without much of a middle ground. “I’m just not…

1. life hack n. ('life hak) A identity theft. B short bio. C clever tip. 2. chiweenie n. (chih-'wee-nee) A chewy noodle. B Chihuahua/dachshund hybrid. C crybaby. 3. demonym n. ('deh-muh-nim) A impish child. B floor model. C name for an inhabitant. 4. harissa n. (huh-'rih-suh) A spicy sauce. B hair dye. C brash woman. 5. cryptocurrency n. (krip-toh-'kuhr-en-see) A classified information. B digital money. C unpredictable events. 6. beach cruiser n. (beech 'croo-zer) A amateur surfer. B bike with wide tires. C migrating shorebird. 7. Wanderwort n. ('wahn-dur-wort) A daydreamer. B tofu sausage. C far-traveling word. 8. dumpster fire n. ('dump-ster fire) A total disaster. B mass layoff. C rumormonger. 9. poke n. (poh-'kay) A raw fish salad. B online pest. C rural town. 10. Silver Alert n. ('sil-ver uh-'lurt) A warning of a missing senior. B notice of a…