Table of contents for June 2015 in Reader's Digest

Bunnies on the Line MY LIFE AS A TAX-PAYING employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked on an assembly line. My best friend Betsy’s father was an executive at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, made little bunny cakes for all its stores throughout Greater Cleveland. The plant downtown needed eight kids for temporary help, and the shift fell over spring break, during which I had no plans beyond listening to my Michael Stanley Band records. Cake? I loved cake—icing especially. I’d earn minimum wage. I’d see how a factory worked. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their permission. Our roles on the line were simple: Place cakes on conveyor belt. Attach icing ears. Apply…

AFTER AN EVENING playing bingo at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee, bartender Jill Bien, 48, boarded a charter bus bound for Chicago, where she lives. About 35 miles into the 90-mile trip, Jill felt the bus drift onto the right shoulder of I-94. The bus scraped a concrete barrier separating the interstate from a ditch, then veered back into traffic. “Stop the bus!” Jill yelled to the driver from her seat just behind him. But then she saw his seat was empty. The driver, James Rogers, 68, lay crumpled and unconscious in the bus’s stairwell. “Call 911!” Jill screamed, and with the bus careening in and out of traffic at about 60 mph, she leaped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the wheel. “My life flashed before my…

DURING A THUNDERSTORM in June 2009, Kathryn and Jeremy Medlen’s eight-year-old Lab mix, Avery, escaped from their backyard in Fort Worth, Texas. The Medlens searched frantically and were relieved to discover that Avery had been picked up by animal control. But when Jeremy went to retrieve the dog at the city’s shelter, he didn’t have the $95 needed to cover the fees. A “hold for owner” tag was hung on Avery’s cage. The next day, when the Medlens and their young children arrived at the shelter with the cash, they were met with devastating news: Avery had been mistakenly euthanized. On December 30, 2009, the Medlens filed a lawsuit against Carla Strickland, the city employee who put Avery down. In Texas, if a person’s property is wrongfully destroyed by another…

If I were a bird that needs feathers to fly higher, my mother would be my strongest feather. She was extremely supportive. When I was one and a half, I took a whole handful of earthworms to bed with me. My mother said very quietly, “Jane, they will die if they leave the earth.” And so, together, we put them back into the garden. Source: an interview with April Xiaoyi Xu I went to an empty henhouse [when I was four and a half ], hid in the straw at the back, and waited, and the family had no idea where I was … My mother sees this excited little girl rushing toward the house all covered in straw. Instead of getting mad at me, which would’ve killed the excitement,…

WHEN SHE WAS 42, Tina Theobald suddenly developed a charley horse that wouldn’t ease. She had recently started jogging and thought nothing of the sore calf muscle. She iced it and hobbled through a short trip to Mexico as her leg swelled. Theobald happened to be scheduled to see her doctor for a sprained thumb upon her return, and she was diagnosed with—and immediately hospitalized for—a large blood clot in her leg. Two days later, Theobald struggled to breathe and was hit with chest pain so excruciating, she needed morphine. A portion of the clot had broken off and was blocking the blood supply to part of her lung, a life-threatening condition called pulmonary embolism. Theobald always thought blood clots affected older people—and it’s true that their risk is far…

Doctor’s Orders 1 YOU WEIGH YOURSELF ON DIFFERENT DAYS EACH WEEK In a Cornell University study published last year, researchers analyzed the food and weight diaries that 80 people kept for up to a year. They found that peoples’ weight fluctuated considerably throughout the week— many people were heaviest on Mondays (blame decadent weekend eating) and lightest on Fridays. Keep weigh-in days consistent for a more accurate assessment. 2 YOU MISCALCULATE YOUR CLOTHING File this one under “Yes, scientists have actually studied this.” When University of North Dakota researchers weighed people naked and clothed at various times of the year, they found that men can subtract 2.5 pounds for their clothing and women can shave off around two pounds, on average. 3 YOU DON’T FACTOR IN MUSCLE GAIN You’ve heard…

FROM SLATE.COM IT’S A GOOD TIME TO BE A PESSIMIST. ISIS, Ebola, women-beating athletes, deadly cops and gangs—who can avoid the feeling that things are falling apart and the center cannot hold? But as troubling as the headlines have been, they deserve a second look. It’s hard to believe that we are in greater danger today than we were during the two world wars, the nuclear confrontations of the Cold War, or the eightyear war between Iran and Iraq that threatened to choke the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf and cripple the entire global economy. So how can we get less hyperbolic about the state of the world? Don’t look to daily media. News is about things that happen, not things that don’t happen. We never see a…

The miracle is this: The more we share … the more we have. LEONARD NIMOY When a politician begins a sentence with “What the American people want …,” it’s time to change the channel. PAT SAJAK DON’T ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS. ASK YOURSELF WHAT MAKES YOU COME ALIVE, AND THEN GO DO THAT. HOWARD THURMAN, author and civi l r ight s leader FICTION IS TO GROWN MEN WHAT PLAY IS TO THE CHILD. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Laugh it off. There’s always another night. STEVE CARELL A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want. MADONNA Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most. ADDISON H. HALLOCK, author…

35 Things Homeowners Need to Know I think the cover on this April’s edition is the best I’ve seen of the bookmark covers you have produced. I wonder how many people noticed the copy of the April edition in the mailbox and that that copy has a copy of a copy. Clever job. GEORGE S. HARRIS, Manassas, Virginia Give the Earth an Inch ... I truly enjoyed reading this article. It seemed to uplift my spirit. Your love for this land is what is greatly needed. LUCY FOSTER, Washington, DC Miracles That Stunned Doctors Heartwarming story. God rewarded Greg for his good deed in this life by restoring his health. No good work remains unrewarded. ATA UR RAHMAN, Staten Island, New York Children of the Fields I grew up working in tobacco fields…

FROM THERUMPUS.NET COURTNEY ZOFFNESS is the interim director of creative writing at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. From: <MommaGlo@aol.com> Date: Sun, May 31, 2015, at 12:31 AM Subject: Gary’s internship To: Tuck Lanson, CEO <Tuck@LansonCorp.com> Dear Tuck, Gary is excited to start his weeklong internship at Lanson Corp. tomorrow! It occurs to me that there are a few small issues that may (or may not!) arise during his time there. I’m sure everything will be fine, but I’m his mom. And moms worry. 1 Gary’s really concerned about doing a good job. If you could request that your employees furnish him with compliments and positive feedback—which I have no doubt he’d earn, so it wouldn’t be insincere—that would be so great. 2 Gary is weak in the math department…

■ Sometimes the scariest thing you can hear from your toddler is the question “Can I help?” @DADINATING ■ Four-year-old: Tell me a scary story! Me: One time little people popped out of your mom, and they never stopped asking questions. Four-year-old: Why? @XPLODINGUNICORN ■ Sometimes I am amazed that my wife and I created two human beings from scratch yet struggle to assemble the most basic of IKEA cabinets. @ASKDADBLOG (JOHN KINNEAR) Got a funny story about an awkward family gathering? It could be worth $100. See page 7 for details.…

On January 10, 2013, Strickland’s attorney, John Cayce, argued that, while most states allow a person to recover sentimental damages for the loss of a parent, spouse, or child, they do not award damages for the loss of, say, an aunt or a grandparent. “If the Texas Supreme Court affirms the opinion of the appeals court,” he explained, “a dog owner would then be able to recover more for a loss of a pet than American law allows for [the loss of] most human family members.” Turner, the Medlens’ attorney, argued that “it would make no sense to allow sentimental value damages for all types of property except the one that people attach the most sentimental value to.” In the end, the Supreme Court sided with Strickland and reversed the…

FROM MEDIUM.COM MOST PEOPLE DON’T notice I’m polite, which is the point. I don’t look polite. I am big and droopy and need a haircut. No soul would associate me with watercress sandwiches. Still, every year or so, someone takes me aside and says, “You actually are weirdly polite, aren’t you?” I always thrill. They noticed. The complimenters don’t always formulate it gently. Two years ago, at the end of an arduous corporate project, my office mate turned to me and said, “When we started working together, I thought you were a terrible suck-up.” Real politeness, I reasoned, was invisible. It adapted itself to the situation. She frowned. “But it actually helped get things done. It was a strategy.” My coworker was surprised to see the stubborn power of politeness…

A blood clot is a medical emergency because of the possibility of a pulmonary embolism. If you experience any of the symptoms below, seek medical aid right away, especially if you might be at increased risk because of recent immobility, pregnancy, surgery, or cancer. SIGNS OF DVT IN A LEG: ■ Pain (like a pulled muscle or a charley horse) ■ Swelling ■ Discoloration (red or blue) ■Warm to touch SIGNS OF PULMONARY EMBOLISM: ■ Shortness of breath ■ Chest pain ■ Unexplained cough (may cough up blood) ■ Rapid heartbeat Source: clotconnect.org…

Coffee—a Sun Blocker National Cancer Institute researchers followed nearly 450,000 participants (ages 50 to 71) for an average of ten years. During that time, 2,904 developed malignant melanoma. However, people who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had a 20 percent lower risk than those who drank none. Compounds in coffee may suppress skin cancer by protecting cells from oxidative stress. Midlife Drinking Affects Stroke Risk A big risk of middle-age stroke may be served in a cocktail glass. In a new study published in Stroke, researchers followed 11,644 middleaged Swedish twins for more than 40 years. Compared with those who drank less than half a drink daily, those who had an average of more than two drinks daily had a 34 percent higher risk of stroke.…

$37.50 The price a New Jersey restaurantgoer thought he was paying for a bottle of wine. The waitress said it cost “thirtyseven fifty,” but she had a different thirtyseven fifty in mind, as in the real price— $3,750. In the end, the restaurant lowered the bill to $2,200. Source: nj.com $500 The starting bid for a pile of bird poop on eBay. An Illinois man found droppings on his car’s windshield that bore a resemblance to the late Michael Jackson. So he auctioned them off. “One of two things will happen,” he told UPI. “It will go for an astronomical amount, or I’ll get nothing.” He got nothing. Source: upi.com $1,900,000 The price that a portrait sold for at a New York City auction house. The portrait was of the…

IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR 1. antediluvian (an-tih-duh-’loo-veeen) adj.—A: at dusk. B: nonalcoholic. C: developed a long time ago. 2. bamboozle (bam-’boo-zuhl) v.—A: get drunk. B: deceive. C: get quickly out of control. 3. blandish (’blan-dish) v.— A: coax with flattery. B: wave like a flag. C: tone down. 4. pellucid (puh-’loo-suhd) adj.— A: easy to understand. B: frozen solid. C: innocent of a crime. 5. debacle (dee-’bah-kuhl) n.— A: celebration. B: complete collapse. C: utter surprise. 6. blunderbuss (’bluhn-der-buhs) n.—A: sloppy kiss. B: careless person. C: pitfall. 7. onomatopoeia (ah-neh-mahtuh-’ pee-uh) n.—A: the use of words whose sound suggests the sense. B: repetition. C: speech impediment. 8. dreadnought (’dred-not) n.— A: braid of hair. B: medieval criminal. C: the largest of its kind. 9. spelunking (spe-’luhnk-ing) n.— A: racing…

JACK MOOK, a Gulf War veteran and Pittsburgh police detective, met brothers Josh and Jessee Lyle at Steel City Boxing Association, a nonprofit gym that pairs coaching mentors with inner-city kids, in April 2007. As he coached the boys, Jack, 45, learned some disturbing details about their traumatic home life. Their parents were drug addicts, and the family lived in an area where drug trafficking, prostitution, and violence were everyday realities. The gym became a refuge for Josh and Jessee. Josh, in particular, worked out tirelessly nearly every day. For five years, “it was an escape from home,” Josh says. By late summer 2012, though, the boys had stopped going to the gym. Jack went to track them down and found Josh, then 13, after school about a week before…

OUR SENSE OF “we” has shriveled. Now when people talk about “our kids,” they talk about their own biological kids; they don’t think about all kids. This leads to a situation that’s bad for the economy and bad for democracy. But it’s also just not right. We have an obligation to care for other people’s kids too. ROBERT PUTNAM, PHD, author of the book Our Kids, in Harvard Kennedy School Magazine WISDOM IS LIKE frequent-flier miles and scar tissue; if it does accumulate, that happens by accident while you’re trying to do something else. BARBARA KINGSOLVER, novelist, in a commencement speech at Duke University WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ask me what it takes to get ahead, I tell them to get a job, any job, because there is dignity in all…

FROM THE BOOK VERY GOOD LIVES J. K. ROWLING is the author of the sevenvolume Harry Potter series. Very Good Lives is an illustrated version of her 2008 Harvard University commencement speech. IT IS FAIR TO SAY that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew. Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to…

WHO GOES THERE? In 1943, I was 19 years old and worked at a barbecue located about a mile from my home. It was a beautiful, warm June night, so I decided to walk home from work rather than take a bus. As I walked up the back porch steps, I heard a male voice: “Kiss me, or I’ll scream.” After my initial shock, I turned around to see a young soldier in an Army uniform. I kissed him softly on the cheek. He smiled. “Thank you,” he said, and walked off into the night. NETTIE GORNICK, Butler, Pennsylvania BIG SHOES TO FILL I cleaned out Dad’s closet yesterday. There were two things I couldn’t box up: his work shirts and his two pairs of Red Wing boots. He couldn’t remember…

“This is a good spot. I’m getting a really strong signal.” MY DAUGHTER AMY was holding down two jobs: The first was as a manicurist at a salon; the other was raking leaves for a housing development. One day, she came back from lunch at the raking job to find a note. Her boss, who didn’t know about her other job, had taken down this phone message: “Amy, you have a man to cure on Thursday at three.” NANCY BILLINGS, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts I WAS IN A COUPLE’S home trying to fix their Internet connection. The husband called out to his wife in the other room for the computer password. “Start with a capital S, then 123,” she shouted back. We tried S123 several times, but it didn’t work. So we…

REASSURING NEWS 1 “When we recently examined big food companies over a five-year period, we found that 99 percent of their growth was coming from lower-calorie products. That was, quite frankly, a stunning surprise. So they’re not just sitting around on their hands. They are moving in the right direction.” Former food-industry executive HANK CARDELLO, director of the Obesity Solutions Initiative at the Hudson Institute (a nonprofit think tank) and author of Stuffed 2 “Consumers clearly want more natural ingredients and transparency about what they’re eating, and smart manufacturers are getting that and responding. Nestlé has moved to get rid of artificial colors and flavors in its chocolate candy. Kraft is removing artificial dyes from some types of macaroni and cheese. And some fastfood chains are removing antibiotics from their chicken.” HANK…

AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS landlocked boats are ominous? Anyone else out there run screaming when you hear Christmas carolers approach? Surely others share my suspicions that Brad Pitt and Danny DeVito are brothers. No? Well, I know one thing: A lot of you have odd peccadilloes too. So we’ve shared a list of our readers’ obsessions and anxieties with therapists, doctors, professors, and TMZ (OK, not them) in hopes that they could answer the question … Is it just us? I HATE GETTING PRESENTS. Every time I get one, all I can think is, Oh, great—now I have to get her a present. Am I a grinch? Technically, the Grinch did not hate getting presents at all. He liked them so much, in fact, he stole them.…

FROM THE BOOK BIRDOLOGY WHEN THEY WERE FOUND, the infants were nearly dead. Hatching from eggs the size of navy beans, they were the size of bumblebees, naked and blind. That’s when my friend Brenda Sherburn, who specializes in raising orphaned baby hummingbirds, received a call for help, and I flew from New Hampshire to California to pitch in. Even for a mother hummingbird, raising nestlings is a daunting job. She leaves the nest up to 200 times a day to gather food. And for a human, raising baby hummingbirds is a positively Herculean task—as I soon found out. Every 20 minutes, from dawn to dark, the babies need food. That means catching hundreds of fruit flies a day, freezing them, crushing them with a mortar and pestle, and mixing…

GRAND PRIZE AFTER THE DEATH OF THEIR CHILD How the memory wormed its way into a photograph, leaving only paper. How he piloted ever-lengthening flights, taking blue comfort away from earth while she stayed home with the houseplants, their assemblage of books, the knowledge she could find tarragon, sage, any herb she’d ever need. How they said nothing, and loved each other even in another’s arms. How he steered forward, she stood still; he spoke, and she wrote it down. And they watched across miles, miles of marriage as the small voice between them grew up. (Inspired by the story of Charles and Anne Lindbergh) JENNY LAND, Peacham, Vermont FIRST PRIZE ELLA: OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES Wide-eyed in wonder, Ella beholds the world. “How old are you?” her grandfather asks. She holds…