Table of contents for October 2015 in Reader's Digest

YOU’RE SEATED IN A BOOKSTORE, maybe a coffee shop. The lights dim, someone at a mic. No notes, no reading. It’s not poetry or performance. It’s just a real person telling a true story from her life. That’s the Moth. You might know The Moth Radio Hour, which airs on 460 radio stations, or listen to the podcast, which is downloaded more than 27 million times a year. But for me, nothing beats the story slams, which attract standing-room-only crowds in 19 cities across the country. I’m exhilarated, always: Who will be called up next? Will it be a WWII veteran or a minister with tattoos? How about a Long Island grandmother or that Russian immigrant dad? What happened to them? What will they say, and how will I feel?…

“This project is a simple way for teachers to support their students,” says Kyle Schwartz. AS A NEW TEACHER at Doull Elementary School in Denver, Kyle Schwartz devised a simple way to get to know her third graders, many of whom came from underprivileged homes. She asked them to complete the sentence “I wish my teacher knew …” Their honest responses gave the teacher a glimpse into her students’ struggles. “I wish my teacher knew sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom is not around a lot,” wrote one student. “I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad. He was deported to Mexico when I was three years old,” wrote another. One note that particularly stuck with Kyle was “I wish my teacher knew…

WENDY SUZUKI is a professor of neural science and psychology at New York University and the author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life. LONG BEFORE I EVER wanted to be a neuroscientist, I wanted to be a Broadway star. But despite my early showbiz dreams, I quickly and easily fell into a life of total science geekdom, and I followed those scientific aspirations to the University of California, Berkeley, my family’s alma mater. Now, you have to understand, I come from a very serious Japanese American family. We are always pleasant and very polite but never overly affectionate. You can think of us as a Japanese American version of Downton Abbey, without the accent, the servants, or the real estate. That’s us. So when the time came, Mom and Dad packed…

MY FRIEND CALLED me in hysterics. “I just saw a mouse in my kitchen!” she yelled. “I’m so grossed out! It’s so disgusting!” “What are you going to do?” I asked. “I’m not sure. But you can bet I’ll never eat the stuff I drop on the floor anymore.” KIRSTEN LAUTH, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio TRY AS SHE MIGHT, our granddaughter couldn’t grasp the concept of potty training. Then one day … Success! Jumping up and down, she threw her arms in the air and yelled in excitement, “I went potty all by myself, and now I can go to Harvard!” JAN AND JACK MCCLOSKEY, San Francisco, California JIMMY FALLON ASKED his viewers to tweet #IGotBusted and share the most embarrassing times they got caught. ■ “I was on Facebook at work, and…

RIGHT NOW, 51 percent of Americans want to lose weight, but only 25 percent of people are seriously working toward their goal, according to a recent Gallup poll. One likely reason? Weight loss has become so darn complicated. Popular diets cut out favorite meals or entire categories of nutrients. That’s why I wanted to create a simple program that fits seamlessly into anyone’s tastes and lifestyle: the Stop & Drop Diet. I’ve written several diet books over a number of years—why another one? Because I’ve seen that not every diet works for everyone. Some people have specific health concerns; some prefer general guidelines; others want exact rules. Some people have 100 pounds to lose; others, just a few. Some of my previous books required a certain amount of work, like…

A WOMAN sued St. Paul, Minnesota, for $1,900, claiming a parks and recreation employee drove a department vehicle into her parked car, causing damage. Confusing matters is the fact that the woman works for the department. Really confusing matters is the fact that she was the reckless driver who smashed into her own car. “Because I was working for the city and driving the city vehicle, I feel they are responsible,” she said. Source: twincities.com MILA KUNIS is a chicken thief, says Kristina Karo. Karo insists that when they were in first grade, the future actress absconded with her pet fowl. The pilfering turned Karo into an emotional wreck, so much so that 25 years later, she sued Kunis for $5,000. Kunis denied the charges, and Karo later dropped the…

IN THE SUMMER of 2013, a four-year-old beagle with a blue tattoo in his left ear dropped into my home as if from another planet. He was underweight, and when I lowered him onto a dog bed, it was clear that he’d never, in his four years of life, encountered anything so squishy and soft. He clung to that bed as if it were a life raft. Among the few things I knew about him: His vocal cords had been cut, and he had probably never seen stairs, so I didn’t bother blocking off the second level of my house. When he dared to go outside, he did so guardedly. Catching his reflection in the side of a car was enough to send him pulling me home, frantically. His anxiety…

This quiz features submissions from you, our readers. It’s in response to June’s column, which highlighted our editors’ favorite words. So if the entries seem a bit outlandish, you can shake a fist at your fellow Word Power enthusiasts. Check the next page for answers and contributors. 1. sesquipedalian (ses-kwuh-puh-'dayl-yuhn) adj.—A: prone to walking. B: acting like a clown. C: having many syllables. 2. indefatigable (in-dih-'fa-tihguh-buhl) adj.—A: following a strict diet. B: tireless. C: flame retardant or difficult to extinguish. 3. nugatory ('new-guh-tor-ee) adj.—A: sweet and chewy. B: of no importance. C: rubbed until sore. 4. fantods ('fan-tahds) n.—A: jitters. B: ghosts. C: magazine column dedicated to celebrity news. 5. gandy dancer ('gan-dee dan-ser) n.—A: slick or corrupt politician. B: railroad worker. C: 1930s and ’40s chorus girl. 6. tonsorial…

Extraordinary America We received an astounding amount of positive reader mail for this summer’s “Extraordinary America” issue. Here, a sampling of your letters: Loved your cover story about everyday heroes. It’s great to hear about good neighbors rather than those who only hurt others. Nice job! SYLVIA BRICENO, Arlington, Texas Most of these people are spending their lives helping others and making our country a better place. I fail to see why climbing a mountain in Yosemite qualifies one as a hero. JOYCE PALMER, McSherrystown, Pennsylvania When I received my issue of Reader’s Digest, I flipped to the photo of Larsen Jay surrounded by flowers. This article spoke to me, as the work of Random Acts of Flowers is something I have dreamed of doing. I searched the Internet and found…

COLIN NISSAN is a writer and voice actor who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Is it difficult to get out of the maze? Stretching a mile and a half, the Honey Pot Hills Orchard maze is one of the largest in New England! It can certainly be challenging, but that’s the fun! What’s the average time it takes to exit the maze? It ranges. We’ve had folks find their way out in under an hour; others are still in there. What if I don’t make it out before Honey Pot Hills closes? We strongly suggest building a shelter and a fire before nightfall. The temperature really drops inside the maze and, from what we understand, securing a campsite can be contentious. Is there crime inside the maze? We wish we were…

IN 2001, Eugene and Jenny Vanderpol noticed that the 20 eucalyptus trees on their neighbors’ Carlsbad, California, property had grown tall enough to block their view of the Pacific Ocean. They offered to pay to have the trees trimmed, and their neighbors, Fred and Indra Starr, agreed to have the trees cut back to 14 feet tall. A year later, the Vanderpols again paid for a trimming. However, in 2004, on the day the trees were to be trimmed a third time, Indra Starr decided she wanted only a few feet cut off select trees. The Vanderpols were upset, but in the end, the trees were not trimmed at all. Sometime later—the Vanderpols contend it was a month, the Starrs say three years—the Starrs planted additional trees: up to 20…

RESIDENTS OF Gulfport, Mississippi, will never forget August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina battered their city with 16 hours of winds and ocean surges that exceeded 28 feet. After the storm calmed, residents set their sights on rebuilding. But with electricity unlikely to be restored soon, access to money was frozen. Whether you had $100 or $100,000 in the bank didn’t matter; you couldn’t get to it. The CEOs of Hancock Bank, a local financial institution, made a surprising decision. They would jump-start commerce using a basic strategy: trust. Hancock’s leaders decided to trust that people whom they allowed to withdraw money would pay it back. Bank employees set up folding tables around the community and gave up to $200 to anyone who wrote his or her name, address, and Social…

YOUR BIRTHDAY dictates your zodiac sign, but new research suggests that it may also affect various aspects of health later in life. Keep in mind: The impact of birth season is far from definitive; heredity and environment play a far bigger role. Fall Birthdays ■ BETTER PHYSICAL FITNESS A study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine found that schoolage boys born in November scored an average of ten percentile points higher on tests of cardiorespiratory fitness, handgrip strength, and lowerbody power compared with those born in April. Fall babies’ mothers are pregnant in the summer, when vitamin D levels surge. Vitamin D affects fetal physical development. ■ FOOD ALLERGIES People with autumn birthdays were 30 to 90 percent more likely to develop food allergies than those born in other…

THE MAN AT THE MARKET When the supermarket clerk tallied up my groceries, I was $12 over what I had on me. I began to remove items from the bags, when another shopper handed me a $20 bill. “Please don’t put yourself out,” I told him. “Let me tell you a story,” he said. “My mother is in the hospital with cancer. I visit her every day and bring her flowers. I went this morning, and she got mad at me for spending my money on more flowers. She demanded that I do something else with that money. So, here, please accept this. It is my mother’s flowers.” LESLIE WAGNER, Peel, Arkansas JIM AND THE JOB My neighbor, Jim, had trouble deciding if he wanted to retire from the construction field,…

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, an awesome collection of military power that is in a terrible way the crowning glory of American civilization. Seventy-five thousand sailors and civilians work here, their job the daily business of keeping an armada spit-shined and ready for deployment at any moment. When I visited last December, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a 1,000-foot-long floating war machine that was central to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, was in port. Cranes loaded equipment onto the deck, sailors rushed up and down the gangplanks, and helicopters hovered overhead. You can’t spend ten minutes here without feeling the deep sense of history. The Battle of Hampton Roads, a naval showdown between two Civil War ironclads, occurred just offshore.…

KIDNAPPED AT GUNPOINT Around 9:30 on a cold March morning, a 17-year-old girl was carjacked at gunpoint in Wildwood, New Jersey. This was unexpected. The identity of the woman holding the gun on her was not. In the preceding weeks, the teenager had given her newborn baby up for adoption. Forty-five-year-old Floribert Nava—the woman now pointing a gun at her—desperately wanted the child and was devastated when a Philadelphia family was chosen instead. It seemed she was not taking no for an answer. “Drive,” Nava said, “or I’ll kill you and your family.” Nava demanded she be taken to the home of the baby’s new parents, on the other side of the Delaware River. Besides the pistol, Nava carried with her duct tape, trash bags, and latex gloves. Whatever this…

“Just because you can’t dance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dance.” —Alcohol @YOYOHA (JOSH HARA) My cat just walked up to the paper shredder and said, “Teach me everything you know.” @NICCAGEMATCH “Don’t worry; I’ll hold your stuff. You just worry about making friends.” —Cargo shorts @DEARANYONE (ARTIE JOHANN) “Um.” —First horse that got ridden @RORYNOTROY A sign said, “Do not allow your dog to chase, injure, or worry wildlife.” How is a dog going to “worry” wildlife? Run up to a bird: “Hey, I think you’ve got something on your beak. It could be a tumor.” ANDY KINDLER My girlfriend told me to take a spider out instead of killing it. We went and had some drinks. Cool guy. Wants to be a lawyer. @FATTMERNANDEZ (MATT FERNANDEZ)…

WHILE IN KUWAIT, shortly before we deployed to Iraq, a major general told our meeting that we should expect to cross “into Iraq in less than 24 hours.” He then opened the floor to questions. A lieutenant stood up and asked, “Is that 24 hours our time or 24 hours their time?” JESSE KANE, Iowa City, Iowa OLD ARMY TRUISM: Coffee tastes better if the latrines are dug downstream from an encampment. Source: milhist.net WHEN A SOLDIER came to the clinic where I work for an MRI, he was put into the machine by an attractive, young technician. Sometime later, when the examination was over, he was helped out of the machine by a far older woman. The soldier remarked, “How long was I in there for?” JOANNE KORMAN, Bedford, Nova Scotia…

JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT on a cool July morning, Manek Campbell, 34, awoke to the smell of smoke. At first, she thought her teenage daughter Unek Langford and stepdaughter Kennedi Campbell might still be up making a snack. Manek’s husband, Kenneth, was working his overnight shift as a medical courier. “What are you girls burning out there?” Manek hollered. “It’s not us!” Unek, 15, yelled back from the bedroom down the hall that she and Kennedi, 14, shared. “The smoke woke us up too.” Seven months pregnant, Manek eased out of bed and into the living room, already plotting the quickest route out of the apartment. At the back door, she thought they might escape down the stairs from her thirdfloor apartment to a parking lot. But when she opened the…

OUR ABILITY to feel sad is what stirs compassion in others and empathy in ourselves. There is no growth without loss, and no art without longing. A. O. SCOTT, film critic, in the New York Times WHEN WE CLICK on a website hoping to read an article and instead are confronted with a loud, bright video, the automatic response is not so different from that of our prehistoric ancestors, walking in the forest and stumbling upon a bear or a sabertoothed hyena. Our body reacts first to eliminate the stressor in our midst. LIRAZ MARGALIT, PHD, Web psychologist, on thenextweb.com PAPER MONEY won’t even be a thing by the time [the redesigned $10 bill] comes out … If you want to make a real stab at progress, put women on pre-obsolete things.…

DARK WATERS Night wreck diving in Micronesia is scary. One hundred feet down, the water is the blackest. Two of us dived toward a sunken ship that soon loomed large in the dark water. We felt the ghosts of the Japanese sailors who had died with this WWII freighter. Swimming deeper into the ship’s bowels, my buddy suddenly hit a layer of reflective silt, blinding us. Together we groped through the ship, breaking through the uninterrupted, silent blackness of the sea. Watching our bubbles, we rose to the surface, where I ripped off my mask to breathe the tropical air. DARYL EIGEN, Portland, Oregon BLACK CAT A wee bit of a kitten, she meowed louder than a freight train from behind the shelter’s cage. “Can we get this one?” asked Katie,…

Lost Receipts ■ $144 A YEAR Those jeans that don’t fit quite right? Stuck in your closet because you can’t find the receipt. Americans return almost 9 percent of the merchandise we buy in stores, according to the National Retail Federation. Many retailers will let you make a return without a receipt, though your credit may be for the lowest-ever price. When a clerk asks, “Do you want the receipt in the bag?” say no. Keep it in your wallet until you know the purchase works. Unused Gift Cards ■ $48 EACH Gift cards can get left in old purses and buried in drawers. The average card is worth about $48. Designate a holding tank, like an envelope or a file folder, and then schedule a shopping trip to use…

YVETTE SAMUELS was listening to jazz one night when she felt a stabbing pain down her left shoulder. She suspected a heart attack—she had heard about the symptoms on a Rosie O’Donnell stand-up routine on television—and managed to scratch on the door that connected her room to her neighbor’s. He found her collapsed on the floor. Paramedics arrived minutes later and slapped electrocardiogram leads on her chest, transmitting the telltale pattern of a heart attack to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey. As the ambulance raced, Samuels asked the paramedic, “Can this kill me?” He murmured yes, then told the driver, “Step on it!” She thought, This will be my last view of the world, the last time I will see the night sky. Instead, she…

Exercise Your Mouth To Stop Snoring Have a bed partner who snores? A study published in the journal Chest found that doing three months of mouth exercises reduced people’s rate of snoring 36 percent and volume 59 percent. Snoring occurs when throat muscles relax, the tongue falls backward, and the throat walls vibrate. Performing exercises—like saying “Ah” and stretching the back of the throat open—for seven minutes, three times daily, can strengthen sagging muscles. How Pollution Damages the Brain Increased exposure to fine particles from air pollution significantly decreases the brain’s white matter (important for cognition) in older adults, says a large new study published in the Annals of Neurology. Elderly women in the 25 percent most polluted places had a decrease in white matter volume equal to one to…

ON SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005, my reality changed. That was when I discovered a handprint on the bathroom mirror in my home. The day it appeared was the first anniversary of the death of my husband, Max Besler. We had been married for four years when he was found, at the age of 56, to have esophageal cancer. Six months later, he was gone, devastating me and my 14-year-old son, Tanner. In his final two months, Max spent a lot of time during the day with our friend and housekeeper, Helen. He insisted that I continue working—I was the publisher of the Sacramento Bee— so I went to the office and drove home at lunch for visits. One day, Helen and Max were in the kitchen. The sun was shining…

IT WAS JULY 5, and flatlanders were flocking to barbecues and water parks. Hein was honoring the spirit of Independence Day by doing what he loved best: getting out into the mountains on his own. He’d been making such solitary journeys for as long as he could remember. As a small boy, he would race ahead of his parents and younger sister on family hikes, clambering up any pinnacle he could find. As a teenager, in the central California suburb of Clovis, exploring the nearby Sierra Nevada became his obsession. Because few friends could match his pace and endurance, he usually went solo—and in college, his treks sometimes stretched to a week or more. Whenever he felt sad, frustrated, or unsure of his purpose, a long walk at high elevation…

It’s the bleary, wee hours of the morning, and the murder interrogation has yet to yield the confession the detectives are counting on to seal the case. They have sat and stood and paced in this cramped little room for 12 hours already, and although the suspect keeps inching close to giving them what they need, he repeatedly draws back, as if he can’t admit even to himself the enormity of the crime. The date is November 6, 1986, and the place is Clearwater, Florida. Three days ago, an attractive 25-yearold cake decorator named Janet Staschak was found naked and murdered in the upstairs bedroom of her apartment. Her purse was missing, a window screen had been cut, and her car had been found in the parking garage at the…

IT’S AN ARGUMENT every persnickety homeowner has had: Should the end of the toilet paper hang over the top of the roll or be tucked underneath it? We may finally have an answer, courtesy of an 1891 patent by New York businessman Seth Wheeler. Credited by some as America’s founding father of toilet paper, Wheeler patented the first perforated wipes in 1871 and launched his Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company in ’77, two years before the Scott brothers debuted their blockbuster brand. Wheeler filed dozens of patents until the 1920s, including those for toilet paper crimped into ornamental patterns and disposable “bosom pads” meant to replace expensive corsets. But his greatest invention was the roll-and-handles design in 1891—a now-ubiquitous fixture whose patent illustration solved the “over/under” tissue issue before it…

Don’t think of it as charity; think of it as investing in the human race. TREVOR NOAH, comedian SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN ON THIRD BASE AND GO THROUGH LIFE THINKING THEY HIT A TRIPLE. BARRY SWITZER, former NFL coach BE THE PERSON YOU NEEDED WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER. AYESHA A. SIDDIQI , edi tor, the New Inquir The two hardest things to say in life are hello for the first time and goodbye for the last. ANONYMOUS Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either. GOLDA MEIR There is a crack in everything; that is how the light gets in. LEONARD COHEN TIMES HAVE NOT BECOME MORE VIOLENT. THEY HAVE JUST BECOME MORE TELEVISED. MARILYN MANSON…