Table of contents for November 2015 in Reader's Digest

A MAN SITS ON THE SIDEWALK a few blocks from my office. He holds no sign; he asks for no money or food. He just offers a steady stream of greetings to passersby. One evening, the man breaks his good-natured facade. “Don’t ignore me like I don’t exist,” he shouts at the humanity hurrying past him. “You can say hello!” The next day, a woman in a blue Ann Taylor dress sits beside him, a cup of coffee in her hand, another in his. They are talking. Simple as that. I think, This woman—maybe a woman who works nearby—heard this man. I also think about a single mom mentioned in this month’s “If You Find This Letter …” (page 116). Depressed and down on her luck, the young mom could…

LAST MAY, Clarence Blackmon, 81, returned to his Fayetteville, North Carolina, apartment after months in the hospital for prostate cancer treatment. He found his refrigerator and pantry were nearly empty. Clarence’s wife, Wanda, had passed away a few years earlier, and he had no family nearby to help him with grocery shopping. Unable to drive or walk, Clarence called a local supermarket, but the manager told him the store didn’t deliver. Hungry and desperate, Clarence dialed 911. “I don’t need to be transported anywhere,” he told the operator, Marilyn Hinson. “I just need somebody to bring me some food. I can’t do anything. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t get out of my chair.” Marilyn asked her supervisor, Lisa Reid, if she would allow her to offer her assistance, and…

ANDREA CAMMELLERI woke up on February 13, 2014, made a cup of coffee, looked out the front window of her house in West Jefferson, Ohio, and panicked. Her 1993 Ford Ranger, which had been parked on the street the night before, was gone. Cammelleri called 911. When she gave the dispatcher the year, make, and model, he told her that her car had not been stolen. “It was impounded for overtime parking,” he said. Cammelleri, then 45, was confused. There weren’t any No Parking signs posted along the curb. Her truck was licensed and drivable. Plus, she’d been parking it on the street nearly every day and night since she’d moved into her home two and a half years earlier. Later, when a police officer dropped off the actual ticket,…

WITH ENGINES roaring and American flags waving, ten Patriot Guard Riders escorted the casket of Ret. Army Sgt. Ryan Dickinson from the service in Islip, New York, to a nearby cemetery. The riders then stood with flags raised while taps was played and Dickinson’s casket was lowered into a grave. The Patriot Guard Riders were honoring Dickinson as they have honored thousands of fallen U.S. military service people and first responders across the country since the organization launched in 2005. According to its website, Patriot Guards show up to demonstrate “respect for those who risk their lives for America’s freedom.” Photographer Rick Wenner was also there. Dickinson had been a family friend, who, at 26, died much too young. The interment “was an incredibly powerful moment,” says Wenner. As he…

FROM THE BOOK OUTSMARTING ALZHEIMER’S WHEN PHYSICIAN Alois Alzheimer came to examine her, Auguste Deter was sitting on a hospital bed. Alzheimer asked, “What’s your name?” “Auguste,” answered the 51-yearold patient at a Frankfurt hospital. “Last name?” “Auguste,” she repeated. “What’s your husband’s name?” “Auguste,” she said, sounding confused. “I think.” While Deter was eating cauliflower and pork for lunch, Alzheimer asked, “What are you eating?” “Spinach,” Deter answered. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Potatoes.” Alzheimer jotted down the conversation word for word. At the time, in 1901, doctors had no term to describe Deter’s condition. When the woman died five years later, Alzheimer autopsied her brain and examined it under a microscope. He observed thick fibers, called tangles, that wrapped around the cells’ interiors, crushing their contents. He…

SOUP IS A successful dieter’s secret weapon. A 2014 study found regular soup eaters have smaller waists and weigh less than people who don’t eat soup. Typically, broth-based soups are your best bet to keep calories in check, but if you’re craving something heartier, a few tricks can make this warm comfort food part of any healthy lifestyle. Eat your favorite soups, but look for those with low-fat milk or low-sodium broth to keep weight loss on track. Bonus: Add your own vegetables for slimming fiber. On the Stop & Drop Diet, you stop eating the unhealthy versions of the foods you love so you can drop up to five pounds in five days. Learn more about the book’s meal plans and 21-day course, in which author Liz Vaccariello coaches…

■ Adrian’s lung spontaneously collapsed when he was 18. ■ Becky had an ectopic pregnancy that caused massive internal bleeding. ■ David had an aortic valve replaced. ■ Carl had Saint Anthony’s fire, a strep infection of the skin that killed John Stuart Mill. ■ When she was two, Laura (that’s me) had scarlet fever, which was once a leading cause of death among children but is now easily treatable with antibiotics. ■ Katherine was found to have pernicious anemia in her 20s. She treats it with supplements of vitamin B12. ■ Julia had a burst appendix at 14. ■ Dahlia would have died delivering a child (twice) or later of a ruptured gallbladder. ■ Hanna acquired type 1 diabetes during pregnancy and would’ve died without insulin. ■ Mitch was…

NEW YORK, NEW YORK The third-grade boys I teach have a war game, and it’s not like your regular little-boy war game. There’s always a bloody nose happening every day. During free time, they tie one another to chairs with construction paper and practice interrogation techniques. And I’m lost. I am a teacher who loves teddy bears, but when I tell them, “Please stop,” they look at me like, Why would we do third grade when there’s a war on? One day I hear one of the younger kids, Oliver,* ask a general, Greg,* if he can be in the army at recess, and Greg says, “Sure. You can be a suicide bomber.” Oliver asks, “Why?” And Greg says, “Because everyone wants you to die.” I go over to Greg,…

FROM THE BOOK FIRE SEASON ON NOVEMBER 18, 1994, I wake from a vivid dream. I sit up in bed, heart pounding, face wet with tears. My husband, Troy, asks, “What’s wrong?” “I was falling backward … in this huge avalanche,” I sob, “and everything I owned, everything I’d ever accomplished in my life, was tumbling over me, pounding and crushing me until there was nothing but dust.” “It was just a dream, honey.” He wraps his arms around me. Cissy, nine, and Taylor, four, are downstairs eating Cheerios. Cartoons hum cheerily in the background. The dogs are under the table, waiting to catch any stray crumbs. I try to shake the residual feelings from the dream. “Everything’s fine; everything’s fine,” I say to myself, all day long. After school,…

IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR 1. impetuous (im-'peh-choo-wes) adj.—A: full of questions. B: scheming. C: rash. 2. traduce (truh-'doos) v.—A: shame using lies. B: parry with a sword. C: exchange for a profit. 3. whet ('wet) v.—A: sharpen or stimulate. B: moisten. C: hasten. 4. rub ('ruhb) n.—A: piece of gossip. B: difficulty. C: good-luck charm. 5. germane (jer-'mayn) adj.— A: poisonous. B: relevant. C: ghostly. 6. incorporeal (in-kor-'por-ee-uhl) adj.—A: using military might. B: having no body. C: full of tiny holes. 7. wax ('waks) v.—A: grow smaller. B: grow larger. C: grow a mustache. 8. paragon ('par-uh-gahn) n.— A: mounted soldier. B: five-sided figure. C: example of excellence. 9. calumny ('ka-luhm-nee) n.— A: row of pillars. B: disaster. C: character attack. 10. beguile (bih-'giyl) v.— A: bond or form…

Silent Signs Your Body Is in Big Trouble I was going to skip this article because it appeared to be for young women, but I thought the information might be useful for my granddaughters. Imagine my surprise when it was also about problems facing men and women of an older generation—or two! Five photos of healthy young women don’t represent at least half of your readers. ESTHER ESSON, The Dalles, Oregon Sitting with a Soldier As I read this essay, the tears started to flow. My son is in the Air Force and has been on four deployments. It’s nice to know that there are still people who appreciate what the military is doing to keep us safe. JILL DESMOND, South Weymouth, Massachusetts Let Sleeping Dogs Lie We had settled in one…

FROM THE BOOK HAPPILY ALI AFTER MY HUSBAND, Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos, and I have never been to couples therapy. But if we ever went, this is how I imagine it would go: (INT. THERAPIST’S OFFICE. Upper West Side, New York City. Afternoon. Husband, in a finely tailored suit and a navy striped tie, and Ali, in tattered jeans and looking like a bedraggled Bennington College student, sit on a tweed love seat holding hands. Dr. Love sits across from the couple in a leather wing-back chair, holding a notebook and a pen.) DR. LOVE: So ... what brings you to therapy today? ALI: Um, everyone we know is in couples therapy, and we aren’t. DR. LOVE: So you came to couples therapy because everyone you know goes? ALI: Yes,…

EXCESS BAGGAGE “Ticket is $287. But all of that is a problem.” She’s referring to my luggage cart, stacked with suitcases, boxes, and a bag full of shoes. “One bag is free. Everything else is $100 each.” I tell her I packed my Volkswagen after discovering my boyfriend was cheating. Fried the engine. Hitchhiked to the airport in flip-flops. She left her cheating husband recently, hardest decision she ever made. She checks it all, charges me nothing. As I leave, I don’t feel the crush of having no plan, only the weightlessness of being free. EILEEN DOUGHARTY, Chicago, Illinois PRAYER QUILT I started quilting so I could spend time with my aunt. I didn’t accomplish much until my little sister was put into the hospital. She lived 13 hours away, which…

• Greg is a rare mix of faux intelligence and stalled ambition. Just when you think he’s completely checked out during a meeting, he’ll ask a rhetorical question padded with corporate buzzwords or look up from his phone to restate something we already know. A mediocre addition to any company! • I’ve had the great fortune of having my bathroom schedule synced with Maria’s for over two years. Every time we see each other in there, we smile and shake our heads, as if to say, “Here we are again! Peeing at the same time!” I think she’s also responsible for the internal newsletter? • John and I worked together for more than four years. In that time, I was always impressed by his ability to take many more vacation…

STEPHEN COLBERT ● “Now, for my younger viewers out there, a book is something we used to have before the Internet. It’s sort of a blog for people with attention spans.’’ ● “Watching soccer is like watching grass grow, with soccer players in the way.” ● “You said in your book that at the end of the day, every politician is human. What about during the day?” TINA FEY ● “Why are my arms so weak? It’s like I did that push-up last year for nothing!” KEVIN HART ● “If you’re feeling bored, find a group photo of four girls on Instagram and then comment, ‘You three look great!’ Wait and grab popcorn.” AMY POEHLER ● “I’m going to be direct and honest with you. I would like a glass…

AS TOLD TO MELODY WARNICK AS A NURSE AT THE CANCER CARE CENTER where I’ve worked for seven years, I’ll do almost anything to make a patient feel better. I’m quick with blankets and juice and will gladly hold a hand for a prayer. But when I met Patricia McNulty at the MetroWest Cancer Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2011, she didn’t want my help. She was a tiny 44-year-old single mom getting high doses of chemotherapy to battle an aggressive head and neck cancer. Unlike many of our other patients, Patty was alone during her treatment, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get her to open up. She just buried herself in a book or pulled a blanket over her head to fend off conversation. Eventually I…

FROM NEW REPUBLIC LUNCH AT THE MARRIOTT HOTEL in Mesa, Arizona, was a southwestern buffet of overcooked chicken and soggy enchiladas. I’d recently met a friendly man with a shaved head and a pale oblong face named Paul Tabachneck, so we sat down together at a table to eat. Tabachneck ate carefully, eyes trained on his plate or a spot on the beige walls. But his conversation was lively—he talked about busking as a guitarist in the New York subway while trying to achieve a dream of being a professional musician. After about ten minutes, I scraped my knife against my plate while cutting my chicken. Tabachneck whipped his head around to look at me, his eyes suddenly cold. “Did you have to do that?” he snapped. “And did you…

■ Forty is the only number in English whose letters appear in alphabetical order. ■ Minus 40 degrees, or “40 below,” is the only temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. ■ When the bubonic plague gripped Europe during the Middle Ages, ships would be isolated in harbor for 40 days before passengers could go ashore. The Italian word for 40 is quaranta—hence quarantine. ■ There are 40 spaces on a standard Monopoly board. Proving that life is a gamble, the game gives players equal odds (one in 40) of going directly to jail or winning the Free Parking lottery. ■ Forty is the maximum number of players a Major League Baseball team can sign to its roster at once. ■ Forget “nine months”; a typical pregnancy…

ON THEIR LAST DAY of summer break in August 2013, brothers Conner and Caleb Richey were at home in Enterprise, Alabama, when a huge crash reverberated through the two-story house. Caleb, 19, who was playing video games downstairs, was certain that there had been a car accident on Highway 167, about 400 yards from the house. He ran upstairs and burst into Conner’s room. “We have to get outside!” Caleb told his brother. The two boys sprinted barefoot across the front yard and down a small wooded hill. When they emerged from the trees, they saw three vehicles—a red pickup truck, a black sedan, and a black tow truck—all of which had been struck. A man who looked shocked but uninjured sat on the bumper of the tow truck, which…

FROM THE BOOK BIG MAGIC TWENTY YEARS AGO, I was at a party, talking to a guy whose name I have long since forgotten. Sometimes I think this man came into my life for the sole purpose of telling me this story, which has delighted and inspired me ever since. The story he told me was about his younger brother, who was trying to be an artist; it was an anecdote about how brave, creative, and trusting his brother was. For the purposes of this story, let’s call the little brother Little Brother. Little Brother, an aspiring painter, went to France to surround himself with beauty and inspiration. He lived on the cheap, painted every day, visited museums, traveled to picturesque locations, bravely spoke to everyone he met, and showed…

THE AROMA of flour, sugar, and butter mingling in the oven is a better tonic than any alcohol. And the best recipe for a good evening is a dish so fragrant that it makes the tongue-tied start to talk. The formula is simple: When you cook for people, they feel cared for. RUTH REICHL, chef and food writer, in her book My Kitchen Year WE’VE NEVER SAID protests are the answer, but protests create space for the answer. Protest is disruption. Protest is confrontation. Protest is the end of silence, and what protest does is it creates space for the other work to happen. DERAY MCKESSON, social justice activist, in Ebony SUFFERING FROM homesickness is distressing and unpleasant … But that’s its value—much like physical pain. We don’t like pain, but its…

Which headlines are real? 1. Man Arrested After Harassing Couple in Car He Thought Was an Alien Spaceship 2. Justice at Last: This Man Spent 38 Years in Prison for a Crime He Didn’t Commit, so Now They’re Letting Him Commit That Crime! 3. Panda in Taiwanese Zoo Accused of Faking Pregnancy to Get Better Living Conditions 4. Lexington Woman Being Strangled with Bra Fights off Attacker with Ceramic Chicken 5. Online University Allows Students to Amass Crippling Debt at Own Pace 6. School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon 7. Air Canada Passenger Gives Birth at 35,000 Feet over Pacific Ocean During Flight to Japan; Is Immediately Billed $75 for an Extra Carry-on Answers: 1. fox16.com—Little Rock, Arkansas (Real); 2. Clickhole.com (Fake); 3. International Business Times (Real); 4. WKYT—Lexington,…

FROM CONSUMER REPORTS ON HEALTH DESPITE ALL OUR knowledge that antibiotics don’t kill viruses and the undeniable risk of overuse to public and personal health, doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics when the drugs aren’t necessary, found a recent Consumer Reports survey of 1,000 adults. This can lead to the growth of “superbugs”—bacteria that can’t be controlled even with multiple drugs—and serious consequences. MRSA and other resistant bacteria infect at least two million people in the United States annually, killing at least 23,000. Several major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have recently tried to correct antibiotic misuse by explaining when the drugs are and aren’t needed. Ear infections WHEN TO SAY NO Most ear infections improve without drugs, especially in children two…

Drink This Before Driving Mild dehydration may increase driver inattention and compromise safety as much as alcohol does. A small Loughborough University study tracked men during two simulated driving tests. In one test, they drank large amounts of water the day before and the day of the test. In another, they had limited water both days. When dehydrated, the men made 101 minor driving errors (comparable to a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent) but only 47 errors when hydrated. Breath Test for Liver Disease It is difficult to detect liver disease, but a breath test that identifies a compound found in oranges and lemons may help doctors diagnose it sooner. In a British study, the compound, limonene, was higher in the breath samples of 31 patients with cirrhosis than it…

FROM SLATE THE MOST IMPORTANT difference between the world today and 150 years ago isn’t airplane flight, nuclear weapons, or the Internet. It’s life span. We used to live 35 to 40 years on average in the United States, but now we live almost 80. We used to get one life. Now we get two. You may well be living your second life already. Have you ever had some health problem that could have killed you if you’d been born in an earlier era? Leave aside for a minute the probabilistic ways you would have died in the past—the smallpox that didn’t kill you because it was eradicated by a massive global vaccine drive; the cholera you never contracted because you drink filtered and chemically treated water. Did some specific…

NEWINGTON, CONNECTICUT It’s snowing as my car slides across the road and collides with the Mercedes head-on, sending me through the windshield. When I open my eyes, I’m on the side of the road, and there’s a teenage boy, no older than I, leaning over my broken body. I close my eyes, and my heart stops beating. When I open my eyes, I’m in the back of an ambulance, and there’s a woman pounding on my chest, shouting, “He’s back! He’s back!” Then I’m in an emergency room, and there are doctors working on my legs and my chest, as I tell a nurse through broken teeth that she needs to call McDonald’s because I won’t be making it to my shift. She looks at me as if I’m crazy.…

FROM NEW YORK EVEN AS I SAID IT, I knew it was ridiculous and selfish. “Just promise you’ll make it till my 30th birthday,” I said quietly to Kitty, my tiny ten-year-old cat. We were both under my bed, where she’d decamped the minute we returned home from a long day at the vet. Earlier that day, I’d found out she had a terminal heart condition. Nearly two and a half years later, she’d die from it in an emergency room in the middle of the night. This was a longer prognosis than any vet had predicted, and yet I can’t stop wondering whether I did the right thing in delaying the inevitable. The twice-a-day pills, the bimonthly visits to the veterinary cardiologist (which almost always included a chest tap,…

GOOD IDEA ... A serial bank robber in Pittsburgh was known to police for his red beard. So for his next heist, he wore a disguise. ... TOO BAD IT DIDN’T WORK: The disguise he chose was a red beard to cover his red beard. The robber was arrested after his getaway car was recognized as belonging to a bank robber with … a red beard. Source: wtae.com GOOD IDEA ... Someone in Iowa City, Iowa, bought a sculpture made of “found” items—discarded electronics— and placed it in a space where art is left for public consumption. ... TOO BAD IT DIDN’T WORK: Authorities thought it was a bomb and blew it up. Source: upi.com GOOD IDEA ... To avoid paying a $50 luggage fee, a passenger flying to Glasgow,…

Fortune Cookie We thought it was from: CHINA It’s actually from: CALIFORNIA Tweaking a Japanese recipe, Makoto Hagiwari claims his San Francisco teahouse invented the modern paper-stuffed fortune cookie in 1914; David Jung says it was his Los Angeles noodle shop in 1918. Your fortune says: Only fools go to war over cookies. Garlic Bread We thought it was from: ITALY It’s actually from: MICHIGAN One tale is that soldiers serving in Italy during World War II were spoiled on bruschetta—a classic dish of toasted bread drizzled with olive oil. Savvy chefs met the returning troops’ demand by slathering toasted white bread with garlic and margarine. In 1970, Cole’s Breads planted a foodie flag in Michigan by selling the world’s first frozen garlic bread. Chimichanga We thought it was from:…

A YEAR FROM NOW, YOU’LL WISH YOU HAD STARTED TODAY. ANONYMOUS When you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. OPRAH WINFREY IF WE DON’T BELIEVE IN FREE EXPRESSION FOR PEOPLE WE DESPISE, WE DON’T BELIEVE IN IT AT ALL. NOAM CHOMSKY, linguist It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? HENRY DAVID THOREAU, wri ter Adults are just obsolete children, and the hell with them. THEODOR GEISEL, “DR. SEUSS” Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. ANNE LAMOTT, writer FEAR IS A PAIR OF HANDCUFFS ON YOUR SOUL FAYE DUNAWAY, act ress…