Table of contents for April 2021 in Reader's Digest

My first job was as a cub reporter in a pack of ten journalists at the Gilroy Dispatch in California. The paper came out three times a week. The town was the “garlic capital of the world,” with farmers and farmworkers, blue-collar workers, and the rare commuter. I covered school board politics, fatal crashes on the highway south, whatever was needed. My colleagues loomed as large as the tomato trucks rolling down the 101. They were like a troupe in a loud Steinbeck novel, yoked to one little room. Every phone call was in your ear. Cigarette smoke reached eye level by noon. It was hot. We sweated through it. All that energy went toward Gilroy-honoring it, laughing about it, keeping it honest. I wasn’t born to be a newsman,…

SHETARA SIMS HAD weathered some tough years. In 2012, her eldest daughter was murdered during an argument in Kansas City, Missouri. Last year, the single mother lost her job in the recession. She had only $7 in her pocket as she headed into the grocery store one day last July with her 12-year-old daughter, Rakiya Edmondson. And then Lady Luck finally cut Sims some slack. She and her daughter found a dollar bill in the parking lot. Maybe this was their day, they told each other. So they bought a lottery ticket—and won $100. But before they could spend their windfall, Rakiya had an idea. The news in Kansas City that week had been filled with stories about a police officer, Tyler Moss, who had been shot in the head…

I want to make music that helps. ’Cause that’s the way I help. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t work in government. I make music. —Lizzo, MUSICIAN Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket. —Andrew Carnegie, INDUSTRIALIST I started out reading as an escape, then a chore, then a habit, then a luxury. Only now I’ve realized what a necessity it is. —Phoebe Waller-Bridge, WRITER/ACTOR We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. —Carlos Castaneda, ANTHROPOLOGIST I decided to learn to play the drums, which is the best medicine. For me, at least-maybe not so much for those around me. —Bubba Wallace, NASCAR DRIVER Hope is bold. It can look beyond personal…

TABATHA ROSPROY, age 33, Winfield, Kansas How long have you been teaching preschool? Eleven years, so this feels like a good celebration of a decade of hard work. And you teach in a rather unusual school. We are the first public school pre-K in Kansas housed inside a nursing home. The impact the children have on the lives of the residents is profound, as is the impact the grandparents— which is what we call our volunteers—have on my students. Lucky kids to have dozens of grandparents! They really are. We’re big on the idea of school family as an extension of home family. Do they learn together? Yes. We’re often working on similar skills, such as conversation and fine motor skills. So we get to target two populations with some…

A New Member of Arnie’s Army When I was a student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, I lived in a dormitory named after a famous alum, Arnold Palmer. A big portrait of the golf legend hung in the foyer. One day, a friend of mine—an international student from China who didn’t know who Palmer was—came to pay me a visit. When she got to my room, she asked me, “Why is there a huge painting of George W. Bush in the lobby?” —E.G. OSSINING, NEW YORK Time in Memoriam After my husband passed away, I had no choice but to find new homes for all of his electronics. A man named Jim wanted a clock my husband had made, even though it was dusty and all the wires…

IT WAS JULY 2014. We were building a smaller house and getting ready to move when my husband became very ill. He had to spend nine weeks in assisted living, leaving me to do everything in our new home. By nighttime, I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. One such evening, as I reached for some lotion for my aged hands, I noticed that my Bluebird diamond wedding ring—which I had worn for more than half a century—was missing. My finger was naked. I was devastated. I looked in every drawer, every closet, and the car. No luck. My family told me to retrace my steps. That would be a task, for that day I had closed a bank account, taken my car in to get it…

ON OCTOBER 19, 2016, 41-YEAR-OLD Bobbie Floyd went to Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia and released dozens of balloons. The occasion was more somber than celebratory; she was honoring her late husband on the two-year anniversary of his death. As she and her two sons, ages 8 and 13, watched the colorful balls float up to the heavens, they thought of the missing member of their family and of the motorcycle accident that had taken him away from them. Later that same day, Floyd’s phone rang. It was a social worker asking whether she’d be willing to foster two sisters, ages 7 and 11. Floyd and her husband had talked about adding to their family, a dream she had initially thought had gone with him. But about a year later, she…

EVER SINCE HE WAS A KID growing up on Quadra Island in western Canada, Colin Dowler had pushed himself to do more, go faster, and scale bigger heights, despite having a small physique and a nagging congenital knee disease. When he skied, he raced the double-black diamonds. When he rode his mountain bike, it was on the bumpiest terrain. If he wasn’t a little scared doing something, he didn’t think he was doing it right. Jenifer Dowler, his wife of 16 years, often found herself telling him to slow down. To celebrate his 45th birthday in July 2019, Colin took a week off from his job as manager at a health-care facility in Campbell River, a small town on Vancouver Island’s east coast, where he lived with Jenifer and their…

It was my wedding day, and no one was happier than my 78-year-old mother. But as she approached the church doors, an usher asked, “Which side are you on?” “Oh, no,” she said. “Are they fighting already?” —JOSEPH HUBISZ Bradford, New Hampshire A guy joined our Zoom class shirtless, so the tutor told him to turn his video off. He did as told, and up popped his profile photo: a picture of him shirtless at the beach. — @AUDROCUR I don’t get it when I see skinny people running … aren’t you done??? — @JACKIES_BACKIE I had to rethink where I ranked in my family’s hierarchy when my sister and I found our dad holding court amid friends at a party. “Oh, gentlemen,” he said, pointing to my sister. “Let…

1 Ant-Proof Pet Food Dishes PETS Spring brings lots of nifty stuff (such as flowers and baseball), but it also welcomes seasonal pests (such as ants) that crawl toward available food sources, including your pets’. Protect your dog or cat’s bowl by setting it in a pan of water. Not only will the water act as a moat that deters potential ant-invaders, but also pets can slurp away whenever they need a drink. 2 One Topping for an Instantly Healthier Burger HEALTH A study from UCLA found that topping a burger with half a Hass avocado helped alleviate negative effects red meat has on your heart. Loaded with omega-3s, avocado reduces the restricted blood flow in arteries and the inflammation that occur in the hours after eating red meat. 3…

Male teachers at my old school had to wear suits. But one colleague always managed to subvert the dress code by wearing the ugliest ties. Every day, staff and students alike couldn’t wait to see what hideous accessory he had on. When he retired, I finally asked him, “Why the ugly ties?” He responded, “Because that way, no one would ever know I only owned one suit.” —ROD HANSON Park Forest, Illinois I gave a presentation to a small town as part of my role with North Carolina’s department of transportation. At the end, I asked whether there were any questions. There was. “Can we move the deer-crossing sign on the state-owned road?” asked a councilperson. “Why?” I asked. “That location isn’t a safe place for the deer to cross.”…

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA AS THOUGH THINGS weren’t strange enough last spring, a wild turkey started showing up on my block. It’s normally one of the busiest intersections in Minneapolis, but this turkey strutted down the sidewalk day after day as if she belonged. As word got out about her, more and more people came out to see her. A young woman told me that they had named her Tina—Tina the Turkey. Tina must have been laying eggs in front of the neighbors’ house. She would squat and wiggle her rump in the same place in their yard every day. One day she paraded with five other turkeys through the parking lot, up the two-and-a-half-foot cement wall, and into the yard. I watched in awe—six wild turkeys! One had her feathers ruffled;…

God is speaking to Moses. God: I’ve got good news and bad news. Moses: Give me the good news first. God: The good news is that you have been chosen to deliver my people from bondage. I will force the pharaoh to free the people by sending plagues of locusts, frogs, darkness, devastation, and more. The pharaoh’s armies will chase you all the way to the Red Sea, but don’t worry. I will help you part the waters to aid your escape. Moses: So, what’s the bad news? God: You have to prepare the environmental impact statement. —Submitted by ROBERT STRAND Springfield, Missouri The opposite of … ✦ … mermaid is landlady. — @CALBO ✦ … formaldehyde is casualdejekyll. — @BROWTWEATEN ✦ … Iceland is water water. — @HOTBITHORAN A…

I’m with the Band Now My 50th birthday made me stop and examine my life. With no great accomplishments behind me other than raising a wonderful son and showing up for work each day, I needed a new life adventure, one that would be creative and bring me joy. So I told my husband I was going to start a rock band. I got a bass guitar and, after some lessons, advertised for other musicians to join me. Nineteen years later, our band, Friends in Sound, still performs in venues all over New York City. My band has made my life complete. —Nancy Lenart NEW YORK, NEW YORK I Confronted My Addiction My wife and I are in our second marriage—with each other. On Friday, September 29, 2017, I came…

1 PORTUGAL Garlic for Warts, Corns, and Calluses In Portugal, garlic isn’t just for flavoring food. Many people use it to get rid of corns and calluses (the thickening and hardening of skin at pressure points on the hands and feet) and warts (the small growths caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that can occur anywhere on the body). In fact, research from 2005 published in the International Journal of Dermatology showed that all warts treated with garlic extract disappeared within two weeks, and corns disappeared for 80 percent of subjects after three weeks. Garlic capsules could also provide some overall antibiotic protection. Evidence It Works: The main component of garlic, allicin, is said to have topical antibacterial effects. But be careful not to allow raw garlic to touch…

“Well, if your allies said that about you, then they’re not your allies.” My brother-in-law Dayton, a Marine Corps captain, was invited to a reception hosted by his commanding officer and his wife. Dayton was new to the base, so the CO’s wife took it upon herself to introduce him to other officers. However, she was having trouble remembering his first name. “It’s Dayton,” my brother-in-law said. “Just like the city in Ohio.” That helped tremendously, because the next person she introduced him to, she said, “I want you to meet Akron.” —JAN ALDERMAN Greenville, South Carolina In boot camp, we’re trained to respond to a sergeant with such phrases as, “Here, sergeant. Yes, sergeant. No, sergeant.” Well, maybe not all of us. One day in formation, after the sergeant…

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards recognize nature’s silliest moments, captured for posterity. We wrote equally silly captions for these recent finalists.…

CARL ALLANBY HAD A PROBLEM. It was his auto-repair business. He’d started it at the tender age of 19, working alone out of a rented bay in a friend’s garage. Over the years it had grown into two shops with 11 employees, but Allam by had become antsy, yearning for something more. At first, he thought it must have to do with growing his business even further. So at the age of 34, the Beachwood, Ohio, resident decided to go for his bachelor’s degree in business management. There was a wrinkle, however: After taking classes part-time over the next five years, Allamby was told he had to take biology to get his degree. The last biology class he had taken was in ninth grade. What do I need to take…

ADAPTED FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES WHENEVER SHE THOUGHT HER SMALL STAFF WOULD BE FACING A PARTICULARLY STRESSFUL DEADLINE DAY, REBECCA COLDEN DECLARED A BLOODY MARY MONDAY. THIS WAS definitely one of those Mondays—indeed, the last of them. The Warroad Pioneer, the weekly newspaper that Colden published and which had served its tiny Minnesota town just below the Canadian border for 121 years, was one issue away from certain death. When Colden woke up that day, she listened to a Christian hymn that had buoyed her spirit of late: “This is my story, this is my song/Praising my Savior all the day long.” Now she was trudging into the newsroom on a cold May morning with vodka, olives, and tomato mix. A mock-up of the front page greeted her on the…

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Preston Woodruff held it together for months during the pandemic—working in his garden and workshop, sharing meals with his daughter, and walking in the woods behind his home. Then a sneeze sent him over the edge. Woodruff was sleeping soundly when he woke to an uncomfortable feeling in his nose. He reached for the box of tissues on his nightstand. None peeked up from the top. He tried and tried to dig one out. The entire wad remained tightly wound. So Woodruff grabbed the box, crushed it in his hands, and flung it at the far wall of his bedroom. Alone in the dark, he slammed his head back on the pillow and swore. “I momentarily lost it,” says Woodruff, a retired philosophy professor. Welcome…

Quick Crossword EASY Get ready for Tax Day by filing these tax-related words in the grid. INCOMEPROPERTYSALESCITYESTATECAPITALGAINSCORPORATEFLATPAYROLL Pass the Salt, Please MEDIUM On April Fools’ Day, your mischievous teenager replaces the salt in three of your four salt shakers with sugar. He leaves a note next to each shaker: If only one of these notes is true, which shaker still contains salt? Phoning It In MEDIUM Each number in the message below corresponds to a letter on a standard telephone keypad. For instance, a 2 could represent an A, a B, or a C; a 3 could be a D, an E, or an F, and so on. Can you decipher the message to reveal a timely fun fact? For more Brain Games, go to RD.COM/CROSSWORDS. For answers, turn to page 123.…