Reader's Digestの April 2019 の目次

ON OUR 20TH anniversary, Susan and I headed off for a few days to a lovely valley about an hour away. We didn’t know much about the town, but that was fine. Our goal was really just to renew our faith in each other. We began by stocking up at the quirky Village Market in Glen Ellen, California. Within minutes, friendly locals spotted us and started chatting in the aisles with charming tips. You gotta hike to Jack London’s house. Oh, dinner at the Fig Café. Hours later, having followed their yellow brick road all day, we walked, delirious, back from dinner to our creekside inn. “I think I could live here,” Susan said. It turns out that Glen Ellen’s contagious spirit was not our passing illusion. In October 2017,…

LARA DALY WAS seated on an Alaska Airlines flight en route from Boston to Los Angeles when a flight attendant asked an urgent question over the loudspeaker: “Does anyone on board know American Sign Language?” Clara, 15 at the time, pressed the call button. The flight attendant came by and explained the situation. “We have a passenger on the plane who’s blind and deaf,” she said. The passenger seemed to want something, but he was traveling alone and the flight attendants couldn’t understand what he needed, according to people.com. Clara had been studying ASL for the past year to help with her dyslexia and knew she’d be able to finger spell into the man’s palm. So she unbuckled her seat belt, walked toward the front of the plane, and knelt…

ONE IN six deaths worldwide is from cancer, yet research shows that at least 42 percent of cancers could be prevented. Along with healthy eating and not smoking, add these habits to your list of ways to lower your risk. 1 Wear a hat. A wide-brimmed hat gives your face an added layer of protection on top of your sunscreen. It also covers the back of your neck and your scalp, where many people forget to apply lotion. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study found that people with melanomas on the scalp or neck die at almost twice the rate of people with skin cancer on other parts of their bodies. 2 Consider taking baby aspirin. Research shows it may protect you from as many as ten…

10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE CAN IMPROVE MEMORY Can’t find your keys? Go for a quick walk or do a few yoga poses. In a recent study, brain imaging of 36 healthy young adults who had just exercised for ten minutes showed improved connectivity between the parts of the brain thought to help lay down new memories and the parts involved in detailed memory processing. The participants also improved their performance on a recall test. The researchers now plan to run studies in older adults to understand whether regular light exercise alters the brain’s structure and function over time. Could a Failed Arthritis Drug Help Opioid Addicts? In 2013, researchers were disappointed to find that a drug called LY2828360 did little for osteoarthritis pain. Still, it showed some promise as a…

BASIC: Using a blender or a food processor, blend 1 large pasteurized egg with 1 medium clove garlic, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, and a large pinch kosher salt until smooth. With the machine running, drizzle in 1 cup vegetable oil in a thin stream until a thick sauce forms. HERB: Add 2 to 4 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, parsley, dill, or tarragon to the Basic recipe before blending in oil. MUSTARD: Make the Basic recipe, adding 1 tablespoon of mustard before blending in the oil. EXTRA-GARLIC: Make the Basic with 2 or 3 cloves of garlic rather than 1. HORSERADISH: After blending the Basic, add preserved horseradish 1 tablespoon at a time until desired taste is reached. CHILI-LIME: Replace the lemon juice in the Basic recipe with 1 tablespoon…

DIPLOMATIC CRISIS Sickening Noises IN DECEMBER 2016, a CIA officer checked in to the American Embassy’s health office in Havana suffering from nausea, headache, and dizziness. Days later, two more CIA officers reported similar ailments. By late 2018, the number grew to 26 Americans and 13 Canadians experiencing nausea, hearing loss, vertigo, nosebleeds, and focusing issues. In all the cases, victims claimed that the symptoms were triggered by a strange noise they’d heard at their homes or hotel rooms. One person said the noise was high-pitched. Another described “a beam of sound, pointed into their rooms.” Some insisted that the noise more closely resembled marbles rolling along the floor. The illnesses confounded medical experts. Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania who examined some of the victims diagnosed concussionlike symptoms but…

It was basic training, and I was seated in the barber chair bemoaning the impending loss of my hair when the barber asked, “Where are you from?” “St. Louis,” I grumbled. “Hey, I’m from St. Louis too!” he said. He then asked conspiratorially, “Do you want to keep your sideburns?” I perked up. “Sure!” With that, he revved up the razor, clipped off my sideburns, and gave them to me. As I left the barbershop with sideburns in hand, I heard him ask his next victim, “Where are you from?” “Chicago.” “Hey, I’m from Chicago too!” —STEVE FINKELSTEIN Plano, Texas During KP duty, my sergeant ordered me to prepare 100 gallons of soup for that night’s dinner. When I told him I had no clue how to make soup, he…

Going to bed with a clear conscience, knowing I’ve been kind to all in the past 24 hours.—Yvonne Bodnar DORR, MICHIGAN If you’re a student who aced an exam after studying for it, your hard work made a success for you. A day without drinking as a person in recovery is a success. As a parent, watching your children thrive can be a success. Success is relative to whatever may be at hand.—Melissa Everett Berger FORT WORTH, TEXAS When you’ve achieved inner peace despite life’s hardships and imperfections.—Nafia Tariq FERNDALE, WASHINGTON Paying all your bills on time.—Janie Archer GRIFFIN, GEORGIA When a student comes in at the beginning of the year saying “I can’t” and leaves in the spring doing the “I can” like he’s been doing it all his…

Word Sudoku MediuM Complete the grid so that each row, each column, and each threeby-three frame contains the nine letters from the black box below. A hidden nine-letter word is in the diagonal from top left to bottom right. (It may contain repeated letters.) E G H I J L M P T Buttons EASY Erik bought some identical brass buttons for a jacket, each for the same price. It just so happens that if you add two to the number of buttons he bought, you get the price of each button in cents. If he spent a total of $4.83, how many buttons did he buy? School Supplies MEDIUM You need to acquire at least six pencils, six pens, and six erasers for $5.20 or less. If the packages…

1. fiddly adj. ('fih-duh-lee) A set to lively music. B needing close attention. C insignificant. 2. knackered adj. ('na-kerd) A clever. B exhausted. C cluttered. 3. brolly n. ('brah-lee) A umbrella. B young man. C streetcar. 4. pitch n. (pich) A northern county. B playing field. C stiff collar. 5. ta interj. (tah) A oh dear. B to your health. C thanks. 6. posh adj. (pahsh) A squishy. B fancy. C disdainful. 7. cack-handed adj. ('kak-han-ded) A guilty. B clumsy. C made-to-order. 8. aubergine n. ('oh-ber-zheen) A plum. B zucchini. C eggplant. 9. argy-bargy n. (ar-jee-'bar-jee) A pint of beer. B argument. C royal carriage. 10. chuffed adj. (chuft) A polished. B discarded. C delighted. 11. dog’s breakfast n. (dahgz 'brek-fuhst) A confusing mess. B savory pie. C morning walk. 12. clanger n. ('klang-er) A church bell. B copycat. C blunder. 13.…

Fact or Fiction? You list what you call the longest word in the English language, a technical name for a protein that is 189,819 letters long. Actually, the longest word is smiles, because if you look closely, there is a mile between the first and last letters. —DAVID J. THOMPSON Sebring, Florida I enjoyed “Fact or Fiction?” but I kept waiting to read how everyone thinks the bald eagle got its name from the appearance of being bald due to its white head. In fact, the Celtic word bal means “white patch.” The bald eagle got its name because its head is white, not bald. —ELLEN VOIE Waupaca, Wisconsin As a volunteer Chicago Greeter, I take visitors on walking tours to show off our great city. I try to give…

Do you have a favorite letter? The C. A lot of starting-out players are afraid of C’s because they don’t make any two-letter words. But I did a survey of the dictionary and found that the C starts more words than any other letter in the alphabet except S. It also combines well with H, L, R, and S and ends a lot of adjectival words. So it’s massively powerful. Wait, you did a “survey” of the dictionary? How many words do you know? Probably around 120,000. Were you always good at Scrabble? Well, I was beating my mother regularly when I was eight. Your older brother, Larry Sherman, also plays. Are you the Serena and Venus Williams of the Scrabble world? He’s not as close to me as Venus…

My husband is so good at home repairs that they have a special VIP area for him in the emergency room.—@ThisOneSayz My girlfriend wants me to stain the new wooden fence in her backyard. So I’m going to eat spaghetti over it for a few weeks.—@rickolantern Please don’t come to my garage sale if you’ve ever let me borrow something.—@mjkspeaks Movies show people kissing in the rain, but I want a guy who’ll run out there and get the cushions off the porch chairs when the weather starts kicking up.—@AnniemuMary I ordered a bed from IKEA, and they sent me a tree trunk and a saw.—@eileencurtright Everybody’s a tough guy until they have to use a screwdriver overhead for two minutes.—@stevevsninjas…

AT FIRST, MICHAEL Surrell didn’t see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors’ home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house in Allentown, Pennsylvania, when they got a call from one of his daughters: “The house next door is on fire!” He went to investigate. That’s when he saw two women and a girl hysterical on their porch. “The baby’s in there!” one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. “The baby” was 8-year-old Tiara Roberts, the woman’s granddaughter and a playmate of Surrell’s three youngest kids, then 8, 10, and 12. The other two on the porch were Tiara’s aunt and cousin. Entering the burning house was…

1 Book a Cruise ASAP TRAVEL March is the last month of what the industry calls “wave season.” Cruise lines want to sell as many cabins as possible, so they often throw in upgrades and amenities such as free excursions. 2 Remove Water Stains from Wood CLEANING Did your most recent party leave you with rings on your wood furniture? To make them disappear, apply petroleum jelly and let it sit overnight. In the morning, wipe the marks away with the jelly. 3 Get Rid of Drain Flies HOME “Unused drains create a slimy film that creates an ideal breeding spot for drain flies,” says Brad Smith, president of Preferred Pest Control. Also sometimes called sink moths, drain flies are harmless to humans, but they are unsightly and can multiply…

The Luckiest Penny Ever I never believed in lucky charms. But one day as I was mowing the lawn, I noticed a shiny object some five yards away. I stopped the lawn tractor to go see what had caught my eye. Just as I bent over to pick up the object, the tractor exploded behind me, knocking me off my feet. Later, in the emergency room, my family told me that when I’d been brought in by ambulance, they’d found a shiny penny clutched in my hand. I now believe in lucky pennies and stop to pick them up when-ever I see them. —Philip Kipton Hayden Sr. BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS Man of the Hour When our car overheated in the middle of nowhere, the local tow truck driver hauled us into…

FROM THE BOOK THE LIBRARY BOOK I grew up in libraries, or at least it feels that way. I was raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, just a few blocks from the brick-faced Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library system. I went there several times a week with my mother. She and I would walk in together, but as soon as we passed through the door, we each headed to our favorite section. The library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy. Even when I was maybe four or five years old, I was allowed to head off on my own. Then, after a while, my mother and I would reunite at the checkout counter with our finds. Together we’d wait as the…

FROM PSYCHOLOGYTODAY.COM The average person’s brain contains 86 billion neurons and trillions of synapses. All those brain cells mean your mind can do so much more than you think—such as these seemingly impossible feats. 1 Memorize Anything Say I asked you to memorize this list of ten words: ladybug, comb, oatmeal, lawyer, coal, stamp, knife, worm, bell, lettuce. You’d normally have to repeat them in your head many times before you achieved 100 percent recall. Even after accomplishing the tiring feat, a few hours later, you’d probably remember only two to three words from the beginning and end of the list. That’s because of what cognitive psychologists call the primacy and recency effects: Information at the beginning and end of a series interferes with recall of information in the middle…