Table of contents for June 2019 in Reader's Digest

WHEN I WAS in my 40s, I got a tantalizing call from my father. He’d been browsing through an old footlocker and discovered letters from a great-great-uncle, Charles Kelley. They dated to 1922, when Charles had just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. At the time, the diagnosis was a death sentence. Somehow this insurance man from Huron, South Dakota, made his way to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where doctors were testing a new drug. Charles was accepted as one of the guinea pigs. He noted that each day’s injection cost him a small fortune, though luckily he could afford it. By the time the University of Toronto team of doctors that had invented insulin won a Nobel Prize, in 1923, Uncle Charles was back in Huron. The drug…

IN 2012, KIM STEMPLE, a special-education teacher, found herself tethered to an IV in a Boston hospital being treated for one of several diseases she had been diagnosed with, including lupus and lymphoma. The normally ebullient Stemple was naturally getting very depressed. And then a friend gave her a medal. Before she got too sick to exercise, Stemple had been a marathon runner. The medal came from a racing partner who had just finished a half marathon in Las Vegas and hoped the keepsake would act as a kind of vicarious pickmeup. It worked like a charm—and then some. After Stemple hung the medal from her hospital IV pole, other patients said they wanted medals too. That got Stemple thinking. “A medal is a simple way to give a positive…

1 “SKYSCRAPER” DIDN’T always mean a tall building. The earliest reference to the word dates back to 1788, when it was used to describe a really tall horse, according to The Oxford English Dictionary. By the 1790s, a Philadelphia physician had used the term to describe the triangular sail at the very top of a ship’s mast. 2 TODAY, ASIA is leading the race to the top, with 88 skyscrapers erected in 2018 in China alone. But builders there still use a surprisingly ancient scaffolding material: bamboo. In Hong Kong, climbers known as taap pang workers use bamboo poles and ties to rig scaffolding into place. It’s believed they’ve been doing it that way for 1,500 years. 3 AFTER THE Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Home Insurance Company hired…

FROM THE BOOK THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT I HAD VERY good parents. My mother came to this country from Scotland by herself when she was 11, and she didn’t have much of an education. My dad was kind of a street kid, and he eventually went into the insurance business, selling nickel policies door-to-door. It was the 1930s, a time when America was a lot more racist and segregated than it is now. One day, my dad asked his boss, “What’s the toughest market to sell?” and the insurance guy replied, “Well, black people. They don’t buy insurance.” My dad thought, But they have kids; they have families. Why wouldn’t they buy insurance? So he said, “Give me Harlem.” He took the Harlem territory and sold nickel policies;…

WHEN MY BEST friend, Colleen, was 38 weeks pregnant, she asked me to go with her to Babies “R” Us, one of the only children’s shops in Anchorage, Alaska. She found out she was expecting around the time I found out I would never give birth. I was only 29, but doctors said that I had too many medical challenges to conceive, let alone carry a child to term. Focusing on Colleen’s good fortune helped distract me from my own grief. I hosted her baby shower and sewed bedding and curtains for her son’s nursery. Now the only thing she needed was a changing table, which was what we had come to buy. As we headed to the furniture section, a gray-and-white striped onesie caught my eye. The red crab…

✦ When I was little, my older brother told me if you ate the bottom part of a banana, you would die. To this day, I still don’t eat the bottom inch of the banana. —Jacqueline Rowley LOYAL, WISCONSIN ✦ My brother told me that every time it rained, God was crying because I was so ugly. —BUZZFEED.COM ✦ I was six and just about to eat my brussels sprouts when my older sister leaned over and told me, “If you eat those, they’ll turn into heads of lettuce in your stomach.” I didn’t touch another brussels sprout until two years ago, and I’m in my mid-50s! —Kimberly Gautieri CRANFORD, NEW JERSEY ✦ I was a toddler taking a bath when my older sister pulled the plug and shouted, “Look…

FROM THE BOOK ALL THESE WONDERS I’M KNEELING ON the floor of a cheap roadside motel somewhere in western Tennessee. Next to me, leading me in prayer, is a large middle-aged man with cerebral palsy named Ronnie Simonsen. He says, “Bless my mother, my brothers and sisters, and my pastor back home in New Hampshire. God, bless Bob Hope and Cher … and all three of Charlie’s Angels. Especially Jaclyn Smith.” And then Ronnie says, “And Lord, please help us get to California quickly, where I know I’m going to meet my spiritual brother, Mr. Chad Everett, the star of CBS’s drama Medical Center.” And here, I interrupt Ron. I say, “Ron, you know, we might not meet Chad Everett. We’re not sure that’s going to happen.” He says, “Yeah,…

Unsolved! I really enjoyed reading about these mysteries. Life is always a lot more exciting when you are presented with challenging puzzles—including some we might never solve! —KATHY PENDRACKY Avella, Pennsylvania A Lifeline in the Heartland The article about farmers dying by suicide at nearly twice the rate of the general population could not have been more timely this spring, with the record flooding of farmlands in the Midwest that will have a devastating effect on the farming community. I pray that farmers will be able to get mental health resources to assist them and prevent further losses. Thank you for printing the Farm Aid Hotline and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone numbers. —RONALD L. BELL St. Joseph, Missouri I remember the 1980s vividly. We had to sell our…

MAXINE MCCORMICK, age 15, Portland, Oregon What’s your longest cast? It’s 189 feet in salmon fly distance. How did you get so good at such a young age? When I was eight, my dad brought me on a few fishing trips, but it was frustrating because my line would get tangled and I wouldn’t catch anything. So I didn’t start liking fishing till I was nine and I learned how to cast. Now I do fly-fishing without the fish. So you’re not actually trying to catch anything? Nope. You’re trying to hit targets or throw the fly as far as you can. You’re competing against much older people. What’s that like? It’s definitely nerve-racking because they are stronger than me. But I’m also pretty confident. What do your classmates think?…

1 MAN WHO JUMPED OUT OF FREEZER AND DIED WAS COLD-CASE SUSPECT 2 Some Clown Fish Have No Personality, Australian Study Finds 3 Former Philly Traffic Court Judge—Convicted of Lying to Feds—Seeks “Fresh Start” in Congress 4 Body Found at Base of Cliff Near Mount Rushmore. The Only Four Witnesses Remain Stone-Faced. 5 DAY CARE CENTER PLANS BRAT FRY TODAY ANSWER: 1) APNEWS.COM 2) THEGUARDIAN.COM 3) PHILLY.COM 4) FARK.COM 5) THE POST CRESCENT (APPLETON, WISCONSIN), SUBMITTED BY ALICE THOMES…

1 Stop Early Meows PETS With the longer days and the birds and squirrels up and at ’em at the crack of dawn, your kitty is likely an early riser now. Should you feed him when he meows? No—that will just encourage his untimely entreaties. Instead, install blackout shades or blinds to block the sun. Then stick to strict feeding times: once before you leave in the morning and once shortly before you go to bed. *From RD.COM reporting 2 Keep Fruits and Veggies Fresh FOOD Most refrigerators have crisper drawers with adjustable vents that you can close to reduce airflow (and create more humidity) or open (to lower the humidity). The best way to extend the life of your fruits and vegetables is to set one drawer at low humidity…

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. —A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (1755) THAT, IF YOU can believe it, is how the venerable Dr. Johnson, in what was the language’s guiding reference until the appearance of The Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, chose to define me. Me! Ouch. But that was then, when Scotland was indeed among the only places where humans fed on me. Thankfully for me, and for your cholesterol ratios, I’ve come a long way in the 264 years since. And the famed Englishman’s dig at both me and the Scots now looks as foolish as his word for a burp of undigested meat. (For the record, the word is nidorosity.) It…

✦ Like most teenage girls, my sister had about a gazillion posters in her room of boy bands, actors, etc. One day, I went in there while she was out and turned every single poster upside down. It took her a few months to finally bother changing them all back. —REDDIT.COM ✦ I placed a weather balloon in my sister’s closet and filled it with fine glitter. It was so big, the only way to get it out through the door was to pop it. Every single article of clothing she owned was coated in glitter for over a month. —REDDIT.COM ✦ I love my younger sister, but that doesn’t mean we always got along. One day, she was being a pest while I was making us sandwiches. What she…

DURING HER REIGN, QUEEN ELIZABETH II HAS MET 11 SITTING U.S. PRESIDENTS. She has been on the throne for 66 years and has met every president since Eisenhower (except for Johnson, who didn’t travel to the U.K.). Among her royal duties was dancing with President Ford (lower right), but historians say that Reagan, who rode horses with Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, was her favorite president. THE LAST TIME THE CLEVELAND INDIANS WON THE WORLD SERIES, SHIRLEY TEMPLE WAS STILL ACTING IN MOVIES. The Indians defeated the Boston Braves in the 1948 series. Temple made her last movie, A Kiss for Corliss, a year later. FYI, the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953 and then, in 1966, to Atlanta, where the team won the series in 1995, beating—you guessed it—the…

1. jejune adj. (jih-'joon) A in flower. B immature. C dark-haired. 2. doubloon n. (duh-'bloon) A cannon. B two-run homer. C gold coin. 3. importune v. (im-per-'toon) A shrink down. B vocalize. C urge. 4. dragoon n. (druh-'goon) A hunting rifle. B soldier on horseback. C westerly wind. 5. festoon v. (feh-'stoon) A decorate. B take shelter. C go bad. 6. picayune adj. (pih-kee-'yoon) A trivial. B bristly. C pinkish. 7. boon n. (boon) A small knife. B blessing. C ghost. 8. clair de lune n. (klair duh 'loon) A blue porcelain glaze. B fit of madness. C French cookie. 9. saskatoon n. (sass-kuh-'toon) A frozen lake. B goose. C Juneberry shrub. 10. tribune n. ('trih-byoon) A Roman official. B bugle call. C reporter. 11. harpoon n. (har-'poon) A ceremonial dance. B barbed spear. C ship’s mast. 12. opportune adj. (ah-per-'toon) A…

JERAMIE MILLER IS the last guy you’d expect George Vorel to hire. After all, Vorel’s company, Envirosafe, is an industrial steel processor outside Pittsburgh where employees operate heavy equipment as they sandblast and paint steel used in bridges and buildings around the country. And Miller is a former drug user and dealer. What’s more, he introduced Vorel’s own daughter to heroin soon after she graduated from high school, in 1998. It took Vorel’s daughter until 2005 to get clean. Once she was, she became a drug and alcohol counselor. Among her goals was to get her friend Jeramie clean too. He’d ended up in jail for selling and possessing drugs and aggravated assault, and she thought a job would help him get his life on track. “I remember her saying,…

NIGHT OWLS MORE LIKELY TO GET TYPE 2 DIABETES In a review of 17 studies with data from more than 465,000 people, researchers found that night owls have an increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes compared with early risers. Why? Individuals who went to bed later tended to consume more alcohol, sugar, and caffeine. Also, eating later in the day causes glucose levels to spike in the evening, which could have an impact on the body’s natural metabolism. Scientists Wipe Out Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Although the majority of mosquitoes don’t spread diseases, the three most deadly types (aedes, anopheles, and culex) live on almost every continent and are responsible for transmitting approximately 17 percent of the infectious diseases around the world, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial…

An Uber is cruising down a boulevard when it runs a red light. “Hey!” the passenger shouts. “Be careful!” “Don’t worry,” says the driver. “My brother does it all the time.” He barrels through the next red light, and the passenger screams, “Stop doing that!” “I’m telling you, my brother does this all the time.” They approach the next light. Just when it turns green, the driver slams on the brakes. The confused passenger asks, “You just ran two red lights; why’d you stop at a green?” “I had to,” says the driver. “My brother might have been coming.” —Submitted by DAVID MASELLA Kissimmee, Florida I saw a documentary on how ships are kept together. Riveting! —STEWART FRANCIS, comedian I told you I’ll be there in five minutes. Stop calling…

Tee-Hee! Golf is literally a sport to see who can play the least golf. —21Cosner on REDDIT.COM Golf is the perfect thing to do on a Sunday because you spend more time praying on the course than if you went to church. —brockoli117 on REDDIT.COM As far as I can tell, the requirements to be a professional golfer are the same as to be a drag queen: crazy outfit, crazy name. —@gabydunn The average golfer walks about 900 miles and drinks 22 gallons of alcohol each year. Which means golfers get about 41 miles to the gallon. —venkman62 on REDDIT.COM Golf is a game in which you yell “Fore,” shoot six, and write down five. —Harold Coffin, WRITER The safest place to stand when I hit a golf ball is…

FROM WASHINGTONIAN BILL MCDONNELL WAS going bonkers. Deer season had begun, but it was colder than usual, so here he was, sitting among the mounted bucks inside his rancher in Winchester, Virginia, watching winter through the windows. Up until his late 80s, Bill hadn’t minded hunting in subzero temperatures, but he had slowed in the past few years. The snow-dusted mountains of the Shenandoah Valley were no place for a 92-year-old. He knew it. But man, did he want to get outside. Then, on December 15, the forecast brightened, and before he announced his intentions, his wife, Joanna Mc-Donnell, knew what he was up to. The couple went through an old song and dance whenever this happened. “You’re not going,” Joanna would say. “I’m going,” Bill would shoot back. Joanna…

FROM YES! MAGAZINE WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY READER’S DIGEST EDITORS WHEN ARMY SURGEON Rhonda Cornum regained consciousness after her helicopter crashed, she looked up to see five Iraqi soldiers pointing rifles at her. It was 1991, and her Black Hawk had been shot down over the Iraqi desert. Dazed from blood loss, with a busted knee, two broken arms, and a bullet in her shoulder, the then-36-year-old medic was subjected to a mock execution by her captors, sexually assaulted, and held prisoner for a week. Her crisis included textbook causes for post-traumatic stress: a near-death experience, sexual assault, utter helplessness. And yet, after her release and medical rehabilitation, she surprised psychiatrists by focusing on ways she’d improved. “I became a better doctor, a better parent, a better commander, probably a…