Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2025 i Reader's Digest

A Key Player Most of us try to avoid long layovers when we travel, but Josiah Jackson chose to spend eight hours at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on his way home to Michigan from a service trip to Guatemala last year. Why? To fix an out-of-order baby grand piano by Gate C17. A piano tuner by trade, Jackson, then 20, had noticed the neglected instrument years prior and decided to bring it back to life. When the day came, he spent seven hours, with no breaks, removing and cleaning all 88 keys. He finished just in time to catch his connection. Though Jackson barely had time to admire his work, he enjoys the thousands of glowing comments on his YouTube video detailing his repair. An O’Hare employee wrote, “Passengers and…

Third-grade teacher Em Powderly gave her students the first half of popular proverbs, then tasked them with providing the second half. She posted the best answers on TikTok, lending credence to the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed … get a third grader to try.” ✦ “Don’t count your chickens … count your cows.” ✦ “The squeaky wheel … has a mouse in it.” ✦ “Don’t cry over … babies that are annoying.” ✦ “The grass is always greener … than sand.” ✦ “Rome wasn’t built in … Hawaii.” ✦ “A rolling stone … hurts you.” ✦ “Many hands make … a big hand.”…

The Second Chance Convenience Store By Kim Ho-Yeon Nobody thinks it’s a good idea for Mrs. Yeom to employ Dokgo, the homeless man who has twice come to her rescue. Not her employees, certainly not her no-good son, and barely Dokgo himself. But when Mrs. Yeom begins to hum the unsung hero’s praises, others realize they’ve made a misjudgment too—Dokgo included. This beloved South Korean bestseller, a feel-good tale of vital community and how we all help one another, more than earns its English translation. —Caroline Fanning The CIA Book Club By Charlie English Some of the CIA’s most effective spy tools weren’t spy phones or lipstick lasers, but fashion magazines, art books and the classics, as we learn in this history of the Cold War’s “system of covert lending.”…

THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE of Hobart, New York, is home to just 400 people. Yet there are many characters to meet on Main Street, inside the town’s seven independent bookstores. Each stocks different types of titles, making them all worth a visit. Known as the Book Village of the Catskills, Hobart hosts the annual Festival of Women Writers. But bibliophiles flock to it year-round: “They like to feel like they’re in a place where books matter,” bookseller Barbara Balliet told CBS News. “So when they come here, they’re just so happy.”…

A man is standing on the curb, ready to cros the street. As he steps down and starts to cross, a car comes screaming around the corner and heads straight at him. The man picks up speed, but so does the car. The man turns back, but the car changes lanes and keeps coming at him. The man freezes with fear in the middle of the intersection. The car is inches away-then swerves and screeches to a halt. The driver rolls down the window. Behind the wheel is a squirrel. “See!” it yells. “Not as easy as it looks, is it?” —LEONARDSLINES.COM So That's How You Spell It! If GH is pronounced P as in hiccough … If OUGH is pronounced O as in dough … If ED is pronounced…

David Jones sat glued to his television set as meteorologists gave updates on Hurricane Helene. The storm, packing 140 mph winds, was expected to hit Florida late on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, before moving inland toward four other southern states. One target was Boiling Springs, South Carolina. David, 65, and his second wife, Debbie Jones, had just moved there from Johnson City, Tennessee. Debbie’s 84-year-old mother hadn’t been doing well, so they bought a house in her hometown and moved the matriarch in with them. And now he sat, hoping he’d still have a house there come morning. But David had more on his mind than the storm. On Saturday, his oldest daughter, Elizabeth, 33, would be married in Johnson City. David, who by his own admission has a casual…

Want to know more? Here are answers to some of the club’s most frequently asked questions: 1 What is the Dull Men’s Club? It’s a place for dull men (and women who like to be around dull men) to feel comfortable, free from pressure to be in and trendy. We avoid glitz and glam. We enjoy safe excitement. 2 What’s “safe excitement”? Watching paint dry is the classic example. But there are others: watching grass grow, watching ice melt, listening to corn grow, and watching wood warp. 3 It’s OK to be dull? Yes. A main purpose of the DMC is to assure members that it’s OK to be dull. We delight in ordinary things, things that many people think are dull. 4 Is the DMC a movement? No. We…

I can sometimes over-egg an omelet. … I’m a solutions person, but often rush to find the answer, rather than sitting on a situation. —Geri Halliwell-Horner, SINGER, IN THE GUARDIAN Just because someone sends you guilt doesn’t mean you have to accept delivery. —Lori Gottlieb, PSYCHOTHERAPIST, IN THE NEW YORK TIMES Everybody sees the 2,000 points, but nobody sees the 2,000 days of hard work. —Paige Bueckers, BASKETBALL PLAYER, TO SPORTSNET NEW YORK I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes. —Joanna Maciejewska, AUTHOR, ON X I have lost the desire to change how I am in the presence of everyone to make them feel comfortable,…

EASY How many words can you find within the 11-letter word below? Words must be at least three letters long and appear in the dictionary (we use Merriam-Webster) to count toward your score. BONUS The longest word we found within PERAMBULATE is 10 letters long. Can you find it? (See answer below.) What's With This Game's Crazy Name? We first published “Warning: This Fruit May Orbisculate,” about a family’s made-up word, in our December 2021/January 2022 issue. Orbisculate means “when you dig your spoon into a grapefruit (or another fruit or vegetable), and it squirts juice directly in your eye.” Soon after, reader Sue Mollineaux of Torrington, Connecticut, wrote us to say that residents of her senior community had put their heads together and found 223 words using the letters…

Some people were born to do their jobs, and their names suggest it. An aptronym is a moniker suited to an individual’s occupation. Some examples include Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, meteorologist Amy Freeze, pro poker player Chris Moneymaker, former Starbucks CEO Rosalind Brewer, race car driver Scott Speed and, of course, the British poet William Wordsworth. Word Power ANSWERS 1. arduous (C) difficult The first week of school can be arduous for both students and teachers. 2. billet (B) paid position When does Benji begin his billet as a busser at the bistro? 3. stevedore (A) dockworker A team of stevedores loaded cargo onto the container ship. 4. delegate (B) assign to someone As a busy CEO, Ursula delegates many basic tasks to her personal assistant. 5. pooh-bah (A) important person Jonah is just an…

IT WAS JUST past noon on a sunny Saturday last August when lon time fishing buddies Jacob Bell and Craig McDonald decided to call it a day. Since 6:30 that mornin they’d been fishing from Bell’s 18-foot aluminum runabout on Texas’s Lak Waxahachie, about a half hour south of Dallas. Trolling for bass and lazily drifting from Bell’s vintage boat, they’d landed a half dozen keepers. “Not a bad day’s work,” Bell told McDonald as he steered the runabout to the boat ramp where Bell truck and boat trailer were parke he dropped off McDonald, Bell heard screaming coming from the lake some 50 yards offshore. He sped in his boat toward the scene, where saw a girl, had to be around 13, hollering and waving an arm. She was…

✦ My 11-year-old grandson asked me what year I was born. I told him 1943. He replied, “Come on. Really.” —SHIRLEY BOSSARD Lake Barrington, IL ✦ I was playing with my 4-year-old grandson in his backyard when some young friends of his approached the fence. My grandson, showing great maturity, introduced me to them. “This is my grandpa,” he told them. “His name is Grandpa.” —JOSEPH HELDT Columbus, IN ✦ We were all taking turns telling riddles when my daughter-in-law said, “What has ears but can’t hear?” I was about to answer “corn,” but my grand-daughter beat me to the punch, yelling, “Grandma!” —MAUREEN CLANCY Poinciana, FL…

Forget FOMO, the fear of missing out. We can’t do it all, and often we don’t want to! There’s a certain pleasure in opting out of social obligations, that pleasure is called the joy of missing out—JOMO for short. A form self-care, the point is to prioritize what you want to do, even if that means chilling out at home. If you need help nipping the knee-jerk guilt, remember We need downtime for our mental health. Getting rest lowers our stress and leads better decision-making, freeing us up to give 110%—when we choose to, that is.…

WHAT IF THERE was a kind of food that tasted delicious came in thousands of varieties, could be eaten raw or cooked in an endless number of ways, and helped prevent most of the major diseases killing Americans? Well, this kind of food does exist—it’s fruits and vegetables! Given these facts, the real question is why are only 1 in 10 of us eating the recommended daily amounts of these natural wonders? Plenty of people have grown up never eating healthy foods, says Marion Nestle, PhD, author and Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Or they may not know how much to aim for. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines currently recommend at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables…

FROM NEW YORK MAGAZINE One morning in April 2023, Marcela Maus, a cancer researcher at Mass General Research Institute in Boston, got a call from her colleague Bryan Choi. “He called me, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!’ And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’” Dr. Maus says. Dr. Choi, a neurosurgeon with the languid demeanor of a surfer, was not given to outbursts. Dr. Maus hurried over to his office. The day before, Drs. Choi and Maus had treated their first patient in a clinical trial for an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma, infusing genetically modified white blood cells directly into the fluid surrounding his brain. They had been up all night worrying, especially after the patient, a 74-yearold man, developed a fever.…

I LIKE TO MAKE TOMATO SAUCE whenever I return home after a trip, or when I arrive at a vacation home or wherever I’m staying while filming. I find it grounding. After the sauce has cooked for even just a few minutes, the new space smells more like home. Obviously, I love going to restaurants, trying different dishes or old staples in the hands of a new chef, but I know that after a few too many meals out in a row I long to be home so I can eat what I want to eat when I want to eat it. And besides all that, I miss the actual act of cooking. Choosing the recipes, finding the produce, prepping it, cooking it, serving it and eating it. The satisfaction…

1. arduous adj. ('ar-joo-uhs) A productive B detail-oriented C difficult 2. billet n. ('bih-luht) A staff handbook B paid position C tax bracket 3. stevedore n. ('stee-vuh-dohr) A dockworker B hatmaker C chimney sweep 4. delegate v. ('deh-lih-gayt) A elect to a board B assign to someone C fire suddenly 5. pooh-bah n. ('poo-bah) A important person B group discussion C naysayer 6. per diem adj. (puhr 'dee-uhm) A paid by the hour B paid by the word C paid by the day 7. confrere n. ('kahn-frayr) A video call B colleague C contract 8. furlough v. ('fuhr-loh) A lay off temporarily B join a union C log in remotely 9. collier n. ('kahl-yuhr) A tailor B coal miner C dog trainer 10. lucubration n. (loo-kyuh-'bray-shun) A happy hour B overtime pay C intense study 11. assiduous adj. (uh-'sid-joo-uhs) A confidential B hardworking C disobedient 12. métier n. ('meh-tyay) A standing desk B specialty C personal chef 13. accrue v. (uh-'kroo) A accumulate B collaborate C incorporate 14. aesthetician n.…

WHERE, OH WHERE? (page 128) B. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas BRAIN GAMES (pages 123-124) Step by Step 5. You could: 1) go up one step at a time; 2) take two single steps, then skip a step; 3) take a single step, then skip a step, then take another single step; 4) skip a step, then take two single steps; or 5) take two skipping steps. Make It Count 3. The numbers represent how many letters are in the words for each number from one (3) through nine (4). The next number is ten, which has 3 letters. Brave the Elements Yes, by rotating a middle section (shaded in green) 180 degrees. Times Square Other Plans Frank is moving. Casey is running a marathon. Veronica is seeing a…

HITTING THE BOOKS feels more peaceful beside Frog Fountain, what with the water lapping around its lotus leaves. Each of the four flutes represents one class of the college students on campus (the shortest for freshmen, the tallest for seniors), and the way the water cascades between them symbolizes the sharing of knowledge. Where is it? (Answer on page 127.) A Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana B Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas C College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina D Duke University, Durham, North Carolina…