Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Reader's Digest

“Have you checked the oil in the car?” my father used to say to me, his version of “Hello, hope you are well.” Sometimes our phone calls would begin with an inquiry about the oil and end with an inquiry about the oil, with not a lot in between. Fathers have a lot of love to give, but it’s often supplied through the medium of practical advice. In my experience: It’s mostly about your motor vehicle. “How’s the car running?” “Did you get it serviced?” “How did you get that scrape on the side?” My bomb of a student car-a battered green Toyota Corona bought for $500-was the parchment upon which my father inscribed his paternal affections. I bet it’s always been so. Back in ancient Rome, the father would…

In 2010, Barack Obama was to pay a visit to Mumbai’s Gandhi museum, where palm trees full of me dotted the grounds. The president knew me well; coconuts are a part of life in Indonesia, where he spent his boyhood. A later video of him in Laos, coolly sipping my sweet water straight from my green shell as if he’d done it a thousand times, became a popular meme. Yet, before his visit, Indian authorities methodically removed every last sign of me from the premises. Why? They were afraid the president of the United States would be taken out by one of me falling on his head. Let’s get this out of the way: My rep as the “killer fruit” of countless innocents was then and still is a myth.…

“If there’s a way in, they’ll find it.” A farmer has a problem with foxes eating his hens. He asks the smartest person he knows, a physicist, to help him. The physicist spends all day thinking and calculating. Then, finally, he says, “I’ve found a solution! But it will work only for spherical chickens inside a vacuum.” —FACTINATOR.COM Sister Mary donned her habit and got into her vintage auto. About a mile down the road, she ran out of gas. Fortunately, there was a gas station on the next block, so she walked over. But when she got there, it was out of gas cans. Sister Mary walked back to her car and opened the trunk to look for a container. All she could find was a bedpan. She walked…

RESCUED ANIMALS Dakota and Indiana For four months, puppy Indiana miraculously survived in the woods with a shattered shoulder. She’d been mistaken for a wolf and shot while running wild with her mother, Dakota. An animal control officer said they were the most intensely bonded pair he’d ever seen and refused to leave each other’s side, even while trying to evade capture. As a result of the gunshot, Indiana lost not only her leg but also her mother, as the two were sent to different adoption groups. While Indiana was learning to walk on three legs down south, Dakota was 1,000 miles north in New England. The first family to adopt her returned her two days later. They said she couldn’t bond with humans, kept them up all night, and…

BENEATH THE OCEAN’S surface waits a different world—quiet, full of wonder, shimmering with life. Carter Viss loved that world. It’s why he left Colorado to study marine biology at Palm Beach Atlantic University. It’s why he got a job at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, just up Highway 1 on Florida’s east coast. And it’s why he spent so much free time snorkeling in the reef system just a few hundred yards from the famous Breakers resort in Palm Beach. This particular Thursday morning—November 28, 2019—was especially nice. It was Thanksgiving. Tourists and locals hit the beaches. The water was flat, the sky blue, and the underwater visibility spectacular. Carter, 25, and his coworker Andy Earl, 32, spent a couple of hours among the sharks, eels, turtles, octopuses, lionfish, and angelfish. They…

Here are the rest of the winners from RD’s latest collaboration with global market research firm Ipsos, which asked 4,000 Americans ages 18 and older to name their single most trusted brand in each of the following categories: Auto Insurance GEICO Passenger Cars (excluding trucks) TOYOTA SUV/Crossover TOYOTA Airline SOUTHWEST Cruise Line CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE National Hotel Chain MARRIOTT Wireless Provider VERIZON Home Furnishing Retailer IKEA Household Cleaning Product LYSOL Interior Paint BEHR Disinfectant Wipes LYSOL Home Insurance STATE FARM Retirement/Investment Services FIDELITY Pet Food PURINA Pet Treats MILK BONE Cat Litter TIDY CATS Pet Insurance NATIONWIDE Pet Retailer PETSMART Home Security ADT SECURITY SERVICES…

*From RD.COM and THEHEALTHY.COM 1 Rethink the Pumpkin DECOR You’ve probably carved your pumpkins the same way for decades, cutting the top off and hollowing the innards first, right? BOO! This year, keep the top attached and wait until you’re done carving your masterpiece before scooping the seeds. You’ll have more control over your design cutting into a solid, intact pumpkin, and you can even grab the stem to use as leverage. 2 Liven Up Your Bathroom GARDENING Rooms with limited windows, such as bathrooms, are great for privacy but bad for plants. Or are they? Light is scarce and moisture ample on the forest floor too. Try plants that thrive there: cast-iron plants, Chinese evergreens, and snake plants. Wide leaves trap even dim sunlight, and pots can be as big…

FROM THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR ON A SPRING day in 1968, the Cougill and Horn families sat down to talk. Donna Horn, a beautiful high school cheerleader, was pregnant. Joe Cougill, a star high school athlete, was the father. “Joe will do whatever you want him to,” Joe’s dad said to Donna’s dad, according to Joe. “If you want Joe to marry Donna, he will marry Donna. If you want Joe to keep this secret, Joe will keep it secret. If you want Donna to have the baby, Joe will support her. If you don’t want him to be part of her life, Joe won’t.” Donna’s father wanted Joe to never speak to his daughter again. Amid tears and heartbreak, the mandate was issued by the parents, the promise was made…

Life isn’t based on the tennis game I play. It’s little things. Saying hello to everyone you meet. That’s more validating than whether I win a match.—Naomi Osaka, ATHLETE If you want something badly, keep at it until it’s yours. Don’t stop because you think you tried hard enough or believe it’s not going to happen. Don’t make those assumptions.—Al Roker, JOURNALIST Listen to your body. I listen to mine and every day it tells me not to do Zumba.—Amy Schumer, COMEDIAN I was raised with the idea that you could have different beliefs and you should defend that in other people, not shout it down. The people you disagree with most, you should stand up for their right to do that.—Vince Vaughn, ACTOR Autumn is the mellower season, and…

For most of my adult life, I mostly avoided eggs. I had read that since yolks are full of cholesterol, eating them would raise my blood cholesterol and harm my heart health. Then, around three years ago, with the goal of losing a few pounds, I reduced simple carbs and added more protein—including eggs—to my diet. I wondered what that would do to my cholesterol levels, so at my next checkup, I asked for a blood test. My doctor surprised me with this response: “We were wrong about that all along. The best research says you don’t need to avoid eggs.” To reassure me, she ordered the blood test. The results? Same healthy cholesterol levels as before. It got me wondering how many other people were unnecessarily avoiding eggs and…

Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter My cell phone rang the other day, but the caller was looking for someone else. When I told her she had the wrong number, she verified that she had dialed correctly, then asked whether a certain e-mail address was mine. (It wasn’t.) She said the person she was looking for had filled out an online job application and was using my number. “Perhaps the person just typed it in wrong,” I said. “What’s the job for?” She replied, “Data entry.” —Debbie D. SPRING HILL, FLORIDA Not for Nothing My grandmother enjoyed gambling. She would play cards with anyone and loved scratch-off lottery tickets. After I received the call on the day she died, I went for a walk. At some point, I came across…

From bloomberg.com It’s Husker Harvest Days, Nebraska’s biggest agricultural trade show, and Kevin Kenney is working the pavilions. The engineer, inventor, and inveterate manure-stirrer is trying to be discreet. He has allies here among the sellers and auctioneers of used tractors and aftermarket parts, not to mention among the farmers and mechanics. But enemies lurk everywhere. Kenney is leading a grassroots campaign in the heart of the heartland to restore a fundamental right most people don’t realize they’ve lost—the right to repair their own farm equipment. By sheer dint of personal passion, he’s taking on John Deere and the other global equipment manufacturers in a bid to preserve mechanical skills on the American farm. Big Tractor says farmers have no right to access the copyrighted software that controls every facet…

“I’ve got about 20 pages of questionable Internet comments here.” Outside the ladies’ and men’s rooms of a Texas steak house, I found a confused and anxious young woman who sighed with relief when she saw me. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “I was afraid to enter. I didn’t know if I was a steer or a heifer.” –Christine Looney Alger, Michigan During the month of October, our local barbershop offers a discount for children if they come in wearing a Halloween costume. I suggested to my five-year-old that he go dressed in his SpiderMan outfit. “Oh, I could never do that,” he said. “Then everyone would know that I’m Spider-Man.” –MARILYN BRADFIELD Massillon, Ohio My husband surprised me with a night out to celebrate the anniversary…

1 SALES OF electric vehicles (EVs) grew 40 percent last year worldwide. Stateside, nearly a third of drivers want their next car to be electric. They’ll have options: Almost 100 pure-electric vehicles are set to debut by the end of 2024. Many manufacturers, including GM, Jeep, and Volvo, have pledged to offer fully electric lineups before this decade is done. 2 BUT ELECTRIC cars are nothing new. Scottish inventor Robert Anderson developed the first electric carriage around 1832, then William Morrison of Iowa perfected the model decades later. By the turn of the century, nearly a third of all road vehicles in the United States were electric. (Ford’s mass-produced Model T then swung the pendulum toward gas-powered engines.) One of the earliest EV enthusiasts was the father of electricity himself,…

THE RUVULETS THAT run through this 2,500-acre estuary are famous for their harbor seals, oysters, and shorebirds—and several court battles aimed at protecting them. An English explorer landed very near this very spot in 1579, though by then the Coast Miwok people had been living in the area for thousands of years. You can see plenty of their tools, jewels, and other artifacts if you visit this popular tourist destination. Where is it? (Answer on PAGE 115.) A Point Reyes National Seashore, California B Acadia National Park, Maine C Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts D Isle Royale National Park, Michigan…

“Oh, but it’s fine for you to grade papers?” Name Dropping? More like Name Breaking ✦ I was bemoaning to a friend how my last name, Loyer, is frequently changed to Lawyer by spell-check. “I can top that,” he said. He’s an anesthesiologist named Bause. “But,” he said, “spellcheck insists on calling me Dr. Abuse.” —MILTON LOYER Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania ✦ Though my last name is not long, it can be confusing. So when a receptionist asked for it, I tried simplifying matters by saying “It’s the first four letters of ‘suggest.’” She smiled. “And how do you spell that?” —DEB SUGG Midland, Michigan ✦ Upon retiring as a church secretary, I gave my replacement a Rolodex brimming with all the contact info she would likely need. One day, she texted…

Fact or Fiction? MEDIUM Determine whether each statement is true or made up. To reveal the solution to the bonus question, write the letters indicated by your responses in the corresponding numbered blanks. Turn the page upside down for the answers. 1. Lightning never strikes the same place twice. FACT: B FICTION: J 2. Kentucky has more bottles of bourbon than people. FACT: O FICTION: I 3. South Africa has a total of five official languages. FACT: L FICTION: H 4. The World Series was first broadcast on the radio 100 years ago this month. FACT: N FICTION: L 5. Atlanta is farther west than Cleveland. FACT: D FICTION: Y 6. Pablo Picasso made about 5,000 works of art in his lifetime. FACT: G FICTION: E 7. Every part of…