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35 Articles

AS I HOPE you will not be surprised to learn, Reader’s Digest is put together by a bunch of very nice folks. It’s something of a job requirement, in fact. The magazine’s founder, DeWitt Wallace, used to roam the halls of the headquarters on summer Friday afternoons and tell everyone to quit working and go enjoy the day. Oh, and the headquarters were located in the nicest-sounding place you could conjure: Pleasantville, New York. So it’s absolutely fitting that one of our biggest projects of the year is our Nicest Places in America contest. For eight years now, we have asked all of you nice folks to tell us about the nice places where you live, work, play, volunteer, or hail from. This year we selected six, with Provo, Utah, and…

The Scarf Bombers

TEN YEARS AGO, when college students in Ottawa, Canada, tied scarves to fences and around the necks of statues, with notes to homeless people to help themselves, they had no idea they were launching a movement. But today, “scarf bombing” is definitely a thing. Knitters across the United States are turning wool and fleece into scarves, hats and gloves, then leaving them in places where the needy congregate, like bus shelters. In Jacksonville, Florida, a note reads: “I am not lost! If you’re stuck in the cold, take this gift to keep warm.” The scarves warm body and soul, Suzanne Volpe, a bomber from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told the Washington Post. The gifts, she says, tell homeless people that “somebody cares.”…

The Scarf Bombers

“Give Me the Baby!”

ANOTHER STICKY LATE-JULY Thursday in Philadelphia, and 52-year-old Christine Dawn King was hurrying to her job as a caregiver to the elderly. Or trying to. The traffic on Interstate 95 was thick—no surprise for this stretch of highway. She pulled into the exit lane, which was moving at a crawl. That’s when she spotted a man and woman standing beside a stopped vehicle and engaged in some kind of altercation. King watched as the woman repeatedly attempted to block the man as he headed toward the guardrail, which overlooked a 40-foot drop onto a concrete parking lot. The man kept pushing the woman aside and shifting some object from his right arm to his left. Having reached the guardrail, he dangled the object out over the precipice. Oh my God, King…

“Give Me the Baby!”

GLAD TO HEAR IT

Mail Bonding In the post office in Grand Prairie, Texas, Alvin Gauthier discovered some letters dated 1942 to 1945 and addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lamb in Jacksonville, Arkansas. A stamp read: “U.S. Army Postal Service.” A Marine vet who’d served in Iraq, Gauthier knew the importance of mail to soldiers and their families. He was determined to see the lost letters delivered. With help from KARK-TV in Little Rock, he tracked down the last surviving member of the Lamb family, JoAnn Smith, whose older brother Marion wrote the letters while serving in World War II. On his day off, Gauthier drove five hours to Jacksonville to hand the letters to a tearful Smith. “It’s a connection to my family,” she told KARK. “Sometimes,” Gauthier said, “you just go the…

GLAD TO HEAR IT

JAMESTOWN, PA Herd any good animal stories? See terms and submit yours at rd.com/petpals. I DOUBT YOU HAVE next-door neighbors as fun as mine. Alpacas Alfie and Fred regularly join us on the patio when we go outside for dinner and to lounge in the evening. They are the remaining two from a herd of 40—our neighbors couldn’t bear to let them go when it was time to sell. Come summer heat or winter chill, the quirky duo always wants to know what we’re up to. Usually, they just want to socialize and munch grass and leaves, but once in a while they’ll start roughhousing, and that’s always a show. They wrap their necks around one another like giraffes and make sounds straight from a Jurassic Park film until they wear themselves out. Fred is…

It was my turn to work the indoor concession stand at the ice rink while our son’s youth hockey team played outdoors. When a player from another team came inside to buy a snack, I asked what the score was. “Four to three,” he said. “Oh, yeah?” I said. “Who’s ahead?” As he exited, he shouted back, “Four!” —DAVID FLEMMING Hermantown, MN The doctor was reviewing some results from a routine blood test during my checkup, then he took my blood pressure. “Were you in a hurry this morning?” he asked. Autocorrect turned “Think of others for a change” into “Think of otters for a change,” and I agree that’s a better solution. —X@RYGDANCE Contemplating the worst, I replied, “No, as a matter of fact, I sat quietly in the waiting room, very relaxed and reading. Why?…

THE TALE OF the pretzel’s enduring popularity crisscrosses a medieval monk with a modern mall mogul, with a lot of twists and turns in between. Our story begins around 610 C.E., when a monk in northern Italy braided ropes of bread dough to resemble crossed arms in prayer. He baked the treats until golden and gave them as rewards to his students at the monastery. That iconic knot shape became popular with bakers in Europe during the Middle Ages, and Germans especially took to the art of pretzel twisting. Starting as early as the 12th century, German bakers hung pretzel-shaped signs above their doorways “as a symbol that you could find fresh-baked breads inside,” says Saveur writer Ben Crair, adding, “Pretzels were once so special that medieval painters would dab a…

Look Up! Facts About Stargazing

1 JUST HOW many stars can we see with the naked eye? The Yale Bright Star Catalog provides the answer: 9,095. Except we can’t see all of them at once because at least half would fall below the horizon. Daylight and haze also limit us. So in fact, the number of stars we can see at night at any given time is around 2,000. 2 THE LARGEST Star visible with the naked eye is Mu Cephei, a strikingly red star in the constellation Cepheus (the King). If our sun was the size of a softball, Mu, in comparison, would be 437 feet across. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, or the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis Major. Orbiting it is a white dwarf star known as Pup. Though…

Look Up! Facts About Stargazing

HUMOR in UNIFORM

On our first day of basic training at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, we were in line as the senior drill sergeant barked orders. He told us that when our number was called, we were to answer with our full name, grab our duffel bag and double-time it outside. “And remember,” he added snidely, “your name is not ‘HERE!’” And then he began: “Number one!” Hearing his number, a terrified trainee quickly grabbed his bag, yelled, “Not here!” and took off. —R. FRED ZUKER Longview, TX Know your military slang! Dittybopper: A soldier marching out of step. Flight suit insert: An Air Force pilot. Gofasters: Sneakers. —OMNIMILITARYLOANS.COM With my wife, Phyllis, at my side, I stood proudly in the commander’s conference room for my promotion ceremony. Following a brief but meaningful speech, the commander pinned my new, shiny double-silver…

HUMOR in UNIFORM

Allow Me to Mansplain …

THERE’S A FINE line between educating someone on a subject and being an overbearing bore. I trampled that line a long time ago. Just the other day, my wife and I were discussing how painful childbirth is. Scratch that. I was discussing how painful childbirth is; the person who actually gave birth to a child was rolling her eyes. “I [that would be me] would have to say the pain is akin to the sensation of having your insides ripped apart by two gerbils fighting over a lettuce leaf. That, or watching an 8-year-old trying to tell a joke. But even those examples don’t capture the agony.” Jennifer rolled her eyes in the direction of the TV remote and picked it up. “The thing I can best compare it to is the time …” She…

Allow Me to Mansplain …

ALL in a Day’s WORK

My brother-in-law overheard some teachers talking about AI. They were marveling about this new technology that would impact the lives and financial wellbeing of thousands. My brother-in-law wasn’t having it. When there was a lull in the conversation, he let them know that AI was not new technology. “Farmers,” he informed them, “have been using artificial insemination for years.” —ROB THOMAS Davenport, IA For lunch one day, my colleague’s young daughter asked for “that thing that’s orange in the middle and black on the outside.” There’s someone on our team that behaves horribly to me. So whenever I have to type his name, I’ve taken to using a slightly smaller font size than for everyone else’s. —X@SUPERBREEZE_BEX My friend, confused, asked, “Is it a new kind of Oreo that comes out around Halloween?” “No,” her son…

ALL in a Day’s WORK

CLASS DISMISSED!

✦ At the university where I teach, I handed out an exam. Six hands went up instantly. I pointed to one of them and the student asked, “What does ‘surname’ mean?” I paused, then calmly explained, “It’s your last name.” And with that, the other five hands went down. ✦ I mentioned bringing my lunch to work and a kid put up his hand to ask where I worked. He asked this in class. Where I teach him. ✦ I have a poster on my wall with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that states, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” A student said, “Wait, did they have internet back then?” ✦ Me: I’m thinking of a fruit that is yellow and very sour! Student: Chickenpox!…

CLASS DISMISSED!

Prevent the Pain of Shingles

IF YOU’VE HAD shingles, or you know someone who has, then you know what a painful condition it can be. It’s also surprisingly common: One in three people will develop shingles (medical name: herpes zoster) in their lifetime, adding up to an estimated 1 million cases in the United States each year. Fortunately, there are very effective ways to prevent getting shingles, and effective ways to treat it if you are unlucky enough to get it. What It Is Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV)—the same vims that causes chickenpox. When you’re exposed for the first time, you develop chickenpox. But when you recover, the virus doesn’t leave your body. It lies dormant in nerves that emerge from the spinal cord and causes no problems until something reactivates it. Then…

Prevent the Pain of Shingles

I TRIED IT … Bone Broth

As a nutritionist, I find a good bone broth so nourishing, especially in the afternoon as a pick-me-up. Last winter, it was a constant after my toddlers brought home a bug that turned into cold after cold at our house. I recommend bone broth to my clients who are struggling with excess weight, gut symptoms, low energy, depression, immunity and more. The ingredients gelatin, glycine and glutamine cansupportdigestive health. Proline and hyaluronic acid promote collagen production, which helps with skin elasticity and hydration. When I drank bone broth every day for a week, I was less bloated and I didn't crave an afternoon snack. I also noticed that I was less thirsty after working out. Some brands of store-bought bone broth can be high in sodium, so I make my…

I TRIED IT … Bone Broth

DOES YOUR DOCTOR'S GENDER MATTER?

True-Crime Anxiety Podcasts, books and videos recounting real-life crime stories are popular, with about half of Americans admitting to a fondness for the genre. The stories are often gruesome, and a new survey finds that it’s often difficult for fans to forget the gory details. The survey, by the company Secure Data Recovery, finds that nearly half of truecrime fans say that the stories increase their anxiety, and 61% say they make them more suspicious of other people. One positive effect, though, is that 78% of truecrime fans say that consuming these stories has made them more aware of their surroundings. And 1 in 3 report that they have added to their home security. So maybe that heightened vigilance will lead to fewer real-life crime stories in the future! A Less Invasive…

DOES YOUR DOCTOR'S GENDER MATTER?

A man with a woman strapped onto his back walks into a costume party. The host eyes him quizzically and asks, “What are you dressed up as?” “A snail,” the man replies, in a French accent. The host is thoroughly confused. “If you’re a snail, why do you have a woman strapped to your back?” “Her? That’s Michèle.” —ifunny.co An intellectual is a person who hears the name Swift and thinks of the 18th-century Irish satirist. — Submitted by MONTY GILMER Rosedale, VA Who called it rolling over in the grave instead of a plot twist? —X@RIOTGRLERIN Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal and says to the first man he meets, “Do you want to go to heaven?” The man says, “I do, Father.” The priest says, “Then stand over there against the wall.” The priest asks a second…

AND THE TOP HONOR GOES TO … PROVO, UTAH

IN 2020, WHEN SARA “Seung” Blanco Parra was 12, she and her family left their home in Colombia and wound up in Provo, Utah. It couldn’t have been more obvious that they were outsiders. They were immigrants, spoke little English, and practiced Catholicism in a city whose population mostly belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). And yet Blanco Parra, now 16, says she’s never felt more safe or welcome. “In Colombia,” she says, “I hardly knew my neighbors. Here, I know I could ask anyone for help, and they would give it to me." During their first few months in Provo when the family had no car, Blanco Parra remembers a motorist pulling over as she was walking to a restaurant with her mother. He gave them…

AND THE TOP HONOR GOES TO … PROVO, UTAH

MANUEL’S BIKE SHED

AT FIRST, MANUEL VERA just wanted to do something productive for his neighbors during the COVID-19 lockdown. Maybe he could help them get outside by tuning up bikes in need of a little TLC, he thought. So he posted to an online group in his Silver Spring, Maryland, neighborhood, offering to fix people’s bikes for free. All he asked was to be reimbursed for any new parts. “Then I started thinking about all the bikes that people have at home that never get used,” says Vera, 74, who is retired from the local power company. Soon he was asking neighbors to donate any bikes collecting dust in their garages and basements after kids had outgrown them or adults had upgraded to new models. Then, in his tidy little backyard shed, he’d get…

MANUEL’S BIKE SHED

TO SEE THE BEST OF BUTTE, Montana, all Joyce O’Bill has to do is look out her front window at the gleaming white Virgin Mary on the mountain. “I look out every morning and say hi,” she says. Perched high on a ridge outside of town, the massive statue known as Our Lady of the Rockies (or just Our Lady to locals) can be seen from almost everywhere in this famously hardworking city. Bob O’Bill built it as a tribute to his wife while she battled cancer. While Joyce was hard at work beating the disease, her husband’s modest vision of a 5-foot front-yard statue was blossoming into a 90-foot mountaintop memorial to both family and motherhood. “Bob said, ‘I’m not religious, but I’ve got a lot of faith,’” says Joyce. “I tell…

BLUE RIDGE FREE DENTAL CLINIC

IN 2003, THREE CHURCHES brought a mobile dental clinic to Cashiers, North Carolina, a tiny vacation town with just 752 year-round residents. When the clinic moved on, hundreds of hopefuls were left in line. Church volunteers who saw the good that accessible dental care could do raised funds to buy office space. Dental practices donated chairs and equipment; a dentist and a hygienist donated their time; and the Blue Ridge Free Dental Clinic was open. The pool of volunteers grows every year: In 2023, more than 20 professionals helped some 700 people with overdue fillings, extractions and dentures. “You don’t need to walk around feeling bad about yourself, because they can change your life for the better,” says Elizabeth Hooper, who skipped her school reunion because she couldn’t afford to fix her…

BLUE RIDGE FREE DENTAL CLINIC

LAST YEAR, EMILY ANADU answered a call from New York City’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Emily, I’m mad at you,” the man on the other end of the line told her. Anadu, 45, and thousands of other Brooklynites had just convened in Fort Greene Park for The Lay Out, an annual gathering the Sunday before Juneteenth. People come together to eat, buy clothes and crafts, and just bond with one another. “Oh no,” Anadu replied, “did we do something wrong?” “No,” he said. “You didn’t leave anything for us to do.” Attendees and organizers had returned the park in better condition than it was given. Decades ago, Fort Greene, a section of Brooklyn just off the Manhattan Bridge, was largely populated by first-time-homeowning Black families living on tree-lined streets where the sky’s view inspired limitless…

HORSESHOE BEACH, FLORIDA

WHEN CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE IDALIA, complete with 125-mph winds, came pounding across the Gulf of Mexico in August 2023, Horseshoe Beach, Florida, took a direct hit. An idyllic enclave of some 200 permanent residents in the state’s sparsely populated Big Bend region, the town prides itself on its old-fashioned vibe, neighborly spirit and resistance to commercialization. “They paved the roads back about 15 years ago,” says Mayor Jeff Williams, “and a lot of people in town raised Cain about it.” Horseshoe Beach had no cell service or internet access until 2014. Now, one of Florida’s final frontiers faced an existential threat. Idalia’s storm surge damaged or destroyed every building that wasn’t constructed on pilings. Forty homes were washed away completely. Devastated residents returned to town later the same day, shell-shocked and numb. Then…

HORSESHOE BEACH, FLORIDA

The NICEST PLACES in AMERICA

Our Finalists For the past eight years, our readers have nominated thousands of towns, cities, libraries, parks and even a shed as some of the Nicest Places in America. Take a journey around the country to see this year’s winners, starred on the map above. Read more and visit our previous Nicest Places at rd.com/nicest, where we are already collecting nominations for 2025. ★ Provo, Utah ★ Manuel’s Bike Shed in Silver Spring, Maryland ★ Butte, Montana ★ Blue Ridge Free Dental Clinic in Cashiers, North Carolina ★ Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York ★ Horseshoe Beach, Florida OUR PAST WINNERS • Gallatin, Tennessee, 2017 • Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville, Tennessee, 2018 • Columbiana, Ohio, 2019 • Buchanan, Michigan, 2020 • The Quality Inn in Kodak, Tennessee, 2021 • Coulterville, California, 2022 • Buffalo,…

The NICEST PLACES in AMERICA

THE SPY IN YOUR CAR

AFTER ALMOST 10 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, CHRISTINE DOWDALL WANTED OUT. Her husband was no longer the charming man she had fallen in love with. He had become narcissistic, abusive and unfaithful, she says. After one of their fights turned violent in September 2022, Dowdall fled their home in Covington, Louisiana, driving her Mercedes-Benz C300 sedan to her daughter’s house near Shreveport, five hours away. She filed a domestic abuse report with the police two days later. Her husband, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, didn’t want to let her go. He called her repeatedly, first pleading with her to return, and then threatening her. She stopped responding to him, even though he texted and called her hundreds of times. Dowdall, a 59-year-old real estate agent, started occasionally seeing a strange new message on the…

THE SPY IN YOUR CAR

SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS! FOR EVERYBODY!

WHAT WAS THE most important medical discovery of all time? Was it antibiotics, which gave doctors a way to fight deadly infections? What about medical imaging such as X-rays and CT scans, which allow doctors to look inside the human body to diagnose and treat a variety of conditions? Both of these innovations, of course, have saved many lives. But there’s one that leaves them in the dust. According to the World Health Organization, vaccines have saved more human lives—154 million, including 101 million infants, in the last 50 years alone—than any other medical invention in history. The first successful human vaccine was the smallpox vaccine, developed in 1796. Smallpox used to kill millions of people each year, and the vaccine has saved many millions of lives. We no longer need…

SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS! FOR EVERYBODY!

HIS BEST FRIEND WAS A 250-POUND WARTHOG …

He’d come close to dying on multiple occasions, including a few months before his first birthday, when doctors discovered a golf ball-sized tumor growing inside his skull. Austin Riley would go on to spend much of his childhood in and out of hospitals, enduring high-risk brain surgeries and grueling recoveries. Then, in his mid-20s, he was nearly killed by a cerebral hemorrhage that arrived one night, unleashing the worst pain he’d ever felt. He emerged from that experience reborn, feeling lucky to be alive and convinced that he had been spared by God. So as he sat in a pool of his own blood on a beautiful October evening in 2022, Austin, then 31, couldn’t help but acknowledge the morbid absurdity of his current predicament. He'd spent decades conquering brain maladies…

HIS BEST FRIEND WAS A 250-POUND WARTHOG …

Terrified of Turtles

Shell-Shocked As a kid, I heard stories of snapping turtles who ate my grandmother’s pet ducks. One day, I was in a rowboat with my aunt, occasionally dipping my hand into the lake. Suddenly, there was a huge snapping turtle inches away from my hand. I’ve been scared of them ever since. Then, in my 20s, some friends convinced me to join them in jumping into a lake from a bridge. On the way down, all I could think of was snapping turtles swarming me when I landed. I flailed my arms and legs midair in a futile attempt to stop myself, totally muffing the jump and doing a painful belly flop into the water. —JENNIFER THORNE Auburn, AL Mixed Signals I told my wife howl hated driving under traffic lights on windy days.…

Terrified of Turtles

THE FIRST PHOTOBOMBER…

It’s no secret that almost every fad eventually loses its appeal. (We’re looking at you, post-lockdown mullet!) However, some trends seem to have always been around because, well, they have always been around, at least as far as we can rememher-and then some. Photobombing In case you haven’t noticed, people have been taking a lot more pictures since the invention of the smartphone. As a result, countless individuals go out of their way to make chance encounters as memorable as possible—for themselves. The word photobombing, meaning popping up in a photo uninvited, first appeared online in 2008 and was enshrined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2015. The oldest known example of this odd behavior took place in the early 1850s, when a woman named Sally sat alongside a Mrs. Reed for a photographic…

THE FIRST PHOTOBOMBER…

FILM CHRISTOPHER REEVE IS FOREVER the definitive Superman, but this inspiring documentary demonstrates why he was as much of a superhero off-screen as he was on. The Juilliard graduate catapulted to stardom by playing the strapping Man of Steel in four Superman films beginning in the late 1970s. In 1995, when a horseback riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, the actor persevered by continuing to work, raising money for spinal injury research and helping others until his death in 2004. Members of his lovely blended family share intimate home videos and poignant anecdotes of growing up with Reeve, while friends like Jeff Daniels and Glenn Close discuss his richly lived private side. The stories about Reeve and Robin Williams, who were as close as brothers, evoke laughs and…

Trivial Pursuit

TV Fan favorite LeVar Burton takes his turn in the trivia-show spotlight as he gamely hosts the new TV version of Trivial Pursuit. Three players move around a giant board—just like the one you’re used to seeing on your coffee table—answering questions in hopes of winning colored wedges in the six categories from the classic version of the home game: Arts & Literature, Entertainment, Geography, History, Science & Nature and Sports & Leisure. The first player to reach the board’s center earns a chance to race the clock and take home the $20,000 prize pot. (For a full game night experience, tune in an hour early to catch Scrabble hosted by another ’90s to ’00s TV favorite, Raven-Symoné.) (Airing Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW) ELLIS O’BRIEN/ENTERTAINMENT ONE. THE NOUN…

Trivial Pursuit

Nobody Wants This

TV A new comedy that’s sure to inspire laughs and teach something about love, cutting us up in more ways than one? Yes, we do want this! Noah (Adam Brody) is a young, brassbound rabbi on the cusp of proposing to his “perfect,” familyapproved girlfriend, Rebecca (Emily Arlook). Then a chance collision with Joanne (Kristen Bell), an outspoken agnostic who co-hosts a hit podcast about the joys of life alone, rocks both their worlds. The O.C. heartthrob Brody brings the rom and The Good Place funnywoman Bell brings the com. (Streaming on Netflix Sept. 26) —CF BOOKS Blood Test: A Comedy By Charles Baxter Brock Hobson, a cliche of wholesomeness as a midwestern dad, insurance salesman and Sunday school teacher, finds himself facing a life-altering revelation. Follow our sympathetic protagonist’s journey—equal parts humorous (Baxter calls…

Nobody Wants This

QUOTABLE QUOTES

My background is hunting and fishing. I’ve sat around campfires with my father and watched older men talk. I got to know who the real storytellers were. —Kevin Costner, ACTOR, IN DEADLINEPart of growing up is realizing that you haven’t been walking a straight road to where you are now, that it’s been a labyrinth the whole time. —Moshe Kasher, COMEDIAN, IN THE BOOK SUBCULTURE VULTURETreat yourself, don’t cheat yourself. —Snoop Dogg, MUSICIAN, IN PEOPLECourage is not the absence of fear; it’s acting in the face of fear. In the same way, grit and determination, for me, are not the absence of self-doubt and insecurity. They’re acting in the face of self-doubt and insecurity. —Cady Coleman, ASTRONAUT, IN THE BOOK SHARING SPACENo matter how poor I’d been, I had never…

QUOTABLE QUOTES

POINT TO PONDER

IN AMERICA WE URGE EVERYONE over the age of 18 to vote, but only 15% of voters read books. Only 15% of us perform the life-affirming, sanity-bolstering, empathy-forming act of spending time inside somebody else’s brain. Fortunately—in spite of cellphones, in spite of video games, in spite of online gambling, in spite of the current storm of shortsighted politics— the habit of reading books is not yet on the brink of extinction. Not yet. Today’s booksellers and librarians are not the sitcom stereotypes who give judgy looks when someone brings the latest bestseller to the counter, or who will shush an overenthusiastic teen to churchy quiet from 60 yards away. Today’s booksellers and librarians are extraordinarily good at understanding and motivating. Armed with empathy, wit and professional training, they take the confused, the fearful,…

POINT TO PONDER

Fact or Fiction? MEDIUM Determine whether each statement is fact or fiction. To reveal the solution to the bonus question at the bottom, write the letters indicated by your responses in the corresponding numbered blanks. Turn the page upside down for the answers. BONUS QUESTION Which galaxy is the farthest celestial object visible without a telescope? (Need help? Turn to “13 Things” on page 20.) Answers: 1. Fiction; between 20% and 40% do, but not a majority. 2. Fact; as did Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens. 3. Fact; 11 apiece. 4. Fact. 5. Fiction; despite the expression, bats see quite well. 6. Fiction; some men were too. 7. Fact, according to Google trends data. 8. Fiction; the canned stuff is more nutritious because it's more concentrated 9. Fiction; it may appear…

1. lob v. (lahb) A scribble B chop C throw 2. inveigle v. (in-’vay-gl) A convince with flattery B negotiate C tangle up 3. canvass v. (’kan-vuhs) A lengthen B su rvey C crisscross 4. foment v. (’foh-ment) A turn sour B stir up C snarl 5. hew v. (hyoo) A conform B inform C deform 6. undulate v. (’uhn-juh-layt) A sell short B overshadow C move in waves 7. garner v. (’gahr-nr) A correct B beautify C earn 8. gambol v. (’gam-bl) A make a deal B skip happily C sand smooth 9. quaver v. (’kway-vr) A tremble B stall C debate 10. futz v. (fuhts) A stumble over B stink up C fool around 11. opine v. (oh-’pyn) A relieve pain B imprison C express an opinion 12. mewl v. (myool) A droop B whimper C crush 13. expedite v. (’ek-spuh-dyt) A speed up B glorify C transport 14. defenestrate v. (dee-’feh-nuh-strayt) A clear of…

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(970)

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