JULY 2025

PLAY OUR mfort Food

o
NEW Yum ! C
from Every
State
WORD
GAME
AMERIC A
TASTY
THE

How to Beat
THE HEAT
From
THEHEALTHY.COM

His Car
WOULDN’T
STOP!
A DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

CRAZY
Vacation Stories
By RD READERS

Sun, Fun &

Plastic Surgery?
By ADAM PIORE

DANGEROUS
Driving Ahead
From THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
 HIGH-PROTEIN
FIBER
B VITAMINS*
VITAMIN C
ZINC
CALCIUM
ANTIOXIDANTS†
VITAMIN D
OMEGA-3 ALA‡
COMPLETE,
BALANCED
NUTRITION®
SHAKE

Y
STANTLon
4 INstantcoup
SAVE $
com/i
n
ensure.

Use as part of a healthy diet.

* Vitamin B12 and folate.
† Vitamins C & E and selenium.
‡ 450mg plant-based omega-3 fatty acid
ALA (30% of 1.6g DV).
©2025 Abbott 202521565/February 2025
LITHO IN USA
 A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World

Features 70 86
your true stories
inspiration

48 ‘Without You I Oh, the Places

Wouldn’t Be Alive You’ll Go!*
Anymore’ Proof that the best
cover story
A Georgia grandmother souvenir you can bring
DIG IN!* home from a trip is
Classic comfort foods and a young German
man are forever con- a hilarious story.
from all 50 states. by reader’ s digest
by emily tyra with nected, thanks to a readers
taste of home lifesaving donation.
by matt kemper from
60 the atlanta journal-
constitution
90
drama in real life
health
Full Speed Ahead*
Sun, Fun &
Plastic Surgery?*
76 The teen was trapped
TMB STUDIO (DISCO FRIES)

national interest in a car accelerating out

Americans are packing Yes, Driving Is More of control. Could it be
their bags and heading Dangerous Now* stopped before he ran
abroad for more afford- After decades of out of road?
able health care. Is that declining fatality rates, by eric raskin
a good idea? more people are speed-
by adam piore ing, plowing through
intersections, and driv-
100
just for fun
ing impaired. Oops!
by matthew Some of the greatest
shaer from
the new minds in history went
york times to their graves lament-
magazine
ing their most influen-
tial work. Like these
eight groundbreakers ...
by jacopo della quercia

48
cover photograph by Emiko Franzen rd.com | july 2025 1
reader ’s digest Contents

Departments department of wit

30 My Summer
To-Do List
4 Dear Reader by lenore skenazy
world of good the rd list
7 Written in the 109 Chris Evans,
Sand Dogged Pursuit,
everyday heroes Ron Chernow
8 Your Wish Has and More
Been Granted
23
quotable quotes
by eric raskin 112 Ben Affleck,
glad to hear it Pope Francis,
11 Pint-Size Rihanna and More
Protector, point to ponder The Healthy
A Square Meal 113 Jennifer Jones 39 Beat the Heat*
best pet pals where, oh where? by beth weinhouse
12 Gripper the 120 Protected Pony 42 News from the
Class Turtle Club World of Medicine
life well lived by beth weinhouse
18 Warning: This
Fruit May Humor Brain Games
Orbisculate! 114 The Orbisculate
by sadie dingfelder Life in These United
from the States .................... 14 Challenge*, Power
washington post to You and More
All in a Day’s
art of living Work......................28 117 Word Power
23 In the (Bean) Bag Humor in
13 things Uniform ................34 Editors’ Note: In the May/
Laughter, the Best June Table of Contents, writer
24 Let’s All Go to Robert Muldoon Jr.’s name
the Fair Medicine ..............46 was misspelled. Apologies
by jill godsey to Mr. Muldoon.

Send letters to [email protected] or Letters, Reader’s Digest, P.O. Box 6100, Harlan, IA 51593-1600. Include your full name,
address, email and phone number. To submit humor items, visit rd.com/submit, or write to us at Jokes, 1610 N. 2nd St., Ste. 102,
Milwaukee, WI 53212-3906. We’ll pay you $25 for any joke or gag and $100 for any true funny story published in a print edition
humor department of Reader’s Digest unless we specify otherwise in writing. All submissions may be edited and are subject to
the terms found at trustedmediabrands.com/terms-of-use/#submissions. Please include your full name, address, email and
TMB STUDIO

phone number in your entry. We regret that we cannot acknowledge or return unsolicited work. Requests to reprint any mate-
rial from Reader’s Digest should be sent to [email protected]. Get help with questions on subscriptions, renewals, gifts,
address changes, payments, account information and other inquiries at rd.com/help, or write to us at [email protected] or
Reader’s Digest, P.O. Box 6095, Harlan, IA 51593-1595.

2 july 2025 | rd.com * Story referenced on cover

reader ’s digest

DEAR READER

My Favorite Feel-Good Food

O
K, I’m no longer a kid, but from every state, in “Dig In!” on page
sometimes I want to eat like 48, created with an assist from our
one. We all do. Maybe we have foodie friends at Taste of Home.
a bad day or work late or get slapped Many of our favorite treats are warm
with some other setback, and we and gooey, which often means they’re
seek solace in the familiar. My go-to made with butter—though none as
comfort food is a childhood favorite impressively as the butter sculptures
that comes in a memorable blue box you’ll see every summer at the Iowa
(although now the noodles are a more State Fair. We hit that highlight, and
muted yellow than the bright gold I others from fairs around the country
remember from my childhood). and the world, in 13 Things, on page
Yes, I’m talking about Kraft macaroni 24. You’ll find plenty of other seasonal
and cheese. I always keep a box on inspiration in this issue, from a peek
hand—sort of like my “in case of emer- at cornhole on page 23 to a roundup

MATTHEW COHEN ( JODY). EMIKO FRANZEN (MAC & CHEESE)

gency, break glass” reserve—and when of readers’ vacation stories on page
it’s one of those days, a steaming, sunny 86. And for tips on how to handle the
bowl really hits the spot. heat, turn to page 39.
I’m sure you have your own Save some time to play our
feel-good food, or foods. Maybe, brand-new game, The Orbiscu-
especially on warm days, you late Challenge, on page 114. It’s a
reach for the cold comfort fun quiz with a sweet backstory.
of ice cream, like the deli- Whatever you have planned
cious Rocky Road on our this summer, stay cool!
cover. Did you know that
Jody L. Rohlena,
this sweet treat was in-
content director
vented in California?
Learn about that, and Write to me at
classic comfort foods [email protected].

4 july 2025 | rd.com

 Spokane

WASHINGTON
IDAHO
Snak e Riv e r
Astoria

Pacific Mount St. Helens Clarkston

Ocean Richland
Stevenson Lewiston
Kalama
Fort mbia River
Colu
Clatsop Washougal Hood River Hells
Umatilla
Canyon
Portland The Dalles
Multnomah Pendleton
Falls Mt. Hood
OREGON

Follow Lewis and Clark’s epic 19th-

Explore the Columbia century expedition along the Columbia
& Snake Rivers and Snake Rivers aboard the newest ship
in the region. Enjoy unique shore
with the Leader in U.S. Cruising
excursions, scenic landscapes, and
talented onboard experts who bring
history to life.
Your Cruise Includes:
 9-day/8-night exploration
 8 ports of call with guided excursion Call today
options at each
 All onboard meals and our signature 888-240-4948
evening cocktail hour
 Full enrichment package with guest to request a
speakers and nightly entertainment free Cruise Guide
 All tips and gratuities
What Makes
Bladder Control
Underwear
Actually Work?
By Susan Miller
Built to Hold More
Bladder leaks can be frustrating—but
- Here's How
the right underwear can make all the
difference. Behind the comfort and Odor Control technology
confidence is some seriously clever neutralizes unwanted odors to
science. We took a closer look at what keep you fresh for up to 12 hrs
makes today's best bladder control
underwear so effective, and the
high-tech secrets hiding in plain sight. Anti-leak
channels absorb
liquid in seconds
The Science of Dry, to lock away
Comfortable Protection moisture, turning
liquid into gel
• Super Absorbent Polymers: These
tiny crystals can hold up to 300x
their weight in liquid. When Reinforced leak
moisture hits, they instantly turn it guards prevent
into gel to keep you dry. leaks at leg holes

• Multi-layer Absorbent Cores:

Advanced designs use layers that Moisture-wicking top layer
wick moisture away from skin, keeps moisture away from the
distribute it evenly, and lock it deep skin to keep you feeling dry
in the core.

• Odor Control Technology: Some

materials neutralize the ammonia in
urine, stopping smells before they
Try
FREE
start—lasting up to 12 hours.

• Reinforced Leak Guards: These

create a barrier around the leg
for
openings to keep leaks where they
belong: inside the underwear.
BecauseMarket.com/RD
• Soft, Breathable Fabrics: Designed
for sensitive skin, top layers keep 1-800-301-8546
you dry while feeling just like Get a FREE Starter Pack, just pay shipping
regular underwear.
 reader ’s digest

World of

GOOD
Reasons to Smile

Written in the Sand

oing around in circles is a good thing on the beaches of Bandon, Oregon.

G During low tide, artist Denny Dyke and about a dozen volunteers invite
you to walk the labyrinthine paths they draw in the sand, each of which
lasts only until high tide comes and washes it away. Walking these “Circles in the
Sand” is meditative for many. One visitor told CBS News, “It reminds us everything
is pretty temporary. I think that’s the message: Be in the now and allow what’s
next to happen.”
CHARLES WOLLERTZ

rd.com | july 2025 7

reader ’s digest

EVERYDAY HEROES

Your Wish
Has Been Granted
Seniors are seeing their dreams come true,
thanks to a former Olympic athlete

BY Eric Raskin

I
t had been more than 10 years 101 years of age at the time, while Ruth
since they’d all been together like was 104 and Rubye was 110.
this, and the three sisters’ eyes filled These three centenarians were
with tears. The eldest, Rubye Cox, kept enjoying an overdue reunion, courtesy
warm under a red plush blanket while of Wish of a Lifetime, a nonprofit that
her two “kid” sisters, Ruth Branum flew Rose in from Florida and Ruth
and Rose Shloss, each held one of her from Oklahoma to visit Rubye at her
hands. retirement home in Rhode Island.
“You were the smartest one in the The charity is the passion project of
family,” Rose told Rubye as they sat side Jeremy Bloom, a former Olympic skier
by side. “If I had a problem, I always and practice squad NFL player who
went to you.” was impressed, during his years travel-
They retold their favorite stories, they ing the world as an athlete, by how
CHRIS FERENZI PHOTOGRAPHY

laughed, and Rose even held 5-month- much more other countries and cul-
old Leela, the newest member of the tures seemed to respect and celebrate
extended family. their elders than what he’d witnessed
Oh, worth mentioning: Rose was in America.
more than a century older than the “Sometimes we forget here that their
baby in her arms. And that wasn’t the dreams still matter,” Bloom, 43, reflects.
largest age gap in the room. Rose was When he took a trip to Japan for a

8 july 2025
 World of Good

Jeremy Bloom
granted Lt. Col.
James Harvey’s wish
to have his fellow
Tuskegee Airmen
honored at Nellis
Air Force Base
in Nevada.

rd.com 9
 fulfills requests for critically ill children,
to fit folks on the opposite end of the
age spectrum—some ailing, others not.
For the first wish he granted, Bloom
arranged for airplane tickets for a
woman named Nancy so she could
visit her daughter, who was dying of
ovarian cancer, and say goodbye in
person. “I picked Nancy up at the air-
port after she spent four days with her
Bloom reunited three sisters—from left, daughter, and I picked up a totally dif-
Rubye, Ruth and Rose—after a decade ferent human being,” Bloom remem-
apart. bers. Nancy had found needed peace
and closure in seeing her daughter
skiing competition at age 15, Bloom one last time.
watched an elderly woman walk slowly Today, Wish of a Lifetime has a staff
onto a bus in Tokyo, and he was moved of 26 full-time employees and some
by how many passengers bowed to her 25,000 volunteers nationwide, and is
and extended a hand to help her. In that funded by donations and corporate
moment, a seed was planted, though it sponsorships. Most wish applications
took 10 years for the seed to germinate are submitted at wishofalifetime.org
into Wish of a Lifetime. by a friend or family member. The
As Bloom competed in the 2002 and 3,000 wishes granted so far have all
2006 Olympics in the freestyle skiing been vetted by a member of the team.
moguls event, as he caught the longest A World War II veteran returned to the
touchdown pass in University of Colo- beaches of Normandy for the first time
rado history as a freshman, as he got since D-Day; a woman wrote and per-
drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in formed a play based on her life story; a
2006, he kept wondering what else was former Air Force captain got the chance
out there for him. to meet his heroes, the Rolling Stones.
“As a professional athlete,” Bloom Wish of a Lifetime is not Bloom’s full-
says, “I had a fear that I would never find time job—he’s currently the CEO of
WISH OF A LIFETIME FROM AARP

purpose in the next chapter, because I X Games, a series of action sports com-
would see a lot of great teammates move petitions. But for a long time the charity
on and struggle to reinvent themselves.” was his full-time focus.
In the summer of 2008, Bloom took “It was my 100 percent all in,” Bloom
the steps to form his charitable organi- says. “It was: Let’s build a program.
zation. He wanted to adapt the concept Let’s meet the seniors. Let’s change as
of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which many lives as we can.”

10 july 2025
 World of Good reader ’s digest

Pint-Size Protector
Andre Howard Jr. was driving three of
GLAD TO his kids to get doughnuts last January
when a plane suddenly crashed onto
HEAR IT the Philadelphia highway where they
3 Stories to were driving. As debris hurtled toward
Make Your Day their car, he told the kids to duck. The
eldest, 10-year-old Trey Howard, cov-
ered his little sister to protect her.
When he sat back up, he had metal
sticking out of his head. Andre rushed
to the hospital, where Trey underwent
emergency brain surgery. Doctors
warned that Trey might not survive,
but he did. His first question post-op
was whether he had missed seeing his
beloved Eagles play in the Super Bowl.
All Smiles (He hadn’t.) Next he asked, “Daddy,
Like babies, puppies can be born with did I save my sister?” (He had.)
a cleft lip or palate, birth defects in
which the upper lip or the roof of the A Square Meal
mouth doesn’t fully close. Cleft dogs On her deathbed, Heather Bowers
often have other health issues as well, asked for a pork plate from Mama
whereas cleft kids more commonly Kwans. The pork tenderloin served
struggle with self-confidence. That’s with rice was her favorite dish from
why Lindsay Weisman of Rochester, her favorite spot in North Carolina.
New York, started the Cleft Rescue But she lived nearly six hours away in
Unit, which cares for cleft dogs and West Virginia. Her friend, Mary Sim-
brings them to events for cleft kids. mons, called the restaurant to ask if
“They love that the puppies look like they would ship the meal to Bowers,
them,” Weisman told the Washington a mom of two who would soon suc-
Post, so much so that some of their cumb to cancer. Instead, Kevin Cherry,
families end up adopting one of the owner of Mama Kwans, packed up a
dogs. Kimberly Rogers brought home pork plate and hit the road. He drove to
a Boston terrier with a cleft lip last fall Bowers’s home to deliver what ended
KIMBERLY ROGERS

for her daughter with the same condi- up being her last meal. On Facebook,
tion. Rogers says, “Since we have got- Simmons praised Cherry’s kindness to-
ten [the dog], she has not asked one ward her friend, saying, “He made one
question about why she’s different.” of her last wishes come true.”

rd.com 11
reader ’s digest World of Good

Has yo
pet got ounr
shell of a s e
Submit yo tory?
ur sto
see term ry and
rd.com/p s at
etpals.

Gripper’s favorite
foods are worms,
blueberries and
Cheerios.

BEST PET PALS

Gripper the retreating into her shell. Taking care of

Gripper’s enclosure became the most
Class Turtle coveted classroom job.
After decades of teaching, my wife
ankeny, ia
retired. Gripper is a house turtle now,
n 1993, a student at my wife’s ele- spending her days scuttling around

I mentary school brought in a box

turtle he’d found in the wild. My
wife agreed to keep Gripper as a pet
our deck, scratching at doors she’d
like us to open and pushing around
her food dish when she’s hungry.
for her second grade class. Gripper is the first thing former
The classroom was already deco- students ask about when my wife
rated like a park with a bench, artifi- runs into them. We don’t know how
cial trees and a pond with a working old she is, but box turtles can live to
CLIFF BROCKMAN

fountain, so a turtle fit right in. Grip- 100, so we’ve informed our daughter
per got her name because she’d “grip” that she’ll inherit our turtle if we pass
students’ hands when they picked her before Gripper does.
up, and crane her neck out instead of —Nominated by cliff brockman

12 july 2025 | rd.com

reader ’s digest

LIFE
in these
United States

When he was young, my

son had the unfortu-
nate habit of following
me everywhere, talking
nonstop and punctuat-
ing every sentence or
question with a “Mom”
or “Mommy.” One day,
I snapped. “The side effects of your eye medication
“I know you’re are listed on the bottom line.”
talking to me,” I barked.
“You don’t have to keep Man: There are signs, ) I called our router
saying Mom!” aren’t there? Abraham Linksys. A few
There was a brief Me: I guess? weeks later, I noticed
silence before he spoke Man: I love them someone down the
again: “Um, excuse me, (47 minutes of awkward street named theirs
Miss?” silence). Man leaves John Wilkes Bluetooth.
—Suzanne Dunn train; he has a bike. I )“TellMyWiFiLoveHer”
Coral Springs, FL realize he was saying ) I had a neighbor
“cycle paths.” whose WiFi was Exodus
Man sits by me on train. — @paul_c_watson 20:15. I looked it up:
Man: Loads of psycho- “You Shall Not Steal.”
paths around here. Naming a kid is child’s ) “Rebellious Amish
Me: Really? play when compared to Family”
Man: Loads, mate. naming one’s router, as —reddit.com
Me: How’d you know? these examples prove:
We were in a gift shop
when my wife noticed
an unusual necklace.
In England, “booster shot” is spelled,
“It’s made from alli-
“borchestershire shot.” gator teeth,” the sales-
— @Bobgolen person told her.

14 july 2025 | rd.com cartoon by Scott Masear

 World of Good

“But it’s more expen- WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE

sive than a pearl neck- Recently, a contestant on Wheel of Fortune
lace,” said my wife. wanted to solve this clue:
“True,” admitted
the salesperson. “But _ _ _E _O_RSE_F A RO_N_
anyone can open an O_ A_ _ _A_SE
oyster.”
The correct answer was “Give yourself a round
—Yefim M. Brodd of applause.” However, the guy guessed “Treat
Kirkland, WA yourself a round of sausage.” He’s not the first
to mess up. Here are some other past gaffes:
A well-rounded man
knows a little about Clue: LEAT_ER Clue: M_R_ _N T_ _
a lot of topics. But _ _LL_T M_ _ _C_ _N
Esquire insists these Correct answer: Leather Correct Answer: Merlin
Wallet the Magician
are things a man
They guessed: Leather They Guessed: Marvin
should never know: Mullet the Magician
) Which Harry Potter
house he would have Clue: SU_F C_ _Y Clue: S_LF-PO_T_ _ _T
been sorted into. _ERE WE COME Correct Answer: Self
) The feel of an Correct Answer: Surf City Portrait
airplane-lavatory floor Here We Come They Guessed: Self
on his bare feet. They Guessed: Surf Clay Potato
) The healthiest item Where We Go —ranker.com
on the Cheesecake
Factory menu.
) Any human being
who says, “I didn’t have
that on my bingo card.”
) His teenage son’s
friend’s girlfriend’s
opinion on the Middle
East.
FOTOSTOK_PDV/GETTY IMAGES

your funny story

about friends or family
could be worth $$$. For
details, go to page 2 or
rd.com/submit.

15
A PRESCRIPTION DROP

For the signs &

symptoms of
dry eye disease
Reclaim Comfort With VEVYE®
ÑÀÑÔÀÞèÖÙÞĚÚçÚãéàÞãÙäÛÙçîÚîÚéçÚÖéâÚãééÝÖéìäçàèæêÞØàáî
ÖãÙÜÚãéáîèäîäêØÖãÜÚééÝÚçÚáÞÚÛîäêąëÚ×ÚÚãáääàÞãÜÛäç

U N I Q U E C O N C E N T R AT E D F O R M U L AT I O N
ÑÀÑÔÀÚãÝÖãØÚèéÝÚåÚãÚéçÖéÞäãäÛØîØáäèåäçÞãÚ
ÞãéäéÝÚØäçãÚÖéäéÖçÜÚéÞãĜÖââÖéÞäã

MAXIMIZE COMFORT
%%$YäÛåÖéÞÚãéèçÚåäçéÚÙãääçäãáî
âÞáÙèéÞãÜÞãÜ×êçãÞãÜìÝÚãÖååáîÞãÜ

FA S T R E L I E F
DAY
Starts to repair corneal
15 ÙÖâÖÜÚÞãÖèáÞééáÚÖè!ÙÖîè

SAFETY PROFILE

Do not touch the Remove contact Wait 15 minutes

bottle tip to the eye lenses prior to before reinserting
or other surfaces using VEVYE contacts

ÏÝÚâäèéØäââäãèÞÙÚÚĚÚØéèÞãØáêÙÚÚîÚÞççÞéÖéÞäã $Y ÖãÙéÚâåäçÖçî×áêççÚÙëÞèÞäã Y 
ÁäçÖÙÙÞéÞäãÖáÞãÛäçâÖéÞäãÖ×äêéÑÀÑÔÀöëÞèÞéëÚëîÚØäâ
 NO BARRIERS.
NO COMPROMISES.
VEVYE® ACCESS FOR ALL

VEVYE Access for AllâÖàÚèéçÚÖéâÚãéâäçÚÖØØÚèèÞ×áÚ

äĚÚçÞãÜåÖéÞÚãéèÖèÞâåáÚÖãÙÖĚäçÙÖ×áÚìÖîéäěãÙçÚáÞÚÛÎØÖã
the QR code or go to vevye.com/accessforalléäáÚÖçãâäçÚ

B R I E F S U M M A RY – Please see the VEV YE® package inser t for

full prescribing information
Indication and Usage:
ÑÀÑÔÀØîØáäèåäçÞãÚäåÝéÝÖáâÞØèäáêéÞäãYÞèÖåçÚèØçÞåéÞäãÙçäåêèÚÙéä
éçÚÖééÝÚèÞÜãèÖãÙèîâåéäâèäÛÙçîÚîÚÙÞèÚÖèÚ
Dosage:
¼ååáîäãÚÙçäåäÛÑÀÑÔÀéìÞØÚÖÙÖîÞãÚÖØÝÚîÚÖååçäíÞâÖéÚáîÝäêçèÖåÖçé
Pediatric / Geriatric Use:
ÎÖÛÚéîÖãÙÚĚÚØéÞëÚãÚèèÞãåÚÙÞÖéçÞØåÖéÞÚãéè×ÚáäìéÝÚÖÜÚäÛ$îÚÖçèÝÖëÚ
ãäé×ÚÚãÚèéÖ×áÞèÝÚÙÉääëÚçÖááÙÞĚÚçÚãØÚÞãèÖÛÚéîäçÚĚÚØéÞëÚãÚèèÝÖè×ÚÚã
ä×èÚçëÚÙ×ÚéìÚÚãÚáÙÚçáîÖãÙîäêãÜÚçåÖéÞÚãéè
I M P O R TA N T S A F E T Y I N F O R M AT I O N
• ¾ÖçÚèÝäêáÙ×ÚéÖàÚãéäãäééäêØÝéÝÚÚîÚäçäéÝÚçèêçÛÖØÚèìÞéÝéÝÚ×äééáÚéÞå
éäÖëäÞÙåäéÚãéÞÖáÛäçÚîÚÞãßêçîÖãÙ äçØäãéÖâÞãÖéÞäã
• ¾äãéÖØéáÚãèÚèèÝäêáÙ×ÚçÚâäëÚÙåçÞäçéäÖååáîÞãÜÑÀÑÔÀÖãÙâÖî×Ú
çÚÞãèÚçéÚÙ!âÞãêéÚèÛäááäìÞãÜÖÙâÞãÞèéçÖéÞäã
• ÏÝÚâäèéØäââäãèÞÙÚÚĚÚØéèÞãØáêÙÚÚîÚÞççÞéÖéÞäã$YÖãÙéÚâåäçÖçî
×áêççÚÙëÞèÞäãY
ÏäçÚåäçéÎÐÎËÀ¾ÏÀ¿¼¿ÑÀÍÎÀÍÀ¼¾ÏÄÊÉÎØäãéÖØéÃÖççäìÖé $ 
##"%äçÁ¿¼Öé $ Á¿¼ $$äçìììÛÙÖÜäë âÚÙìÖéØÝÁäçÖÙÙÞéÞäãÖá
ÞãÛäçâÖéÞäãÖ×äêéÑÀÑÔÀåáÚÖèÚèÚÚÁêááËçÚèØçÞ×ÞãÜÄãÛäçâÖéÞäãÖéëÚëîÚØäâ

VEVYE and the VEVYE logo are registered trademarks of Novaliq GmbH. Harrow IP, LLC owns the registered
trademark for the HARROW logo.
© 2025. All Rights Reserved. VYE-00279 04/25
 LIFE WELL LIVED An RD
Classic

Warning: This Fruit

May Orbisculate!
Two siblings honor their father by trying to get
his made-up word into the dictionary

BY Sadie Dingfelder
from the washington post

18 july 2025
 World of Good reader ’s digest

I
n the early aughts, Hilary Krieger painful and annoying, like getting
was sitting in her parents’ Boston grapefruit juice in your eye, you can
home when her friend accidentally laugh and have fun with it.”
squirted himself with an orange slice. Two decades later, Hilary found
“I said, ‘Oh, the orange just orbis- herself telling that funny story again
culated,’” she recalls. “And he said, ‘It and again, in some very sad circum-
did what?’” stances. Her father, Neil Krieger, died
The two made a $5 bet, and Hilary of complications from COVID-19 in
gleefully grabbed the family dictio- April 2020 at age 78. Since the Krieg-
nary. She flipped to the “O” section ers couldn’t have a proper funeral,
and stared at the spot on the page Hilary, who now lives in New York
where orbisculate should have been. City, spent a lot of time on the phone
“My first thought was, What’s wrong talking with friends and family, and
with this dictionary?” she says. the orbisculate story kept coming up.
Aghast, Hilary burst into her dad’s “I began to think, orbisculate is such
study and told him the shocking a great word; it should be in the dic-
news: Orbisculate was somehow not tionary!” says Hilary, an editor.
in the dictionary! Hilary, 44, called her brother Jona-
“And he looked kind of sheepish, than Krieger, 36, who lives in Boston
and that’s when I found out that he and runs an online trivia company,
made up this word when he was in and together, they hatched an elabo-
college and had just been using it our rate plan to get the word officially rec-
whole lives, as if it were a real word,” ognized. Their goal is to put the word
Hilary says. to use publicly enough that it has a
He’d always defined it as “when you chance of becoming legitimate.
dig your spoon into a grapefruit and Getting a word into the dictionary
it squirts juice directly into your eye,” isn’t easy, but the Kriegers’ 78-point
she says, though the family also ap- plan, as described on their website,
plied it to other fruits and vegetables orbisculate.com, is spot on. Encourag-
that unexpectedly spritzed. ing people to use orbisculate in a wide
Out $5 and wondering what other variety of contexts, such as in comic
fake words might be lurking in her strips, news stories and the name of a
vocabulary, Hilary was mad at the Ben & Jerry’s sorbet flavor, will leave
time. But she quickly came to see her a compelling trail of evidence for lex-
dad’s made-up word as a gift, one that icographers to follow.
encapsulated his mischievous and in- Merriam-Webster adds about
ventive spirit. 1,000 new words to its master database
“It speaks to his creativity and the every year, words that then trickle
idea that, even when something’s down to the company’s print and

illustrations by Chloe Zola rd.com 19

reader ’s digest

online dictionaries. The batch of new affect many people tend to get picked
words released in January 2021 is up quickly. “That’s one of the things
heavy on pandemic-related vocabulary orbisculate has going for it—there
such as long-hauler and pod. is no single word that captures the
Editors at the dictionary’s whisper- squirting in the eye that certain fruits
quiet office in Springfield, Massachu- do,” she says.
setts, scour newspapers, academic If the Kriegers accomplish all the
journals, books and even cartoon goals they outline on their website,
captions for new words. “the word’s status as an established
“What we’re looking for is usage in member of the English language
publications with a large and broad would be pretty irrefutable,” Brewster
readership,” says senior editor Emily says. But to make it all happen, they
Brewster. need help from friends and strangers.
Even if they don’t succeed in getting
the word added to the dictionary, the
IF THEY ACCOMPLISH Kriegers’ project may still accomplish
ALL THEIR GOALS, THE something important. Perhaps just
trying will help buffer them against
WORD’S STATUS WILL some of the feelings of despair and
BE IRREFUTABLE. hopelessness that have struck many
families who lost loved ones to the
coronavirus, says psychologist Rob-
ert A. Neimeyer, PhD, director of the
Brewster and her colleagues gen- Portland Institute for Loss and Tran-
erally track words for years or even sition. Among the many reasons that
decades before nominating them for virus-related grief has proved espe-
dictionary status. This ensures that cially shattering is that social distanc-
flash-in-the-pan coinages—think Will ing separated mourners from their
Smith’s use of jiggy to mean trendy friends and family.
(briefly popular in the ’90s)—can’t “This family has come up with a
sneak in. But if a word really takes off, creative way of memorializing their fa-
it can quickly become official. ther, by building a community around
“The word that has the record for this thing that’s distinctive about him,”
most quickly entering the dictio- Neimeyer says.
nary is COVID-19, at 34 days,” Brew- That community, which the Kriegers
ster says. “The term before that was named Orbisculation Nation, even has
AIDS.” a uniform of sorts—a citrus-festooned
In addition to diseases, words that T-shirt. Friends of the Kriegers often
describe concrete phenomena that take pictures of themselves wearing

20 july 2025
 World of Good

an online crossword puzzle (Goal

No. 1) and a homemade cartoon
(Goal No. 25). And when the Because
Language podcast announced online
voting to determine its word of the
year, the Orbisculation Nation put its
favorite word over the top.
It’s such a good word, it
might have won even with-
out the online campaign, says
podcast host Daniel Midgley.
“Orbisculate felt like a re-
freshing splash of citrus in an
otherwise grim year of words,” he
says.
It has been more than a year since
their T-shirts and send the images via Neil’s death, and his children are still
text messages to Hilary and Jonathan. reeling from the loss. But their cam-
“Just to have that reminder—that there paign to get their father’s word into
are people who are thinking about you the dictionary has helped them re-
and who care about you—helps a lot,” capture a little of the joy that has been
says Jonathan. missing from their lives.
The Orbisculation Nation is also “I could picture him being really
helping the Kriegers check off items excited,” Jonathan says. “He’d say, ‘It’s
on their list for orbisculation domi- dynamite!’ That’s a thing he always
nation. One family friend went rogue used to say.” RD
and put a homemade orbisculation
warning sign on a pile of clementines This story originally appeared in the
in a grocery store (Goal No. 16). December 2021/January 2022 issue of
People the Kriegers don’t know Reader’s Digest.
personally, but who were inspired
THE WASHINGTON POST (MARCH 10, 2021), COPYRIGHT ©
by the campaign, used the word in 2021 BY WASHINGTON POST.

Take the Orbisculate Challenge!

You might not be able to flip to orbisculate in the dictionary just yet,
but you can flip to page 114 and play our new word game, the Orbisculate
Challenge. Inspired by our readers, it’s a fun brainteaser for fans of Word
Power, Wordle, Scrabble and the like. How’s that for Goal No. 61
(use orbisculate in a word game), Merriam-Webster?!

rd.com 21
 Introducing The New ZOOMER:
Weighs Less, Carries More, Goes Farther!

zoomer ®

“Now that I have my Zoomer,

every day is Independence Day!”

ty to walk long distances has been a problem. Currently with

mer I no longer have to sit on a bench and wait on others.
have to miss out on shopping or experiencing different
with my family. This chair is freedom to join in and continue
g life’s adventures. Best decision ever!

Available in black and blue .

Over ten thousand Americans have discovered this life- NOW

changing, portable, folding battery-powered chair that offers
easy one-hand operation. Isn’t it your turn?
10LIGHTER
LBS Weight Capacity
up to 300 lbs

When we first introduced the Zoomer to the public, we

thought people would enjoy the handy features and benefits
of this unique mobility device. We had no idea the extent
to which this innovative way of solving an age-old problem
would inspire people to take back their freedom and
independence. We’ve received hundreds of positive reviews
from people who are now enjoying the things they used to
love doing:

-Shopping, visiting friends, and taking leisurely strolls

with loved ones.

But that’s only the beginning! Now their Zoomer

enables them to navigate many situations more
easily… crowded malls, uneven terrain or longer
distances. It reduces their reliance on others,
giving them back confidence and control over
where they go and what they do. Studies* have
shown that increased social engagement and
participation in activities helps combat isolation Swivel Away
and promotes overall well-being. Footrest

Why wait another minute watching others

participate in life while you are stuck on the
sidelines? Call now, and let us help you get a NEW split frame design
Folds to 12.5”
Zoomer of your very own. in seconds makes it easier to lift

Scan to
Call our experts today! learn more

888-660-0948 ShopJourney.com

•Harvard Study of Adult Development. The Zoomer Chair is a personal electric vehicle and is not a medical device nor a wheelchair. It is not intended for
medical purposes to provide mobility to persons restricted to a sitting position. We accept all major forms of payment, but do not accept Medicare, Medicaid
85057

or other insurance. © 2025 Journey Health & Lifestyle - 606641

 reader ’s digest

Art of

LIVINGfacts & fun

In the (Bean) Bag

ickleball, schmickleball! Cornhole is the most-played sport

P in America. It’s also older than you probably think. A 14th-century

Bavarian carpenter is credited with crafting the first cornhole set for
some neighborhood kids he saw tossing rocks into a hole. He filled those
first bags with corn kernels, hence the name. While you play, it’s easy to
hold a conversation—not to mention a drink—no doubt part of the appeal.
TMB STUDIO

But make no mistake: The game can get competitive. ESPN will air the
American Cornhole League World Championships, happening this month
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the total prize money will top $75,000. RD

photograph by Emiko Franzen rd.com | july 2025 23

reader ’s digest

13 THINGS

Let’s All Go to the Fair

BY Jill Godsey

1
The fair is coming the entire population fair” candidate is the
to town! More than of the state of Florida. one Elkanah Watson
1,700 county and hosted in Pittsfield,

2
state fairs take place in Pennsylvania’s Massachusetts, in 1807.
the United States each York State Fair But the event consisted
year—and all year bills itself as only of sheep-shearing
round, though most are America’s first fair. It’s demonstrations, as
held in summer. More actually 11 years older Watson, who owned a
than 23 million people than America, since it woolen mill, hoped to
attended a state fair dates back to 1765. A encourage local farm-
last year. That’s like post-revolution “first ers to raise more sheep.

24 july 2025 illustration by Serge Bloch

 Art of Living

3
Today, modern the fairgrounds. So you went to the “deep-fried
amusement rides can visit all six states— lemonade bite,” made
accompany the and sample goods from with Hawaiian sweet
agricultural attractions. each—in one stop. rolls, French toast
Ferris wheels are a batter, lemon curd,

5
state fair staple, and the Among the largest lemon sugar and icing.
Texas State Fair claims state fairgrounds

7
to have the tallest one. are Iowa’s (which Corn dogs are
Nicknamed the Texas spans 445 acres), New classic fair fare,
Star, it rises 212 feet York’s (375) and Min- though it’s unclear
high, 52 feet shy of the nesota’s (322). But the where these cornmeal
first Ferris wheel, which Georgia National Fair creations first cropped
debuted at another fair: dwarfs them all at more up. Some credit Oregon
the 1893 world’s fair in than 1,100 acres. That’s concessioner George
Chicago. Riders there twice the size of Disne- Boyington, who in 1939
paid 50 cents each for a yland. The midway at lost some hot dog buns
20-minute ride, during the Mississippi State to rain, inspiring him
which the wheel went Fair is a mile long! to find a way to create
around twice. That first a bun on an as-needed

6
wheel was meant to ri- Of course, eating basis. He trademarked
val the keystone attrac- your way across his “Pronto Pups” (now
tion at the previous the midway offsets a Minnesota State Fair
world’s fair: the Eiffel the calories you burn favorite) in 1942. But
Tower. by walking it. Because, that same year, “Corny
let’s face it, fair food is Dogs” were offered at

4
All six New fried food. Long past are the Texas State Fair.
England states the days when hoisting

8
(Connecticut, an Oreo or a Twinkie Prize produce
Maine, Massachusetts, into the fryer could be abounds at state
New Hampshire, Rhode called innovative. Deep- fairs. The fiercest
Island and Vermont), fried ranch dressing competition might be
come together for debuted at the Minne- in Alaska, where the
The Big E, the country’s sota State Fair last year, long summer days and
only multistate fair. while deep-fried bubble fertile soil are ideal for
Though the event is gum popped at the Iowa sprouting giant veggies.
held in Massachusetts, State Fair. And last Alaskan Scott Robb set
the other five states year’s “Sporkie” award three Guinness World
each own a building for the best bite at the Records at his state
and a bit of land on Wisconsin State Fair fair. He’s credited with

rd.com 25
reader ’s digest Art of Living

growing the heaviest 69 agricultural fairs. made appearances on

turnip (39 pounds, About 3,200 jobs and The Tonight Show for
3.2 ounces), the heavi- about $152 million in her artistry. Lyon spent
est kale (105 pounds, employee earnings more than 40 years
14.5 ounces) and the came with it. And in carving butter bovines
heaviest green cabbage Colorado, the 2021 state and more at the Iowa
(138 pounds, 4 ounces). fair alone created nearly State Fair. Her portfolio
$15 million in earnings. includes statues of

9
Fairgoers might Garth Brooks and Tiger

11
catch a megastar The bizarre Woods, and even a life-
in the making. but beloved tra- size reproduction of
Christina Aguilera dition of butter Leonardo da Vinci’s
performed at the North sculptures began at the The Last Supper.
Dakota and Minnesota 1903 Ohio State Fair as

13
state fairs in 2000, the a way to promote the We can thank
same year she won a dairy industry. While fairs for many
Grammy for best new cows and calves are the notable firsts.
artist. Taylor Swift sang traditional forms, other Alexander Graham Bell
at fairs in Minnesota, sculpture subjects in- debuted the telephone
New York and North clude the Liberty Bell, at the 1876 world’s fair
Dakota in 2007, 2008 Darth Vader and Mr. in Philadelphia, the first
and 2009 as her star was Monopoly. What hap- international fair held
rising. And the King pens to all that butter? in the United States.
himself, Elvis Presley, Some of it gets recycled. Elsewhere in the fair-
took the stage at the At the New York State grounds, Henry J. Heinz
Texas State Fair in 1956, Fair, hundreds of served his first squeezes
just one month after pounds go to a local of ketchup. The zipper
his first appearance on farm and get converted and the dishwasher
The Ed Sullivan Show. into energy. The butter both premiered at the
churns out enough to 1893 world’s fair in

10
bringing in power the farm and Chicago, and TV first
huge crowds more than 300 homes. aired at the 1939 world’s
and employing fair in New York. Stay

12
lots of people, fairs are Perhaps the tuned to see which in-
big business. In 2019, most famous novations emerge from
the state of Washington butter sculptor Expo 2025, the latest
saw a $397 million was Norma “Duffy” world’s fair, running
boost in its economy Lyon, aka the Butter now through Oct. 13
thanks to the state’s Cow Lady, who even in Osaka, Japan.

26 july 2025 | rd.com

 P R O D U C T I O N S

AND DRY EYES

SAVING THE WORLD FROM DRY EYES

© 2025 ALCON INC. US-SAF-2400011
reader ’s digest

All
in a Day’s

WORK
As a manager of a tech
support group at our
university, I was re-
sponsible for keeping a
repository of previously
installed software. I was
helped by one of the IT
techs, a computer whiz
who often fought a
“Was my tie like that all day?”
losing battle with the
English language. One The customer is not the uppercase letter, but
day, after installing always right. when I type a number,
software, he handed it doesn’t do that.
me a set of install ) Me: May I have the Me: Doesn’t do what?
discs, saying cheerfully, name as it appears on Caller: Type the
“Here you go—put this your credit card? uppercase number.
in your suppository.” Customer: Visa. —notalwaysright.com
—Ted Wheeler ) Customer: I ordered
Nampa, ID a pizza: half pepperoni, I was teaching a first-
half sausage … and half aid class to Cub Scouts
Those who wait on us plain. visiting our police
at restaurants and ) Caller: When I type station. To help them
stores want us to a letter with the shift remember the treat-
know something: key pressed, it gives me ments for head wounds
(elevate the head),
shock (elevate the legs),
My husband told me I act like he forgets and respiratory distress
everything. So this morning, when his (call 911; do CPR if
needed), I used a
alarm went off, I let him get ready for work
mnemonic device.
and leave. He forgot he was off today. “If the face is red,
— @iamnikkisavoy raise the head,” I

28 july 2025 | rd.com cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez and Al Batt

 Art of Living

recited. “If the face is open its doors. service, saying goodbye
pale, raise the tail. If the ) A neighbor was wear- to our members.
face is blue, it’s up to ing too much cologne. Among them was
you.” ) The dry cleaners Harry, who worked at
It became obvious stained their shirt. the local funeral parlor.
that at least one young- ) Someone requested We shook hands and
ster had been listening technical support. I said, “See you later.”
when he added, “And ) There was a Harry smiled and
if he died, at least you domesticated-looking said, “Not if I see you
tried.” bunny in the park. first.”
—Steve Scarano —David Bradley
Vista, CA Considering their line Asheville, NC
of work, it’s under-
Every year, emergency standable why many
responders at E-Comm funeral directors have
your funny work
911 in British Columbia a dark sense of humor.
story could be worth
share some of the less- For example, when I
$$$. For details,
than-urgent calls that was an associate pastor,
go to page 2 or
they’ve fielded: I stood outside the
rd.com/submit.
) McDonald’s wouldn’t church after a Sunday

THAT’S THE JOB FOR ME! person who is quitting gives their honest
) Hate speaking to clients on the phone?
opinion [albeit, via someone else!] why
Then call—or text, if you must—Mary Jane they want to quit.”
Copps. “The Phone Lady” charges $480 ) Not sure if you should keep reading
an hour for one-on-one coaching sessions this or turn the page? Ask Nell Wulfhart,
with tips and exercises aimed at turning professional decision coach. For an hour-
workers into Chatty Cathys on the phone. long $247 phone session, she’ll guide
One tip: Look at photos of smiling people you through life’s toughest choices:
IAN ROSS PETTIGREW/GETTY IMAGES

while you’re on the phone, Copps told Should I change jobs? Leave my beau?
CBS News New York, “so you feel more Paint the kitchen? Wulf-
comfortable with how the other person hart, a former journalist,
is receiving your conversation.” told the Café Anne
) Can’t work up the nerve to quit your Substack that her
loathsome job? For $136, Exit, a Japanese only real qualification
company, will do the deed for you. They’ll for the job is: “Basi-
even tell your boss off. An Exit founder cally, I’m just ... good
told Al Jazeera, “Through our service, the at this.”
 Art of Living reader ’s digest

DEPARTMENT OF WIT

My Summer
To-Do List
How it started ... and how it’s going

BY Lenore Skenazy

To do:
Get new bathing suit. Also, if someone made bathing
Come on. Who am I kidding? Get suits that don’t go out of style ev-
out the old bathing suit. Ignore the ery two (in glacial terms) seconds.
fact it predates the Bush era. Quit obsessing about age of bath-
The W. Bush era, that is. It’s not ing suit.
like I NEVER get a new bathing Quit obsessing about age. “Only as
suit. old as you feel.”
It would just be nice if some-
Or is it “only as young as you feel”?
day they invented an elastic that
stayed elastic instead of getting Positive affirmation: I feel younger
crunchy after a decade or two. than springtime.

illustration by Andy Ward rd.com | july 2025 31

reader ’s digest Art of Living

Of course, springtime has been efficiency.” As if it is so easy to

with us for a while. Like ever since move a fridge every month.
the Earth started spinning on its Or ever.
axis, right? Or at least since the
evolution of plants? I do, for sure, Which could explain our electric-
feel younger than that. ity bills.
Just not in my bathing suit. Quit thinking about things you
didn’t do in the middle of to-do
Anyway, buy sunscreen! list.
Choose: White slop no one in the To do: Get annual dental checkup.
family will ever use because it’s (Prepare to hate gums, self, life.)
like slathering on ranch dressing
and pretending that’s a normal Also to do: Stay on hold for
way to walk around? The Buffalo 45 minutes waiting for dentist’s
wing look? office to remember you are alive,
on the phone and had cheerfully
Or the clear spray-on stuff that responded “Sure!” to “Can you
costs more per ounce than Chanel please hold?” hoping that your
No. 5? chipper sympathy for their “crazy
Buy both. Mere presence of gloppy day!” would get you better ser-
white stuff in medicine cabi- vice. So much for that. You want a
net will protect family from skin crazy day? Try calling the dentist
cancer by appeasing angry Cop- for your annual May checkup and,
pertone god. Can stay there for after the first 10 minutes on hold,
years. realizing that you really have to go
to the bathroom.
Ignore the fact that I saw an article
yesterday that said a responsible Quit drifting off topic! Summer!
family would go through a whole Coming! Soon! Start exercising!
bottle of sunscreen in a day at Start exercising God-given right to
the beach, reapplying after each enjoy life without jogging, stretch-
swim. ing, crunching.
I suppose this is the same fam- If I want a crunch, I’ve got the
ily that cleans the coils behind elastic in my bathing suit.
the refrigerator on a monthly
basis, as the manufacturer sug- GET BATHING SUIT!
gests. Supposed to “boost cooling Happy summer!

32 july 2025 | rd.com

 50% OFF1
LIMITED TIME

Easy to use.

Easy to get help.

Big Savings on Monthly Plans!

• Fast, reliable nationwide coverage 1 line as low as 2 lines as low as
$
1499 $
2498
• No long-term contracts
• No cancellation fees
• Keep your phone number2 /mo.* /mo.*

Available at:
Call Now!
1.877.526.4505 lively.com/phones

*Plus $ 3 23 admin. fee, variable USF/surcharges & taxes per line. Pricing is
for new lines of service on Flip2 with paperless billing. For a description of
our fees and taxes, visit lively.com/support/faqs. Monthly fees are subject
to change. See lively.com for plans pricing. Plans or services may require
purchase of a Lively device and a $ 35 one-time activation fee per line. Additional variable USF fee is added to activation fee. 1 50% off
$ 99
79 Flip2 and $ 119 99 Smart4 prices valid for new lines of service only through 7/5/25. Not all services available on all plans. Urgent
Response, Nurse On-Call and Operator Services available 24/7. For Customer Service business hours see lively.com/support/faqs.
Urgent Response tracks approx. location of phone when phone is turned on and connected to network. Lively does not guarantee an
exact location. Lively is not a health care provider. Lively Rides service is arranged through the Lyft Platform. Ride fares are applied to
your monthly Lively bill. Consistently rated among top wireless providers as fast and reliable by RootMetrics. 2 Porting is dependent
on availability of the phone number requested and is subject to approval of the existing carrier. Screen images simulated. Device Learn More
appearance varies. Lively and Jitterbug are trademarks of Best Buy Health, Inc. ©2025 Best Buy. All rights reserved.
reader ’s digest Art of Living

Humor in

UNIFORM
During inspection, the
officer noticed some-
thing amiss with the
soldier standing next
to me. Bringing his eye-
balls within an inch of
the nervous soldier’s
chin, he gave it a long
“Axeman to Red Leader, dropped an M&M
once-over before ask- in the glove box, over.”
ing, “Did you shave
today?” to be certain his men on a field trip to the
“Yes, sir!” shouted could be trusted. So U.S. Coast Guard Sta-
the soldier. he tested them. He tion of Woods Hole,
The officer sneered, sent 30 of the most Massachusetts. As a
“Next time, stand closer attractive members of young ensign guided
to the razor.” the Women’s Auxiliary the 9- and 10-year-olds
—Ronald Denchfield Air Force, dressed in on the tour, a fellow
Burlingame, CA civilian clothes, into guardsman slapped
nearby pubs to try to the ensign on the back
Who Knew? get them to spill the and said, “I see they
During World War II, beans. None of the finally gave you your
Lt. Col. Terence Otway, men cracked. own command.”
of the British Army, And no clue —gcfl.net
was tasked with attack- if any of them got
ing the Merville Gun a date out of it. YOUR FUNNY MILITARY
Battery on Normandy —bbc story could be worth
Beach on D-Day. $$$. For details, go to
As it was a top-secret One day, my son’s Rd.com/submit.
mission, Otway had fourth grade class went

34 july 2025 | rd.com cartoon by Dave Waters

LIVING WITH DIABETES?
ON MEDICARE?

Turn small
steps into
big wins.
The FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus Sensor
continuously tracks your glucose, so
you can see the impact of your diet
in real time*. It can even help lower
your A1c†1‡2.

Covered by Medicare for more people

managing diabetes with insulin§3.

This is progress.

Talk to your doctor or call 1-844-330-5535 to learn more

Product images are for illustrative purposes only. Not actual patient data.
Medicare and other payor criteria may apply.
For information about mobile device compatibility, see https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/support.html
The FreeStyle Libre 3 system includes the Libre 3 Plus sensor, Libre 3 sensor, Libre 3 app, Libre App, and the Libre 3 reader.
*A 60-minute warm-up is required when applying the sensor.
†Study was performed with the outside US version of the FreeStyle Libre 2 system. Data is applicable to FreeStyle Libre 3 system, as
feature sets are similar.
‡Study was performed with the outside US version of the FreeStyle Libre 14 day system. Data is applicable to FreeStyle Libre 3 system,
as feature sets are similar as FreeStyle Libre 14 day system, excluding alarms.
§Patients must meet Medicare eligibility coverage criteria.
References:
1. Leelarathna, Lalantha, et al. “Intermittently Scanned Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Type 1 Diabetes.” New England Journal of
Medicine 387, no. 16 (2022): 1477-1487. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2205650.
2. Evans, Mark, Zoë Welsh, and Alexander Seibold. “Reductions in HbA1c with Flash Glucose Monitoring Are Sustained for Up to 24
Months: a Meta-analysis of 75 Real-World Observational Studies.” Diabetes Therapy 13, no. 6 (2022): 1175-1185. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s13300-022-01253-9.
3. Local Coverage Determination (LCD) L33822, Glucose Monitors, https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.
aspx?LCDId=33822.
Product for prescription only, for Important Safety Information please visit https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/safety-information.html
The sensor housing, FreeStyle, Libre, and related brand marks are marks of Abbott. Other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
© 2025 Abbott. ADC-105628 v1.0

Detail Your Car Like A Pro—for Less!

Our friends at Family Handyman gathered expert detailing secrets to help you deep clean, shine
and protect your ride like a true professional. From must-know techniques to cost-saving
products, these insider tips will make your car look brand new...without breaking the bank!
 The

HEALTHY
Wellness from Thehealthy.com

Beat the
Heat
How to stay cool when
temperatures soar

BY Beth Weinhouse

aybe you’re one of those peo-

M ple who peels off a sweater

when everyone else is com-
plaining that it’s chilly. Or maybe you’re
the person who’s putting on a sweater
when others say it’s too hot. The point
is, there’s no single temperature that
can be pinpointed as comfortable for
everyone.
“What temperature people start to
become uncomfortable at is really indi-
vidual and variable,” says S. Tony Wolf,
PhD, assistant professor in the depart-
ment of kinesiology at the University of
Georgia. In fact, our perception of heat
and cold doesn’t just depend on the

illustrations by Kate Traynor rd.com | july 2025 39

reader ’s digest The Healthy

temperature, but also on things like becoming dehydrated by sweat.

humidity and air flow. Plus, combina- Drinking plain, cool water or fluids
tions of factors unique to individuals— with electrolytes [like sports drinks]
age, gender, body mass, medical con- helps.” How much should you drink?
ditions and medications—affect how One way to know if you’re dehydrated
we experience temperature. is to check your urine. It should be
Over time, people can acclimate to clear, pale or straw-colored. If it’s
higher (or lower) temperatures. Those darker than that, you’re dehydrated.
of us who live in areas where the sea- ) Change your exercise routine to
sons change can become more com- minimize your exposure to high tem-
fortable in the heat by the end of peratures. “Go out earlier in the day
the summer than we were in the when it’s cooler,” advises Wolf, “or
beginning. later at night. And try to stay in the
shade as much as possible.”
) Choose clothing that’s light—light
TRY THE ARMY’S
fabrics, light colors—and loose. Loose
SOLUTION FOR A clothing allows for better airflow and
QUICK COOLDOWN. helps keep you cool. One exception:
Workout clothing made from new
fabrics that allow sweat to evaporate
“But there are people in hot climates is also a good choice.
who never really adapt because they’re ) Keep windows covered with shades,
never really outside,” says Robert blinds or curtains. Think of how a car
Kenefick, PhD, professor and chair of with closed windows heats up when
Biomedical & Nutritional Sciences at left sitting in sunlight—it’s called the
the University of Massachusetts, Low- greenhouse effect. The same thing can
ell. “They go from air-conditioned happen at home if uncovered win-
house to air-conditioned car to air- dows trap sunlight and heat inside.
conditioned office.” ) Use fans to keep the air constantly
Acclimated or not, at some point, flowing indoors. “Fans move air across
especially in the summertime, many of your body and evaporate sweat,” ex-
us will feel uncomfortably hot. Most of plains Kenefick.
the time, the problem really is just one ) Keep a spray bottle handy. Spraying
of comfort. And fortunately, there are yourself with cool or cold water and
many things we can do to stay comfort- then sitting or standing near a fan can
able in spite of the heat. help your body evaporate sweat and
) Drink plenty of water. “Sweating is dissipate heat through your skin. If
how we regulate heat,” says Kenefick. you’re really hot, take a cold bath or
“And when you’re sweating, you’re shower. “The more of your body

40 july 2025
surface areas that you cool, the better water. “This area of the body has a lot
off you’re going to be,” says Wolf. of blood vessels and surface area, so
cooling it is a quick way for the body
In addition to these smart practices, to dump a lot of heat.”
here are a couple of creative things to ) Watch a movie that takes place in a
try. cold setting, such as Frozen, Snow-
) Try the Army’s solution for a quick piercer or Doctor Zhivago. Sound
cooldown. Kenefick, who has done silly? Temperature contagion is the
work for the U.S. Army, explains that phenomenon of feeling colder your-
at one point he was asked to develop self when you see someone who’s ob-
a cooling mechanism that wouldn’t viously cold. One study found that
use any power and could be used out when people watched a video of ac-
in the field. “The Army wanted a way tors putting their hands in cold water,
to cool the men and women in uni- the temperature of their own hands
form when they were outside in the dropped a little bit. Experts doubt that
heat, like during training exercises,” the body’s core temperature can really
he says. The solution was to have the be affected this way, but the power of
soldiers immerse their hands and suggestion might just provide some
arms up to the elbows in cool or cold relief.

rd.com 41
reader ’s digest The Healthy

Weekend Warriors,
News From the Take Heart

WORLD OF If you’re too busy

during the week to
MEDICINE
Beth Weinhouse
BY
sleep and exercise as
much as you intend,
here’s some good news:
Catching up on sleep
and physical activity
on the weekend can be
very beneficial. Chinese
researchers at the Na-
tional Center for Car-
diovascular Diseases
looked at data from
more than 90,000 peo-
ple and found that
those who got the most
additional shut-eye on
the weekend had a 19%
SPARKLING OR STILL? lower chance of devel-
oping heart disease,
If you’re trying to lose weight, drinking compared with people
carbonated water might help your efforts who got the least
amount of weekend
at least a little. New Japanese research sleep. Another study, at
suggests that carbonated water may help Massachusetts General
promote weight loss by lowering blood Hospital, found that
glucose levels and helping keep blood sugar “weekend warriors”—
people who squeezed
levels stable. Without large spikes or dips the recommended
to blood sugar, the body can burn fat more weekly amount of
efficiently. While the scientists say that exercise into one or two
sparkling water alone is unlikely to lead days—benefited from
the same reduced risk
to significant weight loss, it can’t hurt
NICK FERRARI

of disease as people
to add some to your daily routine, since who spread their work-
every little bit helps. outs over many days.

42 july 2025 | rd.com Research by Meaghan Cameron, MS, and Patricia Varacallo, DO
HELPS MANAGE
BLOOD SUGAR
RESPONSE*

1
#
Doctor-recommended
brand for people
with diabetes

Use as part of a diabetes management plan.

* Designed to help minimize the blood sugar spike from consuming
Glucerna® compared to high-glycemic carbohydrates.
©2025 Abbott 202420483/January 2025 LITHO IN USA
reader ’s digest The Healthy

Sensors Help Heal the sensors can is showing promise for

Broken Bones improve healing treating lupus too. In
in humans. CAR-T cell therapy,
Tiny, implantable sen- a patient’s immune
sors developed at the A New Therapy T-cells are genetically
University of Oregon for Lupus modified to fight the
may eventually help immune B cells that are
broken bones heal Lupus (also called attacking the body. In
in weeks rather than SLE—systemic lupus early clinical trials at
months. In animal erythematosus) is an the University of Cali-
studies, the sensors autoimmune disease fornia, Davis, and other
provided real-time in- that causes the body’s institutions worldwide,
formation about how immune system to at- a single infusion of
the bones were heal- tack its own organs and the modified cells was
ing. Recovery from in- cells. Symptoms can in- found to reduce and
juries like fractures can clude fatigue, joint pain, sometimes even elimi-
be slowed by either too and problems with the nate the need for fur-
much exercise or too skin, kidneys and lungs. ther medication in
little, so scientists were Often patients must some patients. Scien-

ELENA ZAJCHIKOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK
able to test how differ- take medication their tists say that more trials
ent types and intensi- entire lives to keep the are needed, but they’re
ties of exercise helped symptoms under con- hopeful that CAR-T cell
repair fractures. The trol. Now a new im- therapy will turn out to
researchers are modi- mune therapy, which be a breakthrough for
fying the sensors— has already shown lupus the way it has
including a wearable promise in treating transformed many types
monitor—to test how many types of cancer, of cancer treatment.

Carrots for Diabetes

Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark found
that two compounds in carrots work to alter gut bacteria
in a way that helps regulate blood sugar. In animal studies,
mice that ate carrots showed an increase in this good gut
bacteria. The researchers are hoping to hold human trials
soon ... and hoping that one day carrots will be seen
as an inexpensive, nondrug treatment for diabetes.

44 july 2025 | rd.com

 Get over 20 older US stamps for
95% off their Mystic U.S. Catalog value.

Discover the Fun and History of...

$100 Worth of U.S. Stamps

Y es, you read that right, today you

can get this special collection of
really old US stamps for just $5. All
interesting stamps on approval. Limit of
one collection at this special low price.
Your satisfaction is guaranteed.
issued between 1890 and 1998, with
$100 Worth of U.S. Stamps
most 80-90 years old. Includes used and Yes! Send me $100 worth of US stamps.
R
unused stamps, some with one or two Enclosed is $5. Shipping and guaranteed
small imperfections that don’t detract delivery are FREE. Strict limit of one set.
from beauty or collectibility. Quick order at
Start or grow your US collection with Name _______________________________________
this exclusive collector’s set. It features
Address _____________________________________
definitives, commemoratives, Airmails,
and more. Stamps may vary from those City ________________________________________
shown, but we guarantee you’ll receive State/Zip ____________________________________
a nice variety of US stamps issued R Check or Money Order *Add state sales tax to order total.
between 1890-1998 worth $100. It’s R Credit Card Exp. Date ___/___

great fun and a tremendous value. Send

today and you’ll also receive special Please send payment to: Mystic, Dept. UV216
9700 Mill St., Camden, NY 13316-9111
collector’s information and other
reader ’s digest

LAUGHTER
The best Medicine

An 85-year-old is play-
ing golf with the course
pro, who offers him a
12-stroke handicap.
“I don’t need a hand-
icap,” says the elderly
man. “The only prob-
lem I have is getting
out of sand traps.” “Westminster is over, Shep.
As they approach the It’s all about possums now.”
18th hole, they’re even.
But then the old man Two businessmen were to pay $150,000?”
hits a long drive, which commiserating with “That’s his worry.”
lands in a sand trap. each other. —harrodsburgcommunity-
church.net
From there, he knocks “Things have gotten
it out, and it rolls right so bad that I hired a Good punctuation is
into the hole. professional worrier the difference between
The pro is stunned. so I don’t have to worry a sentence that’s well-
“I thought you said you anymore,” said the written and a sentence
have a problem getting first man. that’s, well, written.
out of sand traps.” “That sounds great,” —Submitted by
“I do,” says the octo- said the other. “How Bob Greenwade
genarian. “Give me much does it cost?” Corvallis, OR
a hand.” “$150,000.”
—golfcompendium.com “How are you going A recent study has found
that women who carry
a little extra weight live
I’ve started investing in stocks: beef, longer than the men
who mention it.
chicken and vegetable. One day
—Submitted by
I hope to be a bouillionaire. Jacob Allen
—Submitted by Jon Tillman Fairacres, NM Farmville, VA

46 july 2025 cartoon by David Borchart/CartoonStock

 The Healthy

American football ) The Biscuitmen “How do you know?”

teams favor names that ) The Old Lady “I’ll show you.” The
denote ferocity: The —fourfourtwo.com first baby throws off his
Lions! The Giants! The blanket and says, “See,
Bears! As for European Two newborns are blue booties!”
football, many of their placed side by side in —mymomsanerd.com
teams’ names aren’t the hospital nursery.
exactly going to strike One asks the other,
fear in the hearts of “Are you a boy baby
opponents, like these: or a girl baby?” Got a funny joke?
) The Toffees The second baby
MANTIS: JOSE MIGUEL GALLEGO MOLINA/COMEDY WILDLIFE 2024. HIPPO: ARTUR STANKIEWICZ/COMEDY WILDLIFE 2024.

It could be worth $$$.

) The Baggies says, “I don’t know, For details, go to page 2
) The Anchovies what are you?” or rd.com/submit.
) The Jam Tarts “I’m a boy baby.”
LIZARD: SANJAY PATIL/COMEDY WILDLIFE 2024. PENGUINS: ANDY ROUSE/COMEDY WILDLIFE 2024

STOP ACTING LIKE AN ANIMAL!

The Comedy Wildlife Photo competition caught
some animals in pretty wild situations.

Mantis Flamenca I’m Too Sexy

The Rock Star All Right, Mate—Back Off

rd.com 47
reader ’s digest
 COVER STORY

CLASSIC COMFORT FOODS

FROM ALL 50 STATES
BY Emily Tyra
with taste of home

Illinois
Deep-Dish
Pizza
TMB STUDIO

photography by Emiko Franzen rd.com | july 2025 49

reader ’s digest

ALABAMA ARKANSAS
Fried Green Tomatoes Fried Pickles
The book and blockbuster film (both Bernell “Fatman” Austin perfected the
written by Birmingham-born Fannie fried pickle at his tiny pink drive-in
Flagg) are beloved by Alabamians. So in Pope County in 1963: a plump dill
are tangy slices of tomatoes plucked sliced lengthwise, dunked in spicy
still green from the garden, dredged batter and fried till golden.
in a seasoned cornmeal coating and
crisped in a cast-iron skillet. CALIFORNIA
Ice Cream
ALASKA Here’s the scoop: Not only does the
Kenai Dip Golden State lead the nation in ice
A bold and smoky mix of grated sharp cream production, but Oakland is
cheddar, creamy mayo, spices and also the birthplace of Rocky Road.
jalapeno peppers is a deli counter The marshmallow-and-nut-studded
darling in the 49th state, ready to flavor was originally intended to help
scoop up with tortilla chips, slather buoy sinking spirits during the rocky
on a burger or take a grilled cheese times following the stock market
sandwich to new peaks. crash in 1929.

ARIZONA
Chimichanga
A Spanish slang word for
“thingamajig,” this deep-fried
masterpiece is said to have
made its debut in Tucson in
the late 1940s when Monica
Flin, the owner of El Charro
Café, fumbled a beef burrito
into hot cooking oil and
cried out “Chimichanga!”
instead of swearing.

50 july 2025
 Cover Story

COLORADO California
Green Chili Ice Cream
From burritos to french
fries to hot dogs, there are
few foods Coloradans
haven’t smothered with this
rich pork stew simmered
with mild green chile peppers.
Purists prefer it in a bowl,
with warm tortillas to dunk.

CONNECTICUT
Apizza
Driving into Connecticut, you might
spy signs welcoming you to the
nation’s pizza capital. While the
status is self-appointed, Nutmeggers
are known for their New Haven–style
“apizzas,” which are distinctively thin shellfish mixed with chopped peppers
and chewy—and almost always in the and seasoning are devoured with
oven at the state’s two most famous a delectable dip made of ketchup,
apizza joints, Frank Pepe Pizzeria mayo, hot sauce and lime juice.
Napoletana and Sally’s.
GEORGIA
DELAWARE Peach Cobbler
Slippery Dumplings The Peach State sure lives up to its
Also called slickers or slickies, these nickname, producing over 130 million
Delmarvalous delicacies consist of pounds of the juicy golden fruit each
rectangular noodlelike dumplings year. Just imagine all the homey sweet
swimming in a rich, soupy chicken cobblers that could make.
gravy. Find them sliding around
plates at old-school diners, church HAWAII
suppers and firehouse fundraisers Loco Moco
in the First State. Hawaiians go loco for this plate lunch
of white rice topped with a juicy
FLORIDA seared hamburger patty, a fried egg
Conch Fritters and a generous ladle of savory brown
Especially adored in the Keys, these gravy. It’s even better with a scoop of
golden bites of battered minced creamy macaroni salad on the side.

rd.com 51
reader ’s digest

Iowa more so when you get

Cinnamon to dig in to the extra
Rolls
thick, gooey goodness
with a knife and fork,
Chicago style.

INDIANA
Breaded Pork
Tenderloin Sandwich
Crispy, crunchy and
comically large for
the bun that’s (barely)
cradling it, this mid-
western treat typically
gets dressed one of
two ways: with lettuce,
tomato and mayo, or
with mustard, pickle
and onion.

IOWA
Cinnamon Rolls
IDAHO Sweet cinnamon rolls are a heartfelt
Mashed Potatoes Hawkeye tradition, with star bakers
Whether you like them whipped or showing off their frosted finest at
roughly smashed, mashed potatoes the state fair’s Great Cinnamon Roll
are stick-to-your-ribs soothing, and Challenge. Generations of schoolkids
no place has a deeper claim to them cherish Chili Bash day, when a gener-
than Idaho. The late great chef ously iced bun is served alongside
Anthony Bourdain calls for Idaho a bowl of piping hot chili at lunch.
potatoes by name in his Les Halles
Cookbook—the naturally fluffy spuds KANSAS
are the secret to his indulgent and Fried Chicken
irresistible Pommes Purée recipe. Crispy home-style fried chicken is
a long-standing favorite here. South-
ILLINOIS eastern Kansas is home to six of the
Deep-Dish Pizza state’s oldest chicken houses, includ-
Pizza is comfort food no matter where ing friendly rivals Chicken Annie’s
you call home—but perhaps even and Chicken Mary’s.

52 july 2025
 Cover Story

KENTUCKY MASSACHUSETTS
Spoonbread Boston Baked Beans
Recipes abound for this cornmeal- Molasses is the secret to great Boston
based, soufflelike side dish. The one baked beans, dating to colonial days
from famed Boone Tavern in Berea when the sweetener played a large
is especially loved by Kentuckians, role in New England trade. Taste of
who take one creamy spoonful and Home food writer Kelsey Dimberg
know they’re home. says, “The Puritans of Massachusetts,
whose religion prevented them from
LOUISIANA cooking on Sundays, would make a
Gumbo large bean pot on Saturday and leave
What goes in the pot may vary— it to sit overnight, soaking up all those
chicken, sausage and/or seafood, delicious flavors and juices.”
sometimes tomatoes,
occasionally okra—but
this soulful stew is steeped
in regional pride and fam-
ily nostalgia no matter
what’s stirred in.

MAINE
Lobster Mac & Cheese
The already-decadent dish
gets an indulgent upgrade
with hunks of sweet and
succulent lobster—likely
pulled out of the Gulf of
Maine in the last 24 hours.

MARYLAND
Stuffed Ham
Fresh ham gets cured in
salt, poked with holes and
packed with chopped kale,
cabbage and onions, then
slow-baked. It’s a holiday
tradition, but that hasn’t Maine
stopped Marylanders from Lobster Mac & Cheese
enjoying it year-round.

rd.com 53
reader ’s digest

MICHIGAN casseroles baked until golden and

Coney Dogs bubbly. But the Tater Tot–topped
Neighboring joints American Coney version is the queen of them all.
Island and Lafayette Coney Island
in Detroit each have their own coney MISSISSIPPI
sauce recipe, as do spots across the Catfish & Hush Puppies
state (shout-out to the drier, looser These deep-fried Delta delights are
Flint-style). But they’re all the stuff even better dipped in tangy comeback
of legend: a beef frank, steamed bun, sauce, named after the state’s famous
meaty sauce (no beans), a ribbon of send-off: “Come back, y’all!”
yellow mustard and a sprinkle of
diced white onions. MISSOURI
Kansas City BBQ
MINNESOTA Across Kansas City, skilled pitmasters
Tater Tot Hotdish with handed-down expertise ensure
The Land of 10,000 Lakes might have this slow-smoked indulgence is
that many hotdish recipes, all creamy always on ’cue. For an extra dose

Michigan
Coney Dogs

54 july 2025
 Cover Story

New Jersey
Disco Fries
NEVADA
of comfort, don’t sleep on those Steak & Eggs
crispy, caramelized pieces of “Steggs” for short, this hearty break-
brisket known as burnt ends. fast plate is a wee-hours ritual for
casino dealers and visitors alike.
MONTANA
Bison Meat Loaf NEW HAMPSHIRE
Big Sky Country goes big on its bison Beanie Weenies & Brown Bread
meat. (The state is one of the nation’s Frankfurters and baked beans sound
top producers, after all.) This tender way more fun with this name, plus
meat is the star of ketchup-glazed, they come with a side of buttered
bacon-wrapped and gravy-topped brown bread. The homey New
meat loaves throughout Montana. England supper tradition goes back
generations, says Taste of Home
NEBRASKA Community Cook Jolene Martinelli.
Runza
Yes, we also named these savory NEW JERSEY
bread parcels stuffed with seasoned Disco Fries
ground beef, cabbage and onions Beautiful heaps of crinkle-cut fries
as the state snack, sandwich and blanketed in melted mozzarella and
signature dish in previous years. brown gravy are the perfect pick-
But we don’t think Nebraskans me-up in New Jersey, diner capital of
would object even if we declared the world. Famously, they first fueled
their beloved runza the state fruit. famished club-goers in the 1970s.

rd.com 55
reader ’s digest Cover Story

NEW MEXICO NORTH CAROLINA

Chiles Rellenos Pulled Pork Sandwich
As both a homemade meal and a North Carolinians might muse on
Mexican restaurant must-order, these which method is best: In the east
cheese-stuffed poblano peppers are of the state, the pork marinates in a
dipped into a frothy egg batter and vinegar-based sauce that’s a tad spicy,
fried until the outside coating is puffy whereas in the west, a hint of tomato
and the cheese inside is melty. Add makes the sauce a kiss sweeter. But
a ladle of spicy New Mexico red or whichever way you slice it (or slaw
green chile sauce, and you’re golden. it—on top or on the side), pulled
pork is a go-to in the Tar Heel State.
NEW YORK
Matzo Ball Soup NORTH DAKOTA
New York delis do their part to live Knoephla
up to Bubbe’s gold standard, with Cream + carbs = classic comfort. This
light-as-air matzo balls floating like sumptuous potato soup, first brought
cumulus clouds in the broth. This to the northern plains by German
kosher kitchen staple is schmaltzy immigrants, is brimming with irresist-
in both senses of the word: made ible dumplings called knoephla
with rendered chicken fat and (NEH-fluh), which translates roughly
extremely sentimental. to “little knobs” or “buttons.”

Ohio OHIO
Cincinnati Cincinnati Chili
Chili Grab a fork (any other utensil is a
faux pas) for this brand of chili. It’s
loaded with warm spices such
as cinnamon, nutmeg
and cloves, served
over spaghetti
and topped
with shredded
cheddar—a
“three-way” in
chili parlor slang.
Adding beans or
onions makes it
a “four-way.”

56 july 2025
 Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Dutch
Chicken Potpie

OKLAHOMA PENNSYLVANIA
Chicken-Fried Steak Dinner Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Potpie
The Sooner State stands out for having A “pie” in name only, this piping hot
not just one state food, but an entire potage of delectable chicken in rich
state meal: Chicken-fried steak sidles broth with chunks of carrots, onion
up to fried okra, squash, cornbread, and celery is more of a soup, also
barbecued pork, grits, corn, biscuits, featuring square egg noodles that
sausage, gravy, black-eyed peas, soak up all the flavor.
strawberries and pecan pie.
RHODE ISLAND
OREGON Stuffies
Jojos Rhode Islanders make this coastal
Thick-cut, battered, wedge-style fries comfort a family affair, harvesting
are “something I actively seek out fresh quahog clams, then stuffing
in rural taverns” says Taste of Home them with a delectable filling of briny
Community Cook Lindsay Mattison. steamed clams, smoked Portuguese
The pressure-fried potatoes are sausage and seasoned bread crumbs.
perfectly crispy on the outside, A simple squeeze of lemon takes
soft as mashed potatoes inside. them over the top.

rd.com 57
 TENNESSEE
Tennessee
Nashville Hot Chicken
Nashville Hot Chicken
This Music City staple of crispy fried
chicken with a kick of cayenne pepper
keeps you coming back for more.
Temper the heat with soft white bread
and pickles for the full experience.

TEXAS
Chili con Carne
Texas leads the herd with the most
cattle in the country, so perhaps it’s
no surprise that the Lone Star State
calls chili con carne its official state
food. The spicy stew made with beef
and dried chiles (no tomatoes or
beans) is what cowboy philosopher
Will Rogers described as “the bowl
of blessedness.”

UTAH
Funeral Potatoes
SOUTH CAROLINA A hearty staple at family potlucks
Shrimp & Grits and after-funeral luncheons (hence
This rich, satisfying dish of tender the name), this comforting potato
shrimp cooked with smoky bacon, casserole is made with hash browns,
then spooned over a creamy porridge sour cream and cheddar cheese,
of cheesy grits, is a Lowcountry classic. plus a crunchy and buttery cornflake
topping.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Kuchen VERMONT
South Dakotans are a kuchen-loving Apple Pie
crowd. The word means “cake” in The Green Mountain State is so
German, but these cozy delights are serious about apple pie, there are
more pielike, featuring a crust filled rules for how to eat it: A 1999 law
with custard and fruit (apples and requires a “good faith effort” to serve
peaches are favorites). It’s equally at it with some other state staples: a
home after supper or as a morning glass of cold milk, a slice of cheddar
snack with coffee. cheese or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

58 july 2025
 Cover Story reader ’s digest

VIRGINIA ballgame brats, we give the comfort

Ham Biscuits edge to the butter burger. The beef
Virginians are darn proud of their patty itself is topped with a pat of
cured country ham, especially when butter, but it also gets dressed with
tucked into a warm, tender biscuit. onions sauteed in butter and capped
Take it to the next level with a dab of with a butter-slathered bun. Order it
jam, honey butter or Dijon mustard. with a side of fried cheese curds for
the ultimate America’s Dairyland
WASHINGTON experience.
Dutch Baby Pancake
Manca’s Cafe in Seattle is often WYOMING
credited with creating this puffy Chicken Fried Elk Steak
popover version of a traditional No cowboy could say no to tender
German pancake, even trademarking steak dredged with seasoned flour
it in 1942. The original Dutch Babies and sizzled up in the style of fried
were served with butter, lemon juice chicken, with white gravy poured
and powdered sugar, but you can over the whole shebang. Now,
also go savory with caramelized who’s ready for a nap?
onions and cheese.

WEST VIRGINIA Wisconsin

Pepperoni Rolls Butter Burgers
Freshly baked bread
wrapped around slices
or sticks of spicy pep-
peroni was once a
practical, perfectly
packable coal miner’s
lunch for many of the
Mountain State’s Italian
immigrants. Now, it’s a
staple at nearly every
cafe and gas station
convenience store.

WISCONSIN
Butter Burgers
In a state known for its
Friday fish fries and

rd.com 59
reader ’s digest HEALTH

SUN, FUN &

PLASTIC
SURGERY? Americans are packing their bags
and heading abroad for more affordable
health care. Is that a good idea?

BY Adam Piore

60 july 2025
illustrations by Drew Bardana rd.com 61
 I
n the early 2000s, Josef Woodman’s search of deals after an American den-
elderly father, David Woodman, tist had quoted him a price of $34,000;
unveiled vacation plans that deeply by the time Josef got involved, David had
alarmed his son. He was heading down long since emerged with the unshakable
to Puerto Vallarta, he announced, to conviction that Mexican dentistry was
find a Mexican dentist willing to cut the way to go. So after Josef’s initial
him a good deal on a mouthful of new efforts to torpedo the plan failed, he did
teeth. Would Josef like to come along, the next best thing. He packed his bath-
he asked, for “some sun and sand”? ing suit and went along for the ride.
Josef recognized instantly that his The trip proved transformative.
chances of heading off what seemed David Woodman returned home with
to be a potentially calamitous scheme an excellent tan and a beautiful set of a
were slim. His father, a 72-year-old new teeth, acquired at a savings of
retired businessman, had always been a $17,000. Josef, who had recently sold a
“little bit of a geek and very eccentric,” computer book publishing company,
Josef recalls. Weeks earlier, he’d disap- returned with his career second act.
peared down an internet rabbit hole in Impressed with the quality of dental

62 july 2025
 Health reader ’s digest

care in Mexico, he embarked on a two- services to patients from all corners of

decade odyssey that has since taken the globe, roughly 24 million “medical
him to more than 300 medical and den- tourists” will cross a national border to
tal clinics in 35 countries and resulted receive health care this year, generating
in the publication of four editions of the up to $40 billion in revenue. Though
book Patients Beyond Borders: Every- the exact number of Americans partic-
body’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class ipating is not known—nobody tracks
Medical Travel. them—the U.S. Centers for Disease
Josef discovered that Mexico is only Control and Prevention (CDC), puts
the closest option, and dental work is the number “in the millions.”
just the beginning of what’s available. In the process, this new breed of
Face-lifts. Liposuction. Hair trans- tourists has saved hundreds of millions
plants. Gastric bypass surgery. Full- of dollars. That’s because many of the
body scans. Orthopedic procedures. clients are either uninsured or under-
Even complex, high-quality, lifesaving insured. But even if you have an insur-
care for everything from organ trans- ance plan, medical care is expensive. A
plants to cancer treat- 2020 article in Harvard
ments to heart disease. Magazine states that
Over the last 15 years, “PATIENTS America has the dubious
Josef has had a front-row NEED TO distinction of having the
seat for a medical revolu- DO THEIR “costliest health care” in
tion that, by some esti-
mates, has increased in
HOMEWORK.” theThere world.
are a lot of cul-
size by roughly twenty- prits, like the exorbitant
fold since 2007. prices of private insur-
“Before that trip, it never occurred to ance and prescriptions compared to
me that there would be U.S. standards those abroad. The article also cites U.S.
of clinical care and perhaps even better health-care administrative costs that
than U.S. standards for the patient are about twice as high as in compara-
experience,” Josef says. “And then I ble countries. (About one-third of
talked to people about the trip, and all health-care dollars in the United States
my friends were one or two degrees pay for administration to deal with
away from someone who needed some issues like insurance claims and other
kind of care and were underinsured. It paperwork, stated the article.)
hit a nerve.” The results are higher prices. Need a
Thanks to ballooning costs of local knee replacement? It’ll run you about
health care and the rise of social media, $40,000 in the United States. But it can
which has made it easier than ever for be had for just $15,000 in Mexico,
overseas providers to market their $13,000 in Thailand or $8,700 in Turkey,

rd.com 63
reader ’s digest

according to Paul McTaggart, founder Many Americans, he notes, lack dental

and CEO of Medical Departures Inc., insurance, and many others have plans
a medical tourism agency. that pay for preventive care but don’t
How about a hair transplant? The cover bridges, crowns or root canals.
procedure costs $9,500 in the United An estimated 65% of U.S. outbound
States. In Turkey, it will run you a mere medical travel is for dental work. That
$2,400. In vitro fertilization costs part of the industry is so mature that
$14,500 on average in the United States. one border town called Los Algodones
You can get it for $5,100 in Mexico. has more than 300 dental clinics and
“Folks can head overseas and save a gets so much business from across the
bundle,” says McTaggart, who says he border that it’s nicknamed Molar City.
has booked more than 150,000 medical The experience of Donald and Dixie
and dental procedures for Americans Ahrenkiel of Corydon, Iowa, is typical.
over the last 14 years, saving them In the fall of 2023, just a few weeks after
around $201 million. “And don’t think paying a local dentist $1,200 to pull
you’re trading quality for savings— all his lower teeth in preparation to
these places offer top-notch care.” get dentures for the bottom row, Don-
But there is a dark side to this medi- ald, 67, lost another tooth on the top
cal revolution. With its rise has come and decided it was time to get all his
an avalanche of cautionary tales involv- remaining teeth pulled and buy dental
ing disfigurement and even death. In implants. Then he learned that a good
January 2024, the CDC issued an advi- set of American dental implants would
sory documenting 93 cases where U.S. run him around $35,000—far beyond
citizens died after receiving cosmetic his budget.
surgery in the Dominican Republic A retired truck driver, Donald had
over a 13-year period ending in 2022. heard stories about Mexican medical
“People take a big risk when they do and dental care. A quick online search
this,” warns Scot Glasberg, MD, former led him to Dental Departures, the den-
president of the American Society of tal arm of McTaggart’s medical tourism
Plastic Surgeons, who says the number agency. Donald called and spoke with
of patients who require follow-up a representative, who set up a free
when they return home after botched in-person consultation for him, com-
procedures has risen dramatically in plete with X-rays, at a dental clinic in
recent years. “Patients need to do their the town of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico,
homework.” just across the Texas border. The dentist
had attended an American high school
It’s a Vacation—Sort Of and had several certifications from
Woodman credits dentistry with driv- international dental organizations.
ing the first wave of medical tourism. Since Dixie also needed some work,

64 july 2025
 Health

options. They
elected to pur-
chase a package
deal. For $22,500,
he would fashion
state-of-the-art
implants for
each of them.
The Ahren-
kiels returned
the next day
to have all
of their teeth
pulled—the first
step of the treatment in
their three-visit package.
she decided to go along and get a con- After a day to recover, they returned
sult too. home with throwaway dentures. Three
A few weeks later, Donald and Dixie months later, they made the trip again.
climbed into their Chevy Suburban and By then their jaws had fully healed,
made the two-day, 1,200-mile odyssey allowing the dentist to take impressions
south to a Quality Inn in Mercedes, to fashion the implants. On their final
Texas. They rose early the next morning trip down, he surgically installed their
and drove to a $4-a-day parking garage permanent sets of new chompers.
on the border, then walked across a “We had nothing but good experi-
bridge, through Border Patrol and into ences down there,” Donald says.
Mexico. The office was a block away. Matthew Smith was also driven to
And soon they had settled into a well- find alternatives by a lack of insurance
lit, air-conditioned waiting room filled coverage—in his case, for a medical
with other American and Canadian procedure.
tourists also seeking dental work. Smith, a software engineer from
“It was as clean as any place you’d Georgetown, Massachusetts, had strug-
ever go in the United States,” Donald gled with his weight his entire adult life,
says. “It had an extremely professional but diets had never worked for him. So
staff.” as his 40th birthday approached in the
After getting digital X-rays with a summer of 2023, Smith, who wanted to
state-of-the-art piece of machinery, lose 200 pounds, enrolled in a six-
they sat down for the consult with the month weight-loss program through
dentist, who briefed them on their Massachusetts General Hospital.

rd.com 65
 The program offered laparoscopic Smith made lists of countries, facilities
sleeve gastrectomy, a surgical proce- and clinicians others spoke highly of.
dure that removes part of the stomach. Eventually, he narrowed his options
But Smith’s health insurance, provided down to Mexico and Costa Rica, and
by his employer, wouldn’t cover the found a travel agent that specialized in
procedure. If he wished to proceed, he medical tourism. He had a telephone
would have to pay the costs—up to consultation with a Costa Rican sur-
$40,000—himself. And if there were geon based in Hospital Clínica Bíblica,
complications, he’d be on the hook for the nation’s largest private hospital,
those too. and decided to go for it.
Smith canceled the surgery. In Smith booked an all-inclusive pack-
despair, he took to the internet, where age that cost $13,000, plus the cost of
he discovered a community of weight- airfare. On March 3, 2024, he flew from
loss patients on Reddit and YouTube Boston to San José, Costa Rica, where
who’d had similar experiences and he was picked up by a travel agency
found cheaper alternatives by traveling representative. She drove him to a
abroad. In the months that followed, nearby Marriott Residence Inn, then

66 july 2025
 Health reader ’s digest

returned in a van the next morning to tucks), liposuction, breast augmenta-

shuttle him 20 minutes to the Hospital tion, face-lifts and facial implants. The
Clínica Bíblica for a preoperative phys- most common destination was the
ical and an endoscopy. Dominican Republic. Other destina-
“Apart from the fact that I was in a tions included Argentina, Brazil, China,
tropical location, it could have been a Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Syria,
hospital in the U.S.,” he recalls. “It Turkey and Venezuela.
looked very familiar: not just the layout, One patient, he recalls, came to see
but even all the equipment they have.” him after receiving a breast augmenta-
After another half a day spent pool- tion in Russia that went bad after the
side, Smith returned the next day for polymer that had been injected into her
the surgery, which went without a chest began to degrade, which caused
hitch. During his two nights in the hos- it to “suck in fluid,” he says. By the time
pital, he learned that every floor had at she arrived in Dr. Orgill’s waiting room,
least one nurse who spoke English. one breast had swollen to four times its
After he was discharged, he spent normal size, requiring drainage. He has
a week walking around the capital seen patients with ruptured implants,
sightseeing, returning for a final post- and others with open sores leaking pus.
operative check to clear him for his Many of the worst complications, Dr.
flight home. Orgill says, involved improperly
After only 10 months, he had lost cleaned liposuction cannulas, the
130 pounds. “I feel unbelievable,” he stainless-steel tubes inserted through
says. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” incisions into the stomach to suck out
the fat. If that fat is not cleaned off,
Trouble in Paradise he says, the tubes become breeding
But not everybody is so lucky. Just grounds for bacteria that can explode
ask Dennis Orgill, MD, PhD, a recon- in population if allowed to hitch a ride
structive plastic surgeon who directs into the warm stomach of a new
the Wound Care Center at Boston’s patient. Dr. Orgill has treated many
Brigham and Woman’s Hospital. patients with terrible infections that
In a 2018 medical paper, Dr. Orgill, required the excising of dead tissue,
who is also a Harvard Medical School and, in some cases, surgery.
professor, reviewed all the medical “That’s what stays with me,” says Dr.
tourism–related cases seen in his clinic Orgill. “Those are the ones that you
over the previous seven years. He and wish people would’ve stayed here and
his colleagues identified 78 patients who had their surgery done in a place that’s
had experienced complications after regulated. It’s unfortunate because it’s
traveling abroad for plastic surgery care preventable.”
that included abdominoplasty (tummy There are plenty of other cautionary

rd.com 67
reader ’s digest

tales. In spring 2023, the CDC issued had received multiple procedures at
an advisory warning of a multistate the same time.
outbreak of fungal meningitis among “It’s really a lot for a body to tolerate,”
patients who had received epidural Dr. Thwing says.
anesthesia at two clinics in Tamaulipas,
Mexico. Twenty-four infected patients Have a Plan
were identified, and at least 12 died. Medical tourism stalwarts acknowledge
And the January 2024 CDC advisory the dangers and say such tales highlight
that documented the deaths of Ameri- the importance of doing legwork. Most
cans receiving cosmetic surgery in the of these cases could have been avoided
Dominican Republic noted that, of with the kind of research done by Mat-
24 patients who died in 2019 and 2020, thew Smith or the Ahrenkiels.
all had received liposuction and 22 For medical procedures, Josef Wood-
(92%) had also received a gluteal fat man suggests that consumers make
transfer procedure, aka a sure that foreign hospi-
Brazilian butt lift, where tals or clinics are accred-
fat from a patient is “har- “EVERYTHING ited, preferably by an
vested” and injected into WAS DIGITIZED. American accreditation
the buttocks to “augment I WAS BLOWN agency. The Joint Com-
the body silhouette.”
“There’s a lot of things
AWAY.” mission, which accredits
American health-care
that might be offered by institutions, has an inter-
some of the less scrupu- national arm referred
lous clinics, such as offering to do mul- to by its acronym, JCI, which has
tiple procedures in a day, that we don’t accredited more than 1,000 hospitals
do in the U.S. for a reason,” says Julie worldwide.
Thwing, MD, a medical epidemiologist The CDC’s Dr. Thwing notes that
who leads the CDC Travelers’ Health most reputable international clinics
Branch’s travel medicine team. post their outcomes and evidence of
Performing multiple procedures on their accreditations online, and urges
one day increases the risk of complica- consumers to check clinics’ licensure
tions because of prolonged anesthesia and qualifications. The CDC provides
time. Lengthy procedures also add resources at cdc.gov/travel, the agen-
undue strain on the patient’s heart and cy’s medical tourism page, including a
can cause tissue trauma, and all that link to its “yellow book,” which provides
added stress makes it harder for the general information for international
body to fight off infections. medical travelers.
About a quarter of the patients who Once a traveler has made the decision
had complications in Dr. Orgill’s study to go abroad for medical care, focused

68 july 2025
 Health

preparation is also important. Dr. family affair, with a wife behind the
Thwing suggests travelers bring copies desk and a small, funky sign out front.
of their medical records so the providers The fabric on the dental chair was worn
know their background. Patients travel- ragged, and the equipment had the dull
ing abroad may also want to get their sheen of old metal.
primary care doctor to review their “It was not quite a mud hut,” Josef
medical history, conduct a physical and recalls. “But it was a real hole in the
suggest whether it might be prudent to wall.” The second clinic was a little bet-
consult with specialists, such as a car- ter. But the third one dazzled. Back
diologist, endocrinologist or hematol- home, Josef’s own dentist was still
ogist, to identify any potential health using film to take X-rays. The third
issues that could impact the surgery or Mexican clinic was equipped with a
increase the risk of complications. cutting-edge digital X-ray machine, the
Patients should also make sure they first he’d ever seen.
have the right kind of international “Everything was digitized,” he says.
travel insurance and even medical “I was blown away.” Since that trip, he
evacuation insurance in case some- has had bridge work in Cancun, Mex-
thing goes dreadfully wrong. ico; dental implants in Medellin,
Ironically, given Josef Woodman’s Colombia; an MRI shoulder scan in
initial apprehension, his father’s Bangkok, Thailand; and a head-to-toe
approach to finding a provider pro- health checkup, which included blood
vided a textbook primer on how to do work and a CT scan, in Busan, Korea.
medical tourism right. By the time Josef But, again, preparation is key. “The
and his father arrived in Mexico on that average American usually doesn’t do
life-changing trip, David had singled their homework even with their local
out three candidate dental clinics for doctor, and they should,” he says. “So
visits. The first dental practice they vis- it’s vetting the doctor, vetting the clinic,
ited was in a strip mall. It was a modest vetting the institution.”

Wait, I’ve Seen This Movie Before

Tom Holland—who has played Spider-Man in Marvel movies since 2016—acted
on some real-life “Spidey sense” at a Whole Foods Market in Los Angeles when
a fight broke out behind him. Channeling his inner superhero, Holland jumped
into the fray to separate the two men involved. One of them recognized Holland
immediately, the actor recalls. “You could see the wheels turning,” he says,
“like, ‘I’m really angry, but Spider-Man is telling me to calm down.’ ”
MEN’S HEALTH

rd.com 69
70 july 2025
 INSPIRATION reader ’s digest

‘Without You
I Wouldn’t Be Alive
Anymore’
A Georgia grandmother and a young German man are
forever connected, thanks to a lifesaving donation

BY Matt Kemper
from the atlanta journal-constitution

HE HANDWRITTEN LETTER a perfect match of stem cells. So she had

T arrived at Dale Tingle’s home

in Watkinsville, Georgia, after
months of her praying for the survival
donated some and waited.
She and her husband, friends and
family prayed for God to nourish
of a person she’d never met. and heal the stranger, wherever and
She had been told little about the per- whoever the person was. And because
son, only that the individual was they didn’t know the person’s name,
20 years old and dying of leukemia. she chose one: Rocky, the same as the
A scouring of the whole world had fighter who, in the movies, wouldn’t
turned up Tingle as the only known per- give up, no matter the odds. Then the
son in possession of a possible lifeline: letter arrived, festooned with glitter.

illustration by Anna Godeassi rd.com 71

reader ’s digest

It was written in English, not the writ- D.C., or Hollywood or the Grand Can-
er’s native language. No identity was yon. He likes sticking closer to what feels
disclosed due to strict rules governing almost like home. All he really wants to
contact between a donor and recipient do on his 10-day visits is spend time
in the first two years. with Tingle and her family. Chatting on
“I am 20 years old. I don’t know porches. Playing in the creek behind the
wether [sic] you know me. ... By now, house with Tingle’s grandchildren.
you have become one of the most Attending church with the family.
important people in my life. Without Listening to crickets in the woods.
you I wouldn’t be alive anymore ... I Now 33, cancer-free and working as
had already given up hope. And now a state government aide in northern
I am wondering what do you tell some- Germany, Krüger can still feel the influ-
one who has saved your life?” it read. ence of his near death.
“I think that the leukemia had a big
impact on my personality,” he says.
IT WASN’T JUST LUCK “I just enjoy the little moments.”
THAT LED TO HER Grateful is a word he uses a lot.
BEING ABLE TO
Fighting like a lion
SAVE A STRANGER. Krüger was 19 when doctors told him
his recent nosebleed and the pain in his
leg bones were from leukemia, a cancer
The letter went on: “It’s an amazing he had never heard of. The treatment
feeling to know that there is someone was aggressive, with round after round
on the other side of the world who I of chemotherapy. Bedridden in a hospi-
am connected to so deeply, although tal in Hamburg, his weight dropped
I have never met you before. ... If it’s from 176 pounds to 88. His mother, who
OK, I am going to see you as soon as worked and cared for his two younger
possible.” sisters, visited him in the hospital daily.
That eventual meeting was the begin- Then she’d go to a hospice center to see
ning of an enduring bond between her husband, Krüger’s father, who was
Kevin Krüger, a 6-foot-something dying of brain cancer. To try to lift his
German from a small town 4,500 miles mother’s spirits, Krüger smiled and told
away, and Tingle, a 5-foot-2 grand- jokes often, one of his sisters remem-
mother living near Athens, Georgia. bers. But when it came to his illness, she
Krüger has been to the United States says, he fought like a lion.
three times now, most recently in Still, the cancer wouldn’t leave him.
August 2024. In that time, he has never A doctor told him his only remaining
visited New York City or Washington, option was a stem cell transplant. Stem

72 july 2025
 Inspiration

cells can be used to take

on a variety of dangerous
diseases, from sickle cell
disease to blood cancers.
In the case of cancer,
medical teams blast a
patient’s body with espe-
cially powerful chemo-
therapy in the hopes of
killing both the cancer
and the patient’s own
remaining stem cells.
Then they inject donated
stem cells in an attempt
to restart the person’s sys-
tem for creating new
blood cells. About 70% of
the time, patients can’t
find a good stem cell
match from someone in
their family.
Krüger asked about his
chances for survival. He
was told 50-50, assuming Kevin Krüger feels right at home when he flies from
they could find someone Germany to visit Dale Tingle in Watkinsville, Georgia.
who was a match.
His family members got tested. None to run the Boston Marathon. She was
matched. Two stem cell and bone mar- 54 years old, well beyond what is often
row registry events were held near his considered the prime age for stem cell
hometown, attended by a total of about donation. Less than a year and a half
3,000 people. Still, no luck. At least not earlier, she’d had the inside of her cheek
for him; 20 people who tested were swabbed at a stem cell/bone marrow
later found to be compatible donors for registry event organized to help a local
COURTESY OF DALE TINGLE

other people. 3-year-old boy battling a rare form of

Then his doctor told him somebody leukemia.
had turned up in the United States who She wasn’t a match for the boy. But
might be a match for him. she was notified just before Christmas
Tingle was working as a dental in 2010 that she appeared to be a match
hygienist and, at the time, was preparing for someone else with leukemia in

rd.com 73
reader ’s digest

urgent need of her stem cells to stay moments she and her husband, Steve
alive. Would she donate? Tingle, a retired auto repair shop owner,
saw Krüger in the Atlanta airport.
“Dear rescuer of my son” “It was so emotional,” she says. She
Tingle says she never considered not wept and he gave some tight hugs.
donating. Initially, she thought that “It was an awesome thing, the realness
might involve doctors drilling into her of it. It had been such a long journey.”
hip bone to extract bone marrow that Recounting this on her front porch, she
has stem cells. She later learned she gives Krüger another hug and leans her
would have a different procedure that head against him.
was much less invasive. Either way, she
was up for it. The differences
“There are not many opportunities in we think we have
life to know that you have truly saved Tingle is certain it wasn’t just luck that
someone’s life,” Tingle says. She calls it led to her being able to save a stranger.
one of the greatest privileges of her life. “In God’s providence, I was there,
She had her blood tested and trav- having been formed in my mother’s
eled to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, womb with just what was needed
Florida, to have a physical to ensure she genetically to be the one,” she says.
was healthy enough. Each step of the She marvels at the connections that
way, she could have dropped out. brought her and Krüger together. And
Her stem cell donation took place in she said she hopes others take the same
two sessions, each several hours long, step she did to register in case their
over two days. A needle was put in one stem cells can help save someone else.
arm, and her blood traveled through a Last year, Tingle thought it would be
tube into a machine that stripped out nice to bring Krüger to see the boy who
stem cells and returned the blood to her had been the reason she initially got on
via a tube to her other arm. The only side a stem cell registry. She didn’t know the
effect she recalls: a short-term migraine. boy or his family, but a friend of hers
All her costs, from medical to transpor- did. When the friend informed Tingle
tation and lodging, were covered. that no match had been found, she was
Months later, Tingle began receiving heartbroken. She incorrectly assumed
letters from Krüger and his family in the boy had died.
Germany. They still didn’t know each He had not. His parents said he later
other’s names. So one letter from received a donation of stem cells
Krüger’s mom began this way: “Dear harvested from the cord blood found in
rescuer of my son.” the placenta and umbilical cord of a
Krüger and Tingle met for the first mother giving birth. Mollie and Josh
time in 2019. She recalls the first Billings say their son now has no sign

74 july 2025
 Inspiration

of cancer and recently graduated from he brought along his girlfriend and one
high school. The family has moved to of his sisters. The Tingles hope to visit
California. But they say they’d like to Germany and meet Krüger’s mom and
meet Tingle and Krüger. other family members.
The Billingses are awed by the links He’s grateful for having a longer life.
among strangers. As their son grew up, And for getting a treasure beyond stem
he often loved to play in a creek beside cells.
his best friend’s house in Watkinsville. “It is the biggest gift in my life to
They learned it is the same creek know these people,” Krüger says.
Krüger revels playing in with Tingle’s FROM THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. © 2024
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. ALL RIGHTS
grandkids. RESERVED. USED UNDER LICENSE.

“Full circle,” Josh Billings says. “It

feels like we are all connected. For all
the differences we think we have with HOW TO DONATE
each other, we have something similar.” To get more information or to
One woman, living thousands of register as a blood stem cell donor,
miles away from Krüger, turned out to visit dkms.org/register-now or
be his nearly perfect stem cell match. nmdp.org.
He plans to keep returning to Geor-
gia to see her and her family. This year,

Now, That’s Rich!

Each summer, the uber-wealthy flock to their beach houses in the Hamptons
on New York’s Long Island. Perhaps the best evidence that money cannot buy
happiness resides in the types of calls they’ve made to police:
A woman called because she wanted it on record that
“her fiance’s daughters had been talking bad about her to the family.”
A man called to complain that a FedEx truck had driven by
without dropping anything off.
A homeowner called the cops on a contractor
“who had not been removing his shoes as he’d been instructed to do.”
A caller complained about “a loud fanlike noise.”
Police concluded the caller “may have been hearing the ocean.”
CURBED.COM

rd.com 75
reader ’s digest

YES,
DRIVING IS

DANGEROUS
NOW

76 july 2025
 NATIONAL INTEREST

After decades of declining fatality rates,

more people are speeding, plowing through
intersections, and driving impaired

BY Matthew Shaer
from the new york times magazine

rd.com 77
reader ’s digest

D
uring her residency at the skull, surrounded by fluid. But what if
Albert Einstein College of the skull bounces around or the car
Medicine in the Bronx, New roof caves in and connects with the
York, Deborah Kuhls, MD, had driver’s head? It might not look like it,
been taught how to handle but that person is probably bleeding to
what’s known in the trade as penetra- death internally. You don’t have much
tive trauma—stabbings, impalements, time to save them.”
gunshots. Then, as a surgical fellow at The center sees a particularly high

PREVIOUS SPREAD: JOHN LUND/GETTY IMAGES (HIGHWAY).

the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma proportion of the region’s car and
Center in Baltimore, Maryland, she motorcycle crash victims, and not
underwent an education in blunt-force everyone can be saved. On bad days, it
injuries, which are often considerably can seem as if as many patients are
STARLINEARTS/GETTY IMAGES (TIRE TRACKS)

harder to diagnose: A body battered in being shipped down to the basement

a car crash tends to yield fewer clues morgue as are being revived. Dr. Kuhls
than a gunshot wound—the damage worked alongside a surgeon named
can be invisible to the untrained eye. Carl Soderstrom, who was an unusually
“If you’re going very fast, and then committed chronicler of data. When
suddenly you’re not, the floppy parts of evaluating patients, he made it a point
your body—your intestines, your kid- to collect information on everything
ney, your liver—will keep going,” from the size and scope of their wounds
Dr. Kuhls says. “That’s just plain phys- to the number of intoxicants percolat-
ics. And our brain is floating in our ing in their systems. It was one thing,

78 july 2025
 National Interest

over Las Vegas Boulevard, pedestrian

deaths subsided. The addition of a
stoplight could prevent a stretch of
previously uninterrupted road from
becoming a drag strip.
From 2010 to 2019, the number of
serious injuries and deaths in Nevada
stayed relatively stable, more or less in
line with national trends, after many
decades of declines from successful
interventions such as federal safety
standards, seat belts and airbags. Then
multiple airbags became standard on
nearly every new vehicle, and backup
cameras and lane-departure and blind-
spot sensors became cheaper to pro-
duce. The improved technology meant
Dr. Kuhls believed, to talk about a roll- that drivers not only had more periph-
over wreck that broke a 13-year-old girl’s eral awareness; they were also more
neck. It was another to be able to prove likely to survive crashes that might have
that dozens of children were being killed the occupant of an older vehicle.
injured in similar crashes every year. “It all made sense to me—all the
In 2000, Dr. Kuhls accepted a dual- things that were supposed to be work-
track job in Las Vegas as director of the ing were working,” Dr. Kuhls remem-
trauma intensive care unit at University bers. “But then things stopped making
LEONELLO CALVETTI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES

Medical Center and assistant professor sense. Everything changed, radically,

of surgery at the University of Nevada like someone had flipped a switch.”
School of Medicine, and she took her In 2020, as COVID-19 rattled through
interest in data with her. Gradually, a the state, law enforcement and EMT
picture came into focus. Outside the workers began reporting a large
tangle of streets that surround the Strip, increase in road-related injuries,
many roads in the city were flat and despite the lockdowns and the relative
fast, conducive to speeding, which emptiness of the streets. In 2021,
remains a reliable predictor of the Nevada recorded 385 fatalities, a
severity of injury. On slower roads, 15-year high. The following year was
blown stop signs and red lights contrib- even worse, with 416 fatalities and
uted to many of the serious wrecks, as about double the number of cyclists
did the proximity of pedestrians. When killed on the road. (Vehicular wrecks
the city laced a series of footbridges are almost never referred to by experts

rd.com 79
reader ’s digest National Interest

as “accidents,” as that word implies at record-shattering scale. From 2020

no culpability on the part of the to 2021, the National Highway Traffic
participants.) Safety Administration calculated, the
The cause was easy enough to iden- number of crashes in the United States
tify: Data showed that drivers were soared 16%, to more than 6 million—
speeding more, and plowing through roughly 16,700 wrecks a day. The fatal-
intersections with an alarming fre- ity figures were even worse: In 2021,
quency. Seat belt use was down. And 42,939 Americans died in car crashes,
after a decade of steady decline, arrests the highest toll in a decade and a half.
for intoxicated driving had rebounded Of those deaths, a sizable portion
to near-historic highs. involved intoxicated or unrestrained
“Drivers were frustrated,” says drivers, or vehicles traveling well in
Dr. Kuhls. “My own theory is that excess of local speed limits.
whatever personal conflicts they had The relationship between car size
were exacerbated because they’d been and injury rates is still being studied,
sheltering in place during COVID. but early research points in precisely
the direction you’d expect: The bigger
the vehicle, the less visibility it affords,
AGGRESSIVE DRIVING and the more destruction it can wreak.
In a report published in November, the
FACTORS INTO 56% OF Insurance Institute for Highway Safety,
CRASHES RESULTING a nonprofit, concluded that SUVs,
pickups and vans with a hood height
IN A FATALITY. greater than 40 inches—standard-issue
specs for an American truck in 2023—
are 45% more likely to kill pedestrians
than are smaller cars.
Meanwhile, 39% of our 4.2 million
miles of road are in poor or mediocre
So they’d get on the road having self- condition, according to the American
medicated with drugs or alcohol, or Society of Civil Engineers. And they’re
they’d just be incredibly reckless.” unlikely to be repaired soon, given a
PAGADESIGN/GETTY IMAGES

In the fall of 2022, Dr. Kuhls attended projected funding gap of $684 billion
the annual meeting of the Governors over the next decade.
Highway Safety Association. In conver- Above all, though, the problem
sations with other researchers, she seems to be us. To Dr. Kuhls, it feels as
learned that the same patterns she had if all the deadly habits that were on
observed in Nevada were playing out in such flagrant display during the pan-
nearly every state in the country, often demic have become normalized.

80 july 2025
 “We’ve all gotten stuck,” she says. involved vehicles traveling above the
“That’s true here; it’s true nationally. posted speed limit. And a significant
And it’s a scary thing to comprehend.” percentage of the dead, whether pas-
In Michigan, Capt. Michael Brown, sengers or drivers, were not wearing
a retired state police district com- seat belts. National rates of intoxicated
mander, agrees. “It’s not an exaggera- driving have surged to the extent that
tion to say behavior on the road today 1 in every 10 arrests is now linked to a
is the worst I’ve ever seen,” he says. suspected DUI. And aggressive driving,
“It’s not just the volume. It’s the vari- defined by AAA as “tailgating, erratic
ety. There’s impaired driving, which lane changing or illegal passing,” fac-
constituted 40% of our fatalities last tors into 56% of crashes resulting in a
year. There are people going twice the fatality. (Distressingly, this statistic
legal limit on surface streets. There’s does not cover the thousands of people
road rage. There’s impatience—right injured annually, often critically, by
before we started talking, I got an aggressive drivers, or the around
email from a woman who was driving 500 people shot annually after or
along in traffic and saw some guy fly during road-rage incidents—or the
by her off the roadway, on the shoul- growing number of pedestrians and
der, at 80, 90 miles an hour.” cyclists deliberately targeted by
Brown stresses that it’s rare to receive incensed motorists.)
such a message: “It’s got so bad, so Take the bad behavior and add the
PETER DAZELEY/GETTY IMAGES

extremely typical,” he explains, “that perils of distraction by smartphone—

people aren’t going to alert us unless responsible, by one conservative
it’s super egregious.” estimate, for about 3,500 deaths
In 2020 and 2021, the National High- annually—and you’re left with what
way Traffic Safety Administration has Emily Schweninger, a former senior
calculated, approximately a quarter of policy adviser at the U.S. Department
all fatal wrecks in the United States of Transportation, describes as a

rd.com 81
 “genuine public health crisis” on the The volunteers then “drove” the Focus
level of cancer, suicide and heart through a series of three pixelated sce-
disease. narios, using the gas and brake pedals
and the steering wheel to control their
in the summer of 2022, Amanda Ste- progress. (Think of the driving games
phens, a senior researcher at the Acci- you see at arcades, and you’ll be on the
dent Research Center at Monash Uni- right track.)
versity in Australia, was the lead author One simulation placed drivers
of a survey about aggressive driving. behind a school bus stopped on a two-
Most drivers, Stephens notes, were lane road. To get around the bus,
encountering more hostility on the participants were forced to negotiate
roads than they did before the pan- gaps in oncoming traffic, at intervals
demic. Nearly 80% of respondents “intended to trigger the subject’s anger
reported an uptick in “shouting, cursing and impatience, and possibly instigate
or making rude gestures,” and nearly aggressive driving behavior.” Another
35% reported a surge in incidents in involved a left-hand turn across a busy
which one driver attempted to cause intersection. After 12 seconds, a car
“actual damage” to another vehicle. would crawl up behind the driver and
Possibly the most illuminating single commence honking while flashing its
piece of research I’ve encountered was headlights. The longer the wait, the
GLOBALMOMENTS/GETTY IMAGES

conducted in 2011on the campus of the more cacophony. And yet the turn was
American University of Beirut by a team a hard one—the windows of opportu-
of faculty researchers. Titled “Measur- nity were short. You either gave in to
ing Aggressive Driving Behavior Using the pressure of the car behind you and
a Driving Simulator,” the project placed behaved recklessly, or you waited. Few
volunteers inside a contraption known participants waited very long.
as a DriveSafety DS-600c—a converted “Frustrating events in the driving
Ford Focus fitted with digital displays. environment may instigate drivers to

82 july 2025
 National Interest reader ’s digest

drive aggressively even if they may be “I can’t claim that we have it all
nonaggressive by nature,” the study’s figured out because it could change,”
authors concluded. says Col. Matt Langer, former head of
Crucially, the researchers go a step the state patrol in Minnesota, where
further: The more frustration, impa- officials recorded a 14.9% year-over-
tience and anger we experience in year drop in fatalities. But that drop,
everyday life, the more badly we will act Langer says, represents several dozen
when behind the wheel. The problem people alive who would have been
today in the United States may be that dead a year before. “And what has
we’re all baseline angry and anxious— made that possible is a focus on the
and we’re all in a car, all the time. Or behaviors that are killing people—so
what feels like it, anyway. And traffic is speed, seat belts, impairment and dis-
up across the country, as is the dura- traction.” A full 85% of the enforcement
tion of our average one-way commutes, work of his department was on those
which recently topped 27 minutes, the four things, he says.
longest in our history. Langer’s officers spent more time
monitoring fast roads and busy inter-
under increased government pressure, sections, he says, and dedicated more
the auto industry has rolled out tech- enforcement resources to heavy-traffic
nology that can nudge us away from days like the start of the state’s fishing
using our phones—such as sensors season, which has been described as a
capable of detecting when a driver’s high holy day for Minnesotans.
eyes wander from the road and then “Anything that increases the cer-
issuing a warning via a dash display. tainty of getting caught is going to make
But such features are available mostly a dramatic difference,” he says. “If I
as expensive add-ons to already expen- know I’m going to die from lung cancer,
sive vehicles. Brian Moody, executive I’m less likely to smoke those cigarettes.
editor of the website Autotrader, says It’s the same thing here.”
he expects more manufacturers to Langer is not wrong about the effi-
adopt automated safety technology in cacy of stronger enforcement. In 2003,
the coming years, “at lower prices and the French government began install-
across more types of vehicles.” ing speed cameras on its roads and
Last December, the Department of ratcheted up fines. Rates of speeding
Transportation posted data from Janu- steadily dropped, as did the number of
ary to September 2024 showing that severe injuries and fatalities. And many
15 states had recorded climbing rates provinces in Canada immediately sus-
of fatal crashes compared with the pend the licenses of impaired drivers,
same period in 2023, while 35 states often impounding the driver’s vehicle
had experienced improvement. for good measure.

rd.com 83
reader ’s digest National Interest

“I think there’s a day coming where miles of highway and add rumble strips
we’re going to have to embrace tech- to alert drivers when they’ve reached
nology more than we have now,” the periphery of the asphalt.
Langer says of the United States, Another recipient was Hillsborough
“because the safety benefits are there. County, Florida, reported to have one of
The reduced roadside interactions, the the highest annual traffic-fatality rates
flow of traffic, all of it gets better, of all large American counties. Because
including the road becoming safer.” pedestrian and cyclist deaths there have
The issue, he says, is that many Ameri- outstripped the national average, a sig-
cans are “pretty averse to that type of nificant portion of the $19.7 million
technology right now.” awarded will go to creating protected
As of May 2024, 19 states sidewalks and bike lanes.
and the District of Colum- The remainder will be
bia have legalized speed routed to “speed manage-
cameras, and 22 states and ment,” which includes
the District of Columbia more stoplights and more
have legalized red-light speed bumps.
cameras. But eight states Calm the traffic, choke

JFSPIC/GETTY IMAGES (STOPLIGHT). VALERIY VOLKONSKIY/GETTY IMAGES (BROKEN GLASS)

have taken measures to the traffic, divert the
outlaw both. traffic—or enact a “road
diet,” which is exactly what
in february 2023, then- it sounds like. Louisville,
Secretary of Transportation Kentucky, has pledged to
Pete Buttigieg announced use its $21 million in fed-
the first recipients of the eral money to reduce the
Safe Streets and Roads for number of traffic lanes on
All grant program, de- busy thoroughfares and
signed to issue more than “reallocate space for ref-
$5 billion over five years to cities and uge islands, bicycle lanes, on-street
municipalities with documented road- parking and transit stops,” a model that
safety issues. The list comprises metro- has been proved to have an ameliora-
politan areas like Detroit, Michigan, and tive effect on fatalities in the United
rural areas, like Fayette County, Iowa, States and abroad.
where 60% of recent road fatalities and But changing a culture takes time.
serious injuries have been linked to New York City, which has committed
“lane-departure crashes”—trucks and nearly a billion dollars to building safer
cars shooting off the road at egregious streets, recently recorded the fewest
speeds. Fayette County officials will use pedestrian fatalities in more than a
the grant to widen the shoulder on century. But cyclist deaths surged. In

84 july 2025
general, as with many types of civic Worse, a sizable number of respon-
improvement, things can get worse dents said they knew that people
before they get better. Cities, and the important to them would disapprove of
commuters living in them, have to much of the behavior. They did it any-
learn to adapt to a new pattern of life. way, despite the risk of public disgrace
“The prevailing understanding and despite the fact that, as the AAA
seems to be that when you introduce dryly noted in an accompanying news
more people on bikes and on foot, you release, “a motorist’s need for speed
have more risk of collision,” Buttigieg consistently fails to deliver shorter travel
says. “But then, over time ... motorists times. It would take driving 100 miles at
become more aware. The infrastructure 80 mph instead of 75 mph to shave just
and support get built, and the streets five minutes off a trip.”
get safer.” Every year for the past decade Not long ago, I had an Uber take me
and a half, the AAA Foundation for from my home in Atlanta to the other
Traffic Safety has published something side of town. The driver, a young
called the Traffic Safety Culture Index, woman, wove relentlessly in and out of
a kind of State of the Union of Ameri- the late-morning traffic; at one point,
can roads. The latest report, with fig- confronted by a UPS truck signaling for
ures from 2023, was grim. a left turn, she steered two wheels of
Of the 2,700-plus licensed drivers her Kia onto the curb. When I politely
who responded to the AAA survey, 22% suggested I would have been OK
admitted to switching lanes at high waiting for the truck’s turn to be com-
speeds or tailgating, 27% admitted to plete, she looked back at me in genuine
running a red light, 35% admitted to confusion.
holding and talking on an active phone “What do you mean?” she asked,
while driving and 49% admitted to eyebrows raised. That was just how she
exceeding posted speed limits on a drove. It was how everyone drove.
freeway by 15 mph or more—all within
THE NEW YORK TIMES ( JAN. 10, 2024), COPYRIGHT © 2024
the past calendar month. BY THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY.

It’s a (Cow)Boy!
Country singer Brantley Gilbert had to rush off the stage during his own concert
last October. The reason: His pregnant wife, who was reading on his tour bus at
the time, had gone into labor. Things progressed so quickly that she gave birth
to their third child right there on the bus. Gilbert made it back in time to see
his wife deliver their son. Then, with her blessing, he returned to the stage.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

rd.com 85
reader ’s digest

86 july 2025
 YOUR TRUE STORIES

Oh, the Places

You’ll Go!
Proof that the best souvenir you can
bring home from a trip is a hilarious story

BY Reader’s Digest Readers

This Antacid Is the Wurst Cleaning Up a Storm

My husband fell ill after eating garlic My wife and I were exploring a large
soup on our trip to Munich, Germany. sculpture park in Oslo, Norway, when
At a drugstore, I bought a box of medi- we came across some pay-as-you-go
cine with a label showing a fizzy glass restrooms. While I waited for my wife, a
of water that looked like Alka-Seltzer. woman asked if she could use our
In the parking lot, my husband looked restroom because her credit card wasn’t
at the box and decided to track down working on the next one over. I said she
an English-speaking employee to con- could go after me, then slipped by my
firm what was inside. He came out dou- wife as she exited, to piggyback on her
bled over with laughter: The product fee. Inside, I suddenly felt something
was denture cleaner. wet: A blue cleaning fluid sprayed
—lois terrace Palm Beach Gardens, FL through the air, dousing my jeans, socks
and shoes. I scampered to the door,
Smart Car, Silly Mistake totally soaked, as gale-force winds
We rented a Smart car on our honey- whipped through the tiny room. I’d just
moon in Cozumel, Mexico. I took a experienced my first self-cleaning
wrong turn and realized I was driving restroom. I really wished I’d let the
TINGTING JI/GETTY IMAGES

on a sidewalk. It was late, so nobody other lady go first!

was around, and I quickly adjusted —randy mikkelson Plymouth, MN
course. But we had a great laugh about
it. I guess when you’re driving a tiny Aloha-ha-ha
car, the sidewalk looks like the freeway. Before we went to Oahu, my husband
—Fritz renner Monterey, CA bought some Hawaiian print material

rd.com 87
reader ’s digest

to make a one-of-a-kind shirt for our In the next five hours of grueling hiking,
trip. Strangely, we kept seeing people, we didn’t pass a single soul on the trail.
over and over, in the same exact shirt. Finally, we arrived at a gorgeous
Turns out it was the hotel staff ’s three-tiered waterfall with dozens
uniform. of other tourists enjoying the sight.
—rita long Boiling Springs, SC We asked one group which route they’d
taken, and they pointed to a path
no longer than 100 yards that led
to a full parking lot, snack bar and
ranger station. After buying a snack and
water, we started our five-hour trudge
back to our car.
—kathy golling Monongahela, PA

Monkeying Around
We were reluctantly packing to leave
Costa Rica when a little monkey popped
onto our deck. It danced around, leaped
into the hammock, posed like a Holly-
wood starlet, and played hide and seek.
Then it jumped down, stretched, and
somersaulted across the deck. Looking
Table for One, Breakfast for Three right at us, it dipped in a small bow and
My son took a few Polish lessons scampered away.
and decided to practice at a restaurant —diane W. timothy Centennial, CO
in the motherland. Using his new skills,
he ordered three eggs with sausage, What Are You Dune?!
potatoes and toast. Imagine his sur- My wife and I took a taxi to an airport
prise when he was brought three break- in southern Iraq for our flight to Bagh-
fast platters, each with eggs, sausage, dad. After some distance, the driver
potatoes and toast. He chose to eat all pulled off the road and drove into the
ANTONIOSOLANO/GETTY IMAGES

three rather than admit his error. desert. My wife and I looked at one
—jeanne mosczynski Wyandotte, MI another, terrified. Were we being
robbed? Kidnapped? Suddenly, the
The Trail Less Traveled vehicle began climbing a steep, sandy
My husband and I visited New York’s embankment. At the top, we swerved
Finger Lakes to see its famous water- back onto pavement and were on the
falls. At one site we were surprised freeway. Shortcut!
to find no other cars in the parking lot. —douglas bennett Littleton, CO

88 july 2025
 Your True Stories

You’re on Thin Ice ... This Story Has Some Holes

I grew up in Ohio, and during our vaca- On a tour of Switzerland, I found a
tions, Dad was big on not doing things small grocery store in Geneva. At the
we could do at home (reading the day cheese counter, I asked if they had any
away, eating at McDonald’s, etc.). One Swiss cheese, which is my favorite.
year, it miraculously began snowing a The gentleman, very kindly, replied,
few days into our Florida trip. Seizing “Madam, they are all Swiss.”
the moment, my brother said, “Dad, we —betty childress Grand Rapids, MI
could be doing this at home.”
—mike kletzly Lebanon, OH A Top Lass
Never say Brits aren’t hospitable.
Sans Reservation While visiting England, my mother
My husband and I went to Alaska to and I had been exploring the country-
visit friends. For our first night, our side when we spotted an inn and
travel agent had made reservations at a decided to stop in for a spot of tea. We
Best Western in Hope. We arrived in the walked in and sat down by a roaring
fishing village (population 137), but the fire, and a woman asked if she could
locals laughed when I asked for direc- help us. “We’d like some tea and maybe
tions to the Best Western. Instead, they a couple of scones,” I said. She returned
offered us either a cabin sans electricity with a lovely tea and scone service,
or a cabin sans plumbing. I suddenly which we thoroughly enjoyed. When I
recalled our travel agent making a com- asked for the bill, the woman said there
ment about Bill Clinton memorabilia in was no charge. “How can you run a
the hotel gift shop, and I realized she’d lovely inn like this and not charge?” I
made reservations for Hope, Arkansas, asked. “An inn?” she responded. “This
instead of Hope, Alaska. is my home.”
—linda van unen Oakdale, CA —nairn’ gillet Wickliffe, OH

WHAT’S THE BEST MONEY YOU’VE EVER SPENT?

It’s easy to toss money into the incinerator—consider that dust-collecting
guitar begging you to take a lesson, or the gym membership you just can’t
bring yourself to use or cancel. But what about the buys that were worth every
penny, and then some? Maybe it’s a pressure cooker that’s still cooking after
20 years of use, a LASIK procedure you only wish you’d gotten sooner, or a
gift you’re thrilled to see a loved one use every day. See terms and share your
no-regrets purchase at rd.com/bestmoney. It might appear in a future issue
of Reader’s Digest.

rd.com 89
reader ’s digest DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

FULL SPEED
AHEAD BY Eric Raskin

90 july 2025 | rd.com illustrations by Owen Freeman

THE TEEN WAS TRAPPED IN A CAR ACCELERATING
OUT OF CONTROL. COULD IT BE STOPPED
BEFORE HE RAN OUT OF ROAD?

91
reader ’s digest Drama in Real Life

C
atherine Dutcher had just turned into the Hardee’s
parking lot to pick up dinner for her family on an
otherwise routine Tuesday evening last September
in rural West Fargo, North Dakota, when her phone rang.
“Mom,” her 18-year-old son, Sam they were unable to duplicate the sud-
Dutcher, said when she answered, “it’s den acceleration Sam had experienced.
happening again.” After the mechanics said that, as best
Catherine knew immediately what they could tell, everything was fine, the
“it” was. Dutchers—a three-car, three-driver
About a week and a half earlier, Sam family that was feeling the strain of
was behind the wheel of his mother’s being down a car—decided to pick up
pearl white 2022 Honda Pilot SUV the SUV and bring it home.
when it seemed to develop a mind of its On that Tuesday in September, Cath-
own. Sam’s foot wasn’t on the acceler- erine dropped Sam off at the dealership
ator, but the car, which had never given to pick up the Pilot, then headed to
the Dutchers any problems, was accel- Hardee’s. The teenager, who has a mop
erating anyway. of wavy brown hair a bit like Mick Jag-
The first-year student at Minnesota ger’s signature hairstyle of the late ’60s,
State Community and Technical Col- got behind the wheel, adjusted the seat
lege slammed his foot on the brake. He and mirrors, and pushed the power
held it there until the car went into button. The engine started, no prob-
“limp mode,” a safety feature of modern lem. All systems normal.
cars that activates when the automobile Sam pulled off the lot and started the
detects a problem with a critical sys- 10-minute drive home. About a mile
tem. When the Pilot came to a stop at from his parents’ house, driving on a
the side of the road, Sam called his two-lane road in Cass County, the
mom, and they agreed that he shouldn’t speed limit switched from 40 to 55. Sam
attempt to drive the vehicle home. accelerated, then eased off the gas.
Instead, they had it towed to the Honda The car kept speeding up.
dealership in Fargo. Oh no, Sam thought. Not again. He
For several days, the technicians ran tapped the brakes to slow down—
every diagnostic test they could, but nothing. He tried pressing the brake

92 july 2025
 THE CAR WAS RACING east
down a rural road that didn’t
have traffic lights, in the north-
ern Fargo area, approaching
the Minnesota state line. Sam
wasn’t just afraid of crashing
into another car or careening
off the road—he told his mom
he was worried that if the police
saw him driving over the speed
limit and started chasing him,
he wouldn’t be able to pull
over.
Catherine, trying her best to
remain calm, told Sam she
would call the police and make
sure they knew that the white
Pilot speeding through town
pedal to the floor and holding it there was not doing so intentionally.
to force the vehicle into limp mode Is this really happening? Catherine
again. This time it didn’t work. He wondered. She could barely process it.
pressed the emergency brake button, But she stayed focused on what she had
then he tried shifting into park, then to do. She hung up on her son, called
reverse, hoping to strip the gears or 911 and got right through to Red River
blow out the transmission. The car’s Regional Dispatch, which covers Cass
computerized system ignored every- County in North Dakota and neighbor-
thing he did. It was calling the shots. ing Clay County in Minnesota.
Finally, he hit the power button and Zach Johnson, a deputy in Clay
held it in. The car just kept going faster. County, was in his patrol car, having
Sam didn’t want to take his eyes off just pulled out of the garage of the
the road to dial 911 on his phone, so he county jail in the town of Moorhead,
tried to place the call through voice Minnesota, when he overheard the
commands. The response: “That num- radio traffic from across the state line
ber is not in your contacts.” With the about a reckless vehicle entering Clay
car’s speed slowly creeping up to more County. There was also chatter about a
than 80 mph, Sam gave up on 911 and mother in West Fargo who had called
told the phone to call a number that to say that her 18-year-old son was
was in his contacts. behind the wheel of a car with some
“Mom, it’s happening again.” sort of stuck accelerator.

rd.com 93
reader ’s digest

Johnson joined the conversation. Just Catherine Dutcher had given her
as Sam had feared, officers initially son’s cellphone number to the 911
thought this might be a stupid teenager operator, who transmitted it from the
taking a joyride. But Johnson figured dispatch center. Since Johnson couldn’t
that because the mom had placed the be on the scene physically, he decided
call, it almost certainly wasn’t a prank. to call Sam. The young man, who had
The roads weren’t too crowded, been waiting for someone, anyone, to
thankfully, and in a phenomenal stroke call, answered right away. Johnson
of luck, the runaway car was flying didn’t hear much panic in Sam’s
down 90th Avenue, about as straight a voice—the kid’s adrenaline was pump-
road as you’ll find in the region. Still, it ing, but he was calm.
was a two-lane road, so Sam repeatedly The deputy started troubleshooting.
had to overtake cars and trucks that “If you hit the brakes, nothing hap-
were going much closer to the speed pens?” he asked, as the Pilot approached
limit than he was. When there was no the intersection with potentially busy
oncoming traffic, he passed on the left. U.S. Highway 75, north of Moorhead.
Several times, he had to squeeze onto Right, nothing happens, Sam said.
the shoulder to avoid rear-ending the Johnson wondered if a corner of the
vehicles in front of him. floor mat was holding down the gas
The Pilot was now going over pedal. “Is the accelerator stuck down?”
90 mph, and every maneuver put Sam he asked. No, Sam assured him, the
at risk of losing control. accelerator wasn’t physically stuck; he
could move it with his foot.
A T FIRS T, Johnson thought he might “Are you able to push the e-brake
be able to catch up to the Pilot, but he and just lock ’em up?” Johnson asked.
soon learned that Sam was farther east Nope, that wasn’t doing anything either,
than he had realized. Johnson had no Sam said as he zipped safely through
hope of getting to him. the intersection with Highway 75.

94 july 2025
 Drama in Real Life

Johnson and the other police officers seats were installed properly. From
on the radio moved on to the next there, he planned to head over to the
option: Someone would get ahead of police station in Moorhead and com-
Sam and set up Stop Sticks—strips with plete an online training course. But he
metal spikes that would puncture his had one errand to run. He’d gotten an
tires when he ran over them. oil change that day in his department-
It was becoming a race against the issued Dodge Charger, and he took a
clock, though. Sam was approaching quick detour to run the receipt over to
the town of Hitterdal, after which he the local state patrol office in Detroit
would have about 8 more miles before Lakes for reimbursement.
the road would end. And all the while Had he been at his desk at the station
the Honda Pilot just kept going faster. when word about the runaway car
Eight miles isn’t a lot when you’re going came in, Gruver would have been too
more than 100 mph. far from Sam Dutcher to get involved.
Instead, when the dispatcher first
FOR MINNESO TA S TA TE TROOPER relayed the information, Gruver was
Zach Gruver, this was his “Friday.” headed in the same direction as Sam,
That’s what the officers who work eight about 20 miles ahead of him and about
days in a row, then get six days off, call 5 miles south of the road he was on.
their final day on. When Gruver started The trooper didn’t ask anyone if he
work at 5 p.m., he was looking forward should get involved. “I’m gonna try to
to an uneventful shift and getting home get sticks out on 90th Avenue,” he said
to his wife, who was due to give birth to on the Clay County channel, and he hit
their first child in two weeks. the gas.
Gruver spent the first hour or so of Gruver came up Highway 9, some
his shift at a local car wash working at 14 miles east of the North Dakota state
a seat belt check, where people could line, but couldn’t quite get to 90th Ave-
make sure their baby and toddler car nue ahead of Sam. He saw the lights of

rd.com 95
reader ’s digest Drama in Real Life

Cass County police cars in pursuit of Gruver was in conversation with

the Pilot zoom by as he approached Johnson—who was still on the phone
from the south. They were driving with Sam—and Clay County Deputy
larger cars, Chevrolet Tahoes, which Brandon Desautel, who was driving the
would top out at around 120 mph. His next-closest car in pursuit. As the offi-
Charger had a V-6 engine and could get cers spoke, they crossed from Clay
to around 140. So Gruver came up County into Becker County, and John-
behind them, floored it, and passed son realized that they had about 3 or
the other officers in the left lane. He 4 miles before the paved road would
couldn’t see Sam’s Pilot. end at a T intersection. On the other
Where is this car? he wondered. Sam side was a narrow dirt path and a field
was going so fast that he had pulled occupied by cornstalks and telephone
away from the police cars in pursuit. poles. That wasn’t going to give Gruver
Gruver went as fast as his car would let enough time to pull over, pop his trunk
him and he finally laid eyes on the Pilot. and deploy the Stop Sticks.
He pulled up close enough for his front
radar to get a read: Sam was screaming THE FAS TES T Sam Dutcher had ever
down the road at 113 mph. driven before this night was about
Before he could think about getting 90 mph. He was controlling the Pilot
far enough ahead of Sam to drop the just fine—“the vehicle handled really
Stop Sticks, Gruver realized they were well for that speed,” he would later say
coming up on the intersection with with a laugh—until he hit about
Highway 32 in Hitterdal. The sun had 105 mph. That’s when he began to strug-
set, visibility was getting worse, and gle. At that point, one slight jerk of the
where 90th Avenue crosses 32, there are steering wheel, one little pothole on the
stop signs for traffic going east or west, road, and anything could happen.
but not for cars going north or south on He could also see the upcoming T in
the highway. Sam, barreling east, was the road on the GPS map on the car’s
going to blow through his stop sign and display screen.
potentially T-bone another vehicle at It was then, a little more than 15 min-
high speed. Gruver passed Sam and utes into this breakneck nightmare,
slowed down at the intersection with his that the most sickening thought
lights flashing, hoping to stop traffic on entered the 18-year-old’s mind: I am
Highway 32. going to die tonight.
Gruver’s intervention proved unnec- Meanwhile, Catherine Dutcher was
essary—there were no cars or trucks getting updates from the 911 operator,
crossing as Sam’s Pilot flew through the who tried to reassure her: “We have offi-
intersection in a blur. But now Gruver cers from all over and medical all com-
had to floor it and pass Sam again. ing to him, OK?” It had the opposite

96 july 2025
effect. Knowing they were sending EMTs of Sam, let the Pilot rear-end him, and
got Catherine thinking the worst—that hit the brakes on the Charger—hoping
her boy wasn’t going to survive. Sam’s that stopping his car would also stop
dad, Timothy Dutcher, was driving Sam’s car. “I’ll let him make soft contact,”
toward the scene, while Catherine was Gruver told Johnson and Desautel, “and
at home with Sam’s 11-year-old brother, then just kind of ride the brakes down,
doing her best to comfort him. and hopefully … ” His voice trailed off.
Out on the road, it was time for a des- Johnson later described the plan as
perate, last-ditch effort to prevent a a “hoping for the best, expecting the
tragedy. Officers are trained to perform worst type of thing.” In Gruver’s mind,
a pursuit intervention technique, or there wasn’t time to consider whether
PIT, when chasing other vehicles, or not it would work. It had to work,
whereby they nudge the other car from because the alternative was for the kid
behind to make it spin out. Gruver to go off the end of the road and into
doubted it could be done at speeds in that field at over 110 mph.
excess of 113 mph. That won’t end well When Gruver is on the job, he takes
for him or for me, he thought. his wedding ring off and puts it in his
Gruver had an idea. He’d get in front cup holder. As his car rocketed through

rd.com 97
reader ’s digest

Becker County, though, he put the ring longer visible in the trooper’s side
on. If this doesn’t work and we end up mirror. As Gruver turned his head to
rolling, I don’t want to lose my wedding scan for the car in his passenger-side
ring, the father-to-be thought. mirror—crash!
Gruver, doing about 130 mph, passed The Pilot jolted the Charger from
Sam for a second time. Desautel was behind, and Gruver hammered the
keeping pace with Sam and was going brakes. “Hold ’em! Hold ’em!” he yelled
to position his car directly to the left of as both cars ground to a halt. Sam’s Pilot
the Pilot, hoping to keep Sam from was right up against the trooper’s car—
kicking out into the left lane and spin- still trying to go. Its tires were spinning,
ning out wildly. When Gruver began to squealing, but Gruver wouldn’t let off
slow down, the teen tried to pass him— the brake. Desautel pulled his car up
the plan had not been clearly commu- against the Pilot on the left, got out and
nicated to him. helped Sam climb out the passenger
side. Nobody was injured.
Neither Sam nor the officers can
“SO YOU WAN T ME quite remember how long it took—it
TO HI T THE BACK was all a bit of a euphoric haze—but
OF THA T CAR?” eventually the runaway Pilot stopped
trying to plow forward. The electronics
SAM ASKED. were still on, the air was pumping, but,
after tearing down more than 30 miles
of North Dakota and Minnesota roads
Johnson explained to Sam what they in about 20 hellacious minutes, the
were trying to do. “So you want me to engine finally stopped revving and the
hit the back of that car?” Sam asked in tires stopped turning.
disbelief. Johnson arrived on the scene a cou-
Johnson raised his voice a bit. “Yes,” ple of minutes after the crash, and met
he said. “Run into the back of his car.” the young man he’d been on the phone
Sam tried his best to center his car with. “Hey,” he told Sam, “it’s not too
behind Gruver’s vehicle. And then often you get to drive 113 miles an hour,
something unexpected happened: The run from the police and crash into a
Pilot slowed down. Its forward collision squad car, and be able to go home
mitigation system sensed the car in afterward, you know?”
front of it and began to reduce speed.
Gruver slowed to about 50 mph and MON THS LA TER, nobody had gotten
watched Sam’s car in his driver’s side to the bottom of why the Dutchers’
mirror as it slowed down also. The Pilot Pilot did what it did. Technicians from
got so close that its headlights were no Honda inspected the vehicle, looking

98 july 2025
 Drama in Real Life

for answers, and representatives from

the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration were scheduled to do
the same. The car was deemed, for
insurance purposes, to be totaled.
Sam may have escaped physically
unscathed, but the incident has stuck
with him. Most nights he has night-
mares in which he relives his near-
death experience. He wasn’t willing to
drive for about two weeks, and even
after he did get back behind the wheel,
“he’s still nervous about it,” Catherine
says. “If he hears any sirens or sees
flashing lights or a car that resembles
the trooper’s car, you can almost see
him freeze up and glaze over.”
The teen is back in the routine of his
classes at Minnesota State Community
and Technical College—where he’s
studying to become, of all things, an
auto mechanic. If anyone with a passion Trooper Zach Gruver knew he had to act
for motor vehicles has earned the right quickly to save Sam Dutcher.
to spend 40 hours a week with his nose
buried in cars that are going exactly zero A few days after the harrowing inci-
miles per hour, it’s Sam Dutcher. dent, outside the highway patrol office
The excitement for Zach Gruver in Moorhead, Gruver was reunited with
wasn’t quite over. He and his wife be- Sam and met Catherine for the first
came parents about three weeks after time. When the trooper extended his
the heroic rescue, nine days past their right hand toward her, she asked, “Can
due date. They called their baby boy I hug you?” and wrapped both arms
Mason, a name that had been decided around the officer who had saved her
CATHERINE JOHNSON DUTCHER

in advance—he says there was no son’s life. As she later said: “A hand-
thought given to pivoting to “Chase.” shake just wasn’t gonna work.”

Adonis Sr.
Nearly 75% of singles like a “dad bod”: a male physique that isn’t super chiseled.
pr newswire

rd.com 99
 JUST FOR FUN reader ’s digest

Some of the greatest minds in history went to their

graves lamenting their most influential work.
Like these eight groundbreakers ...

BY Jacopo della Quercia

Franco-Prussian War in 1870. And by

The Inventor the time the Spanish-American War
of Dynamite came along in 1898, soldiers were
shooting horrific weapons called dyna-
mite guns at each other.
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist and Nobel was so hurt by his reputation
inventor, made his fortune as a young as a “merchant of death” that he set
man developing nitroglycerin-based aside the bulk of his fortune to finance
explosives for use in mining and engi- annual prizes for “those who, during
neering. He patented the blasting cap, the preceding year, have conferred the
or detonator, which allowed explosives greatest benefit to humankind.” These
to be triggered from safe distances. And awards are the Nobel Prizes, the high-
then in 1867, he developed something est and most sought-after academic
that made nitroglycerin easier to use, honors in the world, and they proba-
store and carry anywhere from caves to bly would not exist had Alfred Nobel
bank vaults. not dedicated so much of his life to
Nobel’s miraculous invention was explosions.
dynamite, and it became a huge hit That said, we imagine that Alfred
among miners, robbers and countless Nobel might have regretted how some
cartoon characters. Unfortunately, of his honorees used their brilliance to
something happened that Nobel didn’t build ever-bigger explosives, such as
expect: His little boom stick made an the 31 Nobel Prize winners who worked
even bigger splash among the world’s on the Manhattan Project, which cre-
growing armies. Dynamite made its ated an even larger boom stick—the
first wartime appearance during the first atomic bomb.

illustrations by Jonathan Carlson rd.com | july 2025 101

 tech and engineering website. Unfor-
tunately, these “movable walls” mostly
The Designer of remained stationary, making Propst’s
the Office Cubicle creation an inexpensive incentive for
business owners to, instead, cram more
employees into smaller pens without
Robert Propst was an American inno- having to hire construction crews to
vator whose inventions included heart build walls around them.
pumps, farming equipment, hospital As a result, Propst’s creation became
beds, children’s playgrounds and more a modern monster: a corporate prison
than a hundred others. His most that employees hated and that was later
famous creation, however, is so univer- villainized in films like Fight Club and
sally despised that, in 2006, Propst Office Space.
described its widespread use as “Not all organizations are intelligent
“monolithic insanity” on CNN Money. and progressive,” he later said when
Why was Propst so angry over some- interviewed by Metropolis magazine.
thing that made him famous? We’re “Lots are run by crass people. They
guessing it’s because he did not like make little, bitty cubicles and stuff peo-
being credited as the man who gave the ple in them. Barren, rathole places.”
world the office cubicle. And that’s why we hate Mondays.
To be clear, Propst did not envision a
future where countless people were
stuffed into tiny pens like cattle. Quite
the contrary: What we now call cubicles The Founder
began as the Action Office, a furniture of Mother’s Day
series that Propst developed for office
furnisher Herman Miller. The Action
Office was intended to make the work- In the early 20th century, a little-known
place healthier and more productive by woman named Anna Marie Jarvis was
increasing physical activity and blood animated by a noble cause. It centered
flow, including varying desk levels to around the mother she loved, a social
enable people to work standing up part activist in West Virginia who cam-
of the time. paigned against childhood diseases and
“Walls could be removed to encour- cared for soldiers on both sides during
age physical interaction and productive the American Civil War. When her
conversation. Even the act of physically mother died in 1905, Jarvis hoped to ful-
moving this stuff around for customi- fill her late mother’s wish to establish “a
zation was considered a boon for memorial mothers day” to commemo-
employees,” reports IEEE Spectrum, a rate all mothers for their “matchless

102 july 2025

 Just for Fun reader ’s digest

service” to humanity. And since her interrupting a 1932 rally of the Ameri-
mother had been an advertising editor can War Mothers, as the group sold
with Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co., carnations. By the 1940s, her attempts
Jarvis knew how to get this done: by to formally rescind the holiday by going
sending out lots of letters. door to door to collect signatures were
Jarvis turned her mom’s dream into interrupted when she was committed
reality by organizing the world’s first to a mental institution. Jarvis spent the
Mother’s Day at Andrews Methodist last years of her life there, and told a
Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Vir- reporter that she was sorry she ever
ginia, in 1908. She became the national started Mother’s Day.
spokesperson for the holiday and asso- Oh, and then there’s this: Her stay at
ciated it with white carnations, her Marshall Square Sanitarium may not
mother’s favorite flower because car- entirely have been for her health.
nations don’t drop their petals. Instead, According to Olive Ricketts, director of
Jarvis explained, the flower “hugs them the Anna Jarvis Birthplace Museum in
to its heart as it dies, and so, too, moth- Grafton, West Virginia, “Card and florist
ers hug their children to their hearts, people paid the bill to keep her there.”
their mother love never dying.”
Through a determined campaign of
letter writing and lobbying, Jarvis con-
vinced almost every state and eventually The Author of Jaws
President Woodrow Wilson to recognize
the holiday, and Wilson declared it a
national observance in 1914. Unfortu- Jaws was a bestselling novel that became
nately, things went downhill soon after one of the most influential films in his-
that. Jarvis was infuriated that so many tory. In 1975 a little-known director
people were profiting from her holiday named Steven Spielberg turned the
through chocolates, cards and Mother’s book’s title character, a great white
Day sales on products that today include shark, into cinema’s biggest monster
SUVs and spa packages. She’s been since King Kong. The movie became the
quoted as complaining, “A printed card highest-grossing film in history at the
means nothing except that you are too time, the book sold nearly 20 million
lazy to write to the woman who has copies, and author/screenwriter Peter
done more for you than anyone in the Benchley became a household name
world. And candy! You take a box to both for his thrilling storytelling and for
Mother—and then eat most of it your- accidentally causing a fishing frenzy that
self. A pretty sentiment.” Ouch. played a part in decimating the shark
The unhappy activist protested the population.
holiday and even spent time in jail for That’s right. By the time Jaws became

rd.com 103
reader ’s digest

a franchise that not even Michael Caine while also making documentaries that
could sink 12 years later in Jaws: The encouraged marine conservation.
Revenge, the global population of sev- The one thing he may not have
eral types of sharks was teetering regretted was ignoring his father’s sug-
toward extinction. The effect was so gested title for the book: What’s That
traumatic for Benchley that the poor Noshin’ on My Laig?
guy dedicated the rest of his life to
ocean conservation and even told the
London Daily Express in 2006: “Know- The Inventor of
ing what I know now, I could never the Pop-Up Ad
write that book today.”
Even Spielberg lamented the nega-
tive impact his film had on nature and Some creations are so disastrous that
on “the feeding frenzy of crazy sport the whole world deserves an apology for
fishermen” after Jaws premiered, he them, be they the Ford Pinto, cancer-
told the BBC. As for Benchley, he was causing pollutants or that awful final
driven to make amends by campaign- season of Game of Thrones. But every
ing against the overfishing of sharks now and then, something is so obnox-
ious that even its inventor becomes fed
up with it. That’s why Ethan Zuckerman,
the inventor of the pop-up ad, issued an
apology to everybody on the internet.
Zuckerman told Forbes that many
problems on the internet are “a direct, if
unintentional, consequence of choosing
advertising as the default model to sup-
port online content and services.” That’s
a pretty broad blanket statement, but
Zuckerman is an undisputed expert on
online advertising.
“I wrote the code to launch the win-
dow and run an ad in it,” he said. If you
ever used the internet and saw an
advertisement appear out of nowhere
atop of what you were reading, you
have Ethan Zuckerman to curse for
that. And if your computer ever slowed
down or crashed because it was
cluttered with ads appearing faster

104 july 2025

 Just for Fun

developing a machine
that could make execu-
tions quicker and less
painful—and by this rea-
soning, more humane. It
was an honorable idea,
for Dr. Guillotin detested
capital punishment.
As you probably have
guessed, Dr. Guillotin’s
“machine” was the one
widely used during the
French Revolution to
chop off people’s heads
as quickly as Earth’s grav-
ity allowed. The good
doctor thought he was
doing humanity a favor.
But as guillotining pris-
oners became more fre-
quent during the French
Revolution’s Reign of
Terror—more than 1,000
people met their fate that
than you could close them, again, curse way—he was particularly horrified to
Zuckerman. learn in 1795 that the severed heads of
Zuckerman eventually acknowl- guillotined prisoners still lived for sev-
edged that he never intended this ad eral seconds. The proud humanitari-
strategy to be so disruptive. “I’m sorry. an’s good intentions instead became,
Our intentions were good.” as one contemporary put it, “a terrible
torture!”
Oh, and the worst part: Dr. Guillotin
didn’t even invent what he had called,
The Champion of a in his initial proposal, “my machine.” It
Killing Machine was designed by a French surgeon and
a German harpsichord maker. Dr. Guil-
lotin had simply wanted a less painful
In 1789, a French physician named form of execution.
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed Oops.

rd.com 105
 medical diagnoses and spellcheckers
“The Godfather of AI” to some vacuum cleaners.
But despite AI’s many positive uses,
not to mention his own involvement in
In 2024, Geoffrey Hinton, PhD, was its development, Hinton has repeatedly
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for stressed that AI technology is fast
his “foundational discoveries and becoming an “existential threat” to
inventions that enable machine learn- humanity. “It’s conceivable that this
ing with artificial neural networks.” kind of advanced intelligence could
What is “machine learning”? It’s the just take over.”
field of study where computers adapt to What does the good doctor mean by
new information the same way humans “just take over?”
do: through experience and more data. “It would mean the end of people,”
This is why Hinton is sometimes he explains.
called the godfather of AI (artificial For those of us with plans in the near
intelligence), the groundbreaking tech- future, that’s a bit of a bummer.
nology now found in everything from So, what could possibly go wrong?

106 july 2025

 Just for Fun reader ’s digest

AI, either on its own or steered by bad hurt his reputation as a writer and dis-
actors, could commandeer our satel- tracted him from projects he was more
lites, computers, militaries or even interested in writing, such as historical
things as abstract as human interac- fiction.
tions, art and decision-making. Natu- According to the knight himself, “I’ve
rally, this doesn’t mean an AI takeover written a good deal more about Holmes
of the planet is sure to happen. But, Hin- than I ever intended to do. But my hand
ton warned in Popular Science, human- has been rather forced by kind friends
ity has “no experience with what it’s like who continually wanted to know more.
to have things smarter than us.” And so it is that this monstrous growth
has come out of a comparatively small
seed.”
The Creator of Indeed, Holmes had become such a
Sherlock Holmes nuisance that his creator began explor-
ing ways to bury him in more than
pages.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a multi- Doyle eventually killed Holmes in
talented man whose tales of the adven- the somewhat cheekily titled “The Final
tures of Sherlock Holmes are among Problem,” but an American publisher
the most iconic and universally recog- with deep pockets persuaded Doyle to
nizable works of English literature. resurrect the character.
Holmes epitomized deductive reason- “Arthur must have hated himself” for
ing in popular imagination and influ- doing this, historian Lucy Worsley
enced later heroes like Batman, Nancy observed, “and he would have hated
Drew, Harry Potter and Dr. House. the fact that today, 93 years after his
However, the character’s initial pop- death, his historical novels lie unread,
ularity contributed to Doyle’s eventual while his ‘cheap’—but beloved—detec-
dislike of Holmes, whom the author felt tive lives forever on our screens.”

They’ve Got Their Hearts Set on the Heartland

The term Midwest generally applies to 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota
and Wisconsin. Yet staggering percentages of people in Colorado (42%),
Oklahoma (66%) and Wyoming (54%) think they live in the Midwest. Nearly
a third of Kentuckians and a little over a quarter of Arkansans say the same.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

rd.com 107
 Brand-New Book!

o BEST Jokes
One Hilarious Collection!
- t n 2
a 1 a
e v s

600+
10
d

PLUS ONLY
FREE
GIFT + FREE
SHIPPING!

O der yo c
VE +
rd.com/25G1
 reader ’s digest

The RD

LIST
read, watch, listen

TV

Stick
Starring Owen Wilson
APPLE TV+ PRESS (6). THE NOUN PROJECT (TV ICON)

owen wilson is poised to do for golf prestigious tournament. “The game

what Jason Sudeikis did for soccer in is finally giving me something back—
Ted Lasso. Wilson plays Pryce “Stick” and it owes me,” he tells his ex-caddie
Cahill, a former golfer picking up Mitts (Marc Maron). Real-life PGA
the pieces of his failed marriage and tour players like Collin Morikawa and
athletic career. (Pro tip: Don’t throw Keegan Bradley make appearances,
a tantrum on live TV.) At the driv- but don’t fret if you don’t know the
ing range, Stick meets Santi Wheeler difference between a birdie and a
(Peter Dager), a hotheaded teenager bogey; like Ted Lasso, the show’s
who’s also a phenom with a club in can-do spirit is what makes it a win-
his hands. Sensing a golden oppor- ner. (Streaming on Apple TV+ June 4)
tunity, Stick offers to train him for a —Mara Reinstein

illustration by Tim Marrs rd.com | july 2025 109

reader ’s digest

FILM

Materialists
Starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans

ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA (MATERIALISTS). THE NOUN PROJECT (FILM ICON)

Writer-director Celine Song’s latest feels plucked right from rom-
coms’ golden era. (Remember when My Best Friend’s Wedding, You’ve
Got Mail, Notting Hill and 10 Things I Hate About You all came out with-
in two years of one another?) Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a New York
City matchmaker toasting her ninth successful wedding pairing while
still without her own Mr. Right. Enter Randy (Pedro Pascal), a dashing,
moneyed bachelor ready to give her happily ever after. That is, until
her adorable, imperfect ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans) reenters the
picture. Whom will she choose? If you saw Song’s last go, Past Lives,
let’s just say you can leave the tissues at home this time. “She’s going
to be the kind of filmmaker who doesn’t make the same movie twice,”
teases producer Christine Vachon. (In theaters June 13) —MR

110 july 2025

 The RD List

BOOKS

Mark Twain
By Ron Chernow
His name graces Ameri-
ca’s top humor prize, but
Mark Twain was no jolly
fellow. And it’s not the
only contradiction in this
exhaustingly researched,
surprisingly readable bio-
graphy. Twain was a study
Atmosphere in oppositions: a son of Dogged Pursuit
slave owners yet a friend
By Taylor Jenkins Reid By David Rosenfelt
to Frederick Douglass; in-
Does anyone make better secure and competitive Before Andy Carpenter
work out of America’s yet a supportive mentor; was the grumpy, wise-
iconic cultural eras than a temperamental grudge- cracking lawyer that fans
Taylor Jenkins Reid? Here, holder with a long, loving of this beloved series
she sets her sights on the marriage. In fact, his most adore, he was a law school
1980s space shuttle pro- consistent quality is an graduate setting up shop
gram via new recruit Joan acerbic wit that still reso- in New Jersey. In this pre-
MINOTAUR BOOKS (DOGGED PURSUIT). PENGUIN PRESS (MARK TWAIN).

Goodwin, who navigates quel, Carpenter gets his

BALLANTINE BOOKS (ATMOSPHERE). THE NOUN PROJECT (BOOK ICON)

nates. “Reader, suppose

NASA training (in chapters you were an idiot,” he ob- first big client: Frank Tier-
that feel as fun as going to served. “And suppose you ney, accused of murdering
space camp yourself) and were a member of Con- his trucking company
proves herself to crew- gress. But I repeat myself.” owner ex-boss. Carpenter
mates (good-natured —Debby Waldman learns that someone has
scientist John Griffin gone to a lot of trouble to
and enigmatic Ms. Fix-It set up Tierney, and read-
Vanessa Ford). It’s known ers learn how Carpenter
from the onset that disas- flipped from prosecutor
ter strikes the crew, less to defense attorney, and
so that Goodwin finds how he met his sidekick
out-of-this-world forbid- golden retriever, Tara. Dog
den love. Still, the real lovers and legal drama
love story is with the enthusiasts will find this
stars: If nothing else, Reid an ideal entry point to
inspires you to look up. a humor-filled mystery
—Caroline Fanning series. —Meredith Hale

rd.com 111
reader ’s digest

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Craftsman is
knowing how to
Aim for the work. Art is knowing
stars. Don’t aim when to stop.
for me. Aim —Ben Affleck, actor,
at cnbc ’ s delivering
beyond me. alpha summit
—Rihanna, singer,

KEVIN MAZUR/CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGES (RIHANNA). JON KOPALOFF/STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES (AFFLECK).

on E ! NEWS

There is no rule that a relationship must

last a certain amount of time to count as
a “success,” just as one that ends hasn’t
necessarily “failed.” Every relationship we

ALESSANDRA BENEDETTI - CORBIS/CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGES (FRANCIS)

have, short or long, can be good, essential,
even transformative, and have lasting value.
—Daniel Jones, writer, in the NEW YORK TIMES

One plus one equals

What I am going to say three. Everything
is not a dogma of faith you can do alone
but my own personal is not going to be
view: I like to think as great as what
of hell as empty. you can do with
I hope it is. somebody else
next to you.
—Pope Francis —Erin Matson,
on italian talk show
ncaa field
CHE TEMPO CHE FA
hockey coach,
on the ON HER MARK PODCAST
 RD List

POINT TO PONDER
making history rarely feels like it in must know the journey they’re em-
the moment. We anticipate something barking on. That they understand the
remarkable and humbling, a time for discipline, faith and determination
SLAVEN VLASIC/STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

people to pause, take notice and cel- it takes to push through. The unfor-
ebrate. A monumental event of sorts. tunate truth, however, is that this is
But people often only see how far a not always the case. In fact, this is
person has come, and not the obsta- rarely how it happens. I know from
cles put in their path along the way. ... experience that most “firsts” are peo-
When hardships happen to them, ple who simply want to do what they
we want to believe that any “first” love.
Jennifer Jones, dancer,
in the book BECOMING SPECTACUL AR : THE RHY THM OF RESILIENCE
FROM THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ROCKET TE

rd.com | july 2025 113

reader ’s digest

Brain

GAMES
Sharpen Your Mind

The ORBISCULATE Challenge

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.

S M O R G A S B O R D

your score:

bonus The longest word we found within SMORGASBORD is eight 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 in
KOLONKO/GETTY IMAGES

orbisculate (like orb, brace or—good one—aerobics). After we shared her letter, hun-
dreds of readers took up the challenge and wrote us with their scores. We were so
delighted, we decided to feature the ORBISCULATE Challenge, with a new (legit, not
made-up!) word in every issue of Reader’s Digest.

Answer: Barrooms

114 july 2025

 Brain Games

Let It Slide
easy It’s a busy day at the water park, and you want to get the most out of your visit.
You plan on spending about an hour by a set of three water slides that all empty into
the same pool. The wait times and ride lengths for each are listed below. Assuming
these remain accurate over the course of the next hour, which slide or slides should
you go down—and how many times—to maximize your time spent sliding?

Wait Time Ride Length

Pirate’s Plunge 12 mins 40 seconds
Thunder Rapids 15 mins 60 seconds
EMILY GOODMAN (LET IT SLIDE). FRASER SIMPSON (SPYMASTER). ANVILARTWORKS/GETTY IMAGES (SIGNBOARD)

Cowabunga Falls 20 mins 75 seconds

Spymaster
medium Deduce a secret number made of four different digits, 1 through 9. The
chart shows four guesses at the number, and a score for each guess using marbles.
Any digit that appears in the secret number in the same position as in the guess is
scored with a purple marble, and any digit that appears in the secret number in a
different position than in the guess is scored with a white marble. Any digit that is
not in the secret number does not get a marble. It’s up to you to determine which
digits are indicated by the marbles. What is the secret number?

2 9 4 5
7 1 3 5
2 7 4 6
4 1 8 7
rd.com 115
reader ’s digest

Half and Half

medium Whatever your opinions
about pizza toppings may be,
can you find the two toppings
on this pizza that split it exactly
into two halves, separated by a
diameter of the pie?

DARREN RIGBY (HALF AND HALF). EMILY GOODMAN (POWER TO YOU). FRASER SIMPSON (HIDDEN TREASURES)
Power to You
easy Which two of the expressions below have the same value?

23 24 32 34 42 43

Hidden Treasures 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2
difficult There are 12 hidden ·
treasures in the empty cells of 2
this grid. The numbers on the
3
outer edges indicate how many
treasures are in that row or 0
column. Each arrow points
·
·
·

2
·

directly toward one of the

treasures. An arrow may be
·

2
·

immediately next to a treasure

·

it points to, but it also may be 1

farther away. Not every treasure
·

will have an arrow pointing to it.

1
Can you find all 12 treasures? 1

For more Brain Games, go to rd.com/braingames.

For answers, turn to page 119.

116 july 2025

 Brain Games

9. crest v.
WORD POWER (krest)
a reach a high point
b come up for air
c migrate north
Grab your sunblock and toss this magazine
into your tote—we’re heading to the beach! 10. barnacle n.
('bar-nuh-kl)
This ocean-themed quiz is a perfect way to a sticky crustacean
spend a lazy summer afternoon, whether b landlubber
on the deck of a sailboat or with your toes c sand pail

in the sand. When you’re done, head under 11. archipelago n.

the boardwalk to p. 118 for the answers. (ahr-kuh-'peh-luh-goh)
a underwater volcano
b group of islands
BY Sarah Chassé c coral reef

1. cabana n. 5. cormorant n. 12. littoral adj.

(kuh-'ba-nuh) ('kor-muh-ruhnt) ('lih-tuh-ruhl)
a shaded structure a spiral seashell a rocky
b Caribbean cocktail b waterbird b polluted
c boogie board c ferry captain c coastal

2. ebb v. 6. briny adj. 13. buoy v.

(eb) ('bry-nee) ('boo-ee)
a fish sustainably a choppy a drop anchor
b drain away b salty b navigate
c scuttle like a crab c gray-green c keep afloat

3. azure adj. 7. jetsam n. 14. mangrove n.

('a-zhuhr) ('jet-suhm) ('man-grohv)
a sunny a wooden pier a sharp-toothed eel
b calm b discarded material b swim briefs
c blue c water scooter c tropical tree

4. chantey n. 8. sargasso n. 15. dinghy n.

('shan-tee) (sahr-'gas-oh) ('ding-ee)
a seamen’s song a pink sand a small boat
b ice cream stand b red algae b foghorn
c sea breeze c brown seaweed c life jacket

rd.com 117
reader ’s digest

She Sells Seashells ...

After acing this vocab quiz, building a sandcastle and finishing
your beach read, try saying these aquatic-themed tongue
twisters five times fast:
1. “She sells seashells by the seashore.”
2. “Any noise annoys an oyster, but a noisy noise annoys
an oyster more.”
3. “The seething sea ceaseth, and thus the seething sea
sufficeth us.”

Word Power 6. briny (b) salty state that’s entirely an

ANSWERS Don’t you just love the
briny tang of a dill pickle?
archipelago.

12. littoral (c) coastal

1. cabana 7. jetsam New England’s littoral
(a) shaded structure (b) discarded material towns are known for
To avoid a sunburn, Jetsam from the sinking their quaint charm.
Mila wore SPF 100 cargo ship washed up
sunscreen and sat in on the shore. 13. buoy (c) keep afloat
the cabana all day. Coach Rossi’s halftime
8. sargasso pep talk really buoyed
2. ebb (b) drain away (c) brown seaweed our spirits!
The tide began to ebb, The Sargasso Sea was
revealing a vast expanse named for the sargasso 14. mangrove
of white sand. that floats in its waters. (c) tropical tree
Mangroves can grow
3. azure (c) blue 9. crest in very salty water, with
Before the storm hit, the (a) reach a high point their roots visible above
azure sky turned dark. Balancing on his surf- the surface.
board, Mateo felt the
4. chantey wave crest beneath him. 15. dinghy (a) small boat
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES

(a) seamen’s song “Hop into the dinghy, and

The first mate belted 10. barnacle I’ll show you the hidden
a rousing chantey as (a) sticky crustacean cove,” said Sebastian.
she hoisted the sails. Barnacles latch on to
whales and other large
5. cormorant ocean creatures.
(b) waterbird Vocabulary Ratings
A gangly double-crested 11. archipelago 9 & below: landlubber
cormorant perched on a (b) group of islands 10-12: sailor
rock, flapping its wings. Hawaii is the only U.S. 13-15: skipper

118 july 2025

 Brain Games

ANSWERS

WHERE, OH WHERE? Half and Half

(page 120) The shrimp and olives.
B. Cumberland Island,
Georgia
SPECIAL OFFER BRAIN GAMES
(pages 115-116)
Get More Book
for Your Buck! Let It Slide
Go down Thunder Rapids Power to You
Craving a great read 24 and 42 both
four times. You’ll slide
without the long equal 16.
for 240 seconds. Going
commitment? The
down Pirate’s Plunge
Reader’s Digest Fiction five times gets you only Hidden Treasures
Favorites series is for 200 seconds; Cowabunga 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2
you. Each volume has

·
Falls three times gets you 2
four novels in one, 225 seconds. And with a 3
expertly curated for combination of the slides, 0
·

·
effortless enjoyment.

·
you won’t be able to max- 2
·

Featuring acclaimed
·
imize your sliding time. 2
·

·
authors like Lee Child, 1

·
Michael Connelly Spymaster 1

and Megan Miranda, 7648 1

plus rising literary

stars, each collection
keeps you turning
pages. Order now to
Reader’s Digest (ISSN 0034-0375) (USPS 865-820), (CPM Agreement# 40031457), Vol. 205,
receive free shipping, No. 1207, July 2025. © 2025. Published bimonthly (subject to change without notice) by
Trusted Media Brands, Inc., 1610 N. 2nd St., Suite 102, Milwaukee, WI 53212-3906. Periodi-
plus a bonus puzzle cals postage paid at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER:
book! To order, visit Send address changes to Reader’s Digest, PO Box 6095, Harlan, Iowa 51593-1595. Send
NOUN PROJECT (TREASURE CHEST)

undeliverable Canadian addresses to [email protected]. All rights reserved. Unau-

fictionfavorites thorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited. Reader’s Digest and The Digest are
registered trademarks of Trusted Media Brands, Inc. Marca Registrada. Printed in U.S.A.
.com/2502EP. SUBSCRIBERS: You may cancel your subscription at any time and receive a refund for copies not
previously addressed. Your subscription will expire with the issue identified above your name
on the address label. If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no
further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. A special Reader’s Di-
gest Large Print with selected articles from Reader’s Digest is published by Trusted Media Brands,
Inc. For details, write: Reader’s Digest Large Print, PO Box 6097, Harlan, Iowa 51593-1597.
CONSUMER INFORMATION: Reader’s Digest may share information about you with third parties
for the purpose of offering products and services that may interest you. If you would rather not
receive such offers via postal mail, please write to Reader’s Digest Customer Mailing List, PO
Box 3123, Harlan, Iowa 51593-0189. You can also visit www.tmbi.com/preference-center to
manage your preferences and opt out of receiving such offers via email. Please see our Privacy
Policy at www.tmbi.com/privacy-policy.

rd.com 119
reader ’s digest

WHERE, OH WHERE

fancy an island getaway? This one, once

a retreat for the Carnegie family, is now a A Avery Island, Louisiana
nationally protected seashore. As a visitor, B Cumberland Island, Georgia
you can stroll the island’s palmetto-lined
EXPLORE GEORGIA

C Fripp Island, South Carolina

paths and—if you’re lucky—watch wild
horses run along the beach. Where is it? D Sanibel Island, Florida
(Answer on page 119.)

120 july 2025 | rd.com

 yes
Say

to drier*
protection
and see where
it takes you.
*vs. previous Depend® Fit-Flex®

Depend ® is DRIER THAN EVER so

you can feel fresh and confident
no matter where you go.

Trademarks of Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc. or affiliates ©KCWW