Table of contents for January 2020 in Readers Digest Australia

PART OF THE FUN of preparing the annual Classic Reads edition is the many surprises we find along the way. Surprises like familiar names from the past. One of my favourite articles in this month’s magazine, ‘Milly’s Last Waltz’ (page 70), was written by Terry Padley, an editor who worked on the magazine for over 30 years. He was a skilled journalist and careful editor, and brought our readers many wonderful human interest stories, as well as many laughs thanks to his passion for ‘Life’s Like That, ’ ‘All in a Day’s Work’ and ‘Laughter, the Best Medicine.’ This is a simple yet genuine personal story about a stray dog who came to be loved by Terry’s family. A timeless and gentle Digest read. We’ve also got some revealing perspectives…

“It’s important we get an accurate blood pressure assessment so we aren’t over-treating or under-treating people,” says cardiologist Dr Nieca Goldberg. THE WAY YOU SIT Your blood pressure is different when you’re standing versus lying down, says Dr Goldberg. The correct position is seated in a chair with your back flat and your feet flat on the floor. HOW YOU HOLD YOUR ARM “Your arm should be flat on a table or supported by the person taking your pressure, it shouldn’t just be hanging in the air,” says Dr Goldberg. If your arm is too high or low, it can affect how hard your heart has to pump to keep blood flowing, which then affects your blood pressure. YOUR BATHROOM SCHEDULE “Empty your bladder before your exam,” she says. “A…

A lanky boy whose bolts needed tightening. ... She is a long stalk of loveliness. The conversation fainted again, and again Mr Lacey leapt forward with restoratives. The cat was stropping its backbone against the watering trough. ... She suffers from chronic palpitation of the tongue. She said her words with every courtesy to each of them, as if she respected language. He was in the garden placidly editing his flowers. ... They simply lived in one another’s pockets. The sea was as quiet as the licking of a cat’s tongue. ... She talks in stepping stones, so that you have to jump to follow her. ... She came into the room like a galleon under sail. A face filled with broken commandments. He is a skilled window-dresser of…

Not long ago, the finalists in a beauty contest were asked to name “the greatest man in the world” – and say why. After deep thought, some chose famous statesmen, others great humanitarians. But one girl did not even hesitate. “Bob Hope,” she said happily. “He makes the whole world laugh by laughing at himself!” What a priceless gift it is, this capacity to poke fun at yourself! The man who recounts his triumphs is a bore; the man who invites you to laugh with him at his mistakes is a delight. When you’re riding high, a joke told on yourself wards off envy and jealously. When things are going badly, it helps you keep your perspective and sense of humour. It’s often the key ingredient in that mysterious intangible,…

In high school, my desire for friendship far outweighed my talent for it. I had a best friend, and I lost her. Among the photographs and artefacts in my attic lies no record of this girl, save for a yearbook entry that she scrawled on the last day of school: “I swear, I’m still gonna laugh when you’re married and pregnant.” I never heard from her again for more than 20 years. When I was 13 – the new girl in a new high school – I understood that I would have to plan for friendship. I was not cool by any stretch of the word. I worked the periphery, the empty spaces between the cliques. So I studied students at their lockers, tried on attitudes, sat in the front,…

“At least we got to witness our financial collapse in high definition.” Although eager to get into heaven, something about the gates bothered Fred. “Well, I’m telling you, we could have a perfectly fine holiday without it!” “Dad, can I borrow a couple hundred bucks? I told Rebecca I’d take her somewhere nice for lunch.” “Look, Larry, this one has air-conditioning coming out of it.” “Our video monitoring system lets you avoid annoying sales calls.”…

CONDENSED FROM MY HUSBAND KEEPS TELLING ME TO GO TO HELL Until her death in 1951 at the age of 81, Dorothy Dix for 55 years wrote America’s most famous ‘Advice to the Lovelorn’ column, syndicated in scores of newspapers throughout the world including Australia and New Zealand and followed by 100 million readers. Unconscious humour frequently appeared in the fabulous correspondence her column elicited. Ella Bentley Arthur, Miss Dix’s longtime secretary, saved the best of these bloopers and has incorporated them in a book, from which the following samples are taken: • I would like you to help me as you have helped others in trouble. The trouble is I’m married. • What I feel for her is not really love, I think it is what they call inflation.…

“Look what I’ve found,” my wife, Joan, called from our backyard one Friday on my return from work. I hastened down the side stairs by the side of our house. At the bottom was one of the oldest, saddest little dogs I had ever seen. The only breeding I could discern was a touch of dachshund in the stubby legs and some spaniel in the droopy ears. The coat on its thin body was black, its sharp muzzle streaked with grey. Misty brown eyes wore a “Where-am-I?” expression. I could understand this. Our Sydney house is on a steep, rocky hillside. Access to our backyard is via stone steps so narrow that a mountain goat would seek something easier. What I could not comprehend was how on earth the dog…

Well, maybe it won’t drive ’em crazy, but it’ll certainly discombobulate ’em. Anyway, you can waste a lot of energy being nasty to your enemies. A wise man said it years ago: “If you attend to your work and let your enemy alone, someone else will come along some day and fix him for you.” But suppose your enemy won’t let you alone? What then? You can do what the man did who was walking the bounds of his new farm and met his neighbour. “Don’t look now,” said the neighbour, “but when you bought this piece of ground, you also bought a lawsuit with me. Your fence is three metres over on my land.” Now this is the classic opening for a feud that could go on for centuries…

At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, 20-year-old Alicia Sferrino and her parents listened to the diagnosis of Dr Leslie Fang, a kidney specialist. “You have acute nephritis, an unusual inflammation,” he said. “Your kidneys are 95 per cent destroyed.” All colour drained from Alicia’s face. Yet the petite blonde set her jaw. “OK,” she said. “My kidneys are in trouble. When can we start treatment to get them into shape?” Dr Fang’s words were measured. “I’m afraid what you have is irreversible. Soon you’ll have to go on dialysis.” Alicia was stunned. Until a few weeks before, she’d felt fine. “Isn’t there some other option?” asked her mother, Deanne. “Only one,” Dr Fang said. “If we can find a compatible donor, we can perform a transplant.” A short while later…

Most of us have read in Dickens about nurse Sairey Gamp, who took a drink “when she was so dispoged”. But not all of us know that less than a half century ago Sairey Gamp – the drunken, the ignorant, the immoral nurse – was real and was multiple. Around 1870, in Bellevue Hospital, New York, there were plenty of her. “Fifty years ago,” says an eminent physician, “some of the nursing in Bellevue was done by drunken prostitutes, who were given the option of going to prison or to hospital service. They were often found asleep under the beds of their dead patients whose liquor they had stolen.” A bad kettle of fish that seems to us, who trust our lives unhesitatingly to the comfort and service of hospitals.…

1965: Robert Restall’s six-year hunt for the Oak Island treasure comes to a tragic halt when, while checking on an eight-metre shaft, he is overcome by fumes and topples to the water-filled bottom. His son, Bobbie, along with helpers Carl Graeser and Cyril Hiltz, dash into the pit to help, but all three men also lose consciousness and drown. Probable cause of death: carbon monoxide from the petrol water pumps. 1971: Triton Alliance Limited, a treasure-hunting group formed three years earlier, deepens one of the most promising boreholes – called 10X – to 70 metres. An underwater camera brings back grainy images of a cavity carved out of bedrock and, within the stone chamber, a severed hand, a corpse and several treasure chests. Excited by the footage, Triton launches…

Books Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton HATCHETTE AUSTRALIA Home Work picks up Julie Andrews’ story after Home, her acclaimed first memoir. From the incredible highs in Hollywood, think Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, to the challenging lows, Andrews reveals her personal story: dealing with success, motherhood, moving on from her first marriage, and falling in love with Blake Edwards – with whom she made numerous films. Told with her trademark charm and candour, Andrews takes the reader on an intimate journey that is sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and often inspiring. Face It Debbie Harry HARPER COLLINS Picture this: it’s the late 1970s and the punk music scene is starting to take hold. Blondie releases the album Parallel Lines, which…

The Way of Grace I was so moved by ‘A Lesson in Grace’ (October) that I am now modelling my treatment of my mother on this five year old’s behaviour. This young child no doubt puts many of us to shame. Her lesson is simple: patience. Difficult, frustrating and confronting as it is to see a parent lose themselves to dementia, we must be gentle and remember that it is an honour to care for a loved one and that it is part of life. MARGARET ADAMS Volunteers of Calais While desperation certainly isn’t in short supply in Calais, neither is hope (‘Compassion in Calais’, October). Kenza Camara and other volunteers are providing a lifesaving carpet of compassion in the midst of gross intolerance and bias. Love for these good…

PETS are great for our general health and wellbeing. Dog owners, in particular, benefit from increased levels of exercise. Veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren shares her expert advice about exercising with pets and how to make the most of it. DOGS AS PERSONAL TRAINERS Dog owners are generally inclined to exercise more, and this has positive impacts on their health over the long term. These findings have been replicated across numerous studies, revealing dogs are almost like personal trainers, motivating their owners to get up and go. A 30-minute walk, or even longer, is just more fun with a happy dog by your side. SECURITY Walking with a dog can help people, particularly women, feel safer. This in turn can encourage their owners to exercise more regularly and reap the health…

It began like an ordinary English fog – the kind that makes London indescribably lovely. Towards twilight the city is veiled in a silvery-gold mist through which you can see about a hundred metres. All the lights have halos; from the Embankment the massive buildings along the Strand have all the mystery of Oriental palaces, their outlines softened and shadowy. “The whole city hangs in the heavens,” said artist James McNeill Whistler. On the afternoon of Thursday, December 4, 1952, there was nothing to indicate that this would be the Fog of the Century, that it would kill about 4000 persons, cause property damage of many millions of pounds and bring the activities of the great metropolis almost to a halt. By Friday morning a heavy, wet blanket had closed…

Most politicians have four speeches: what they have written down, what they actually say, what they wish they had said, and what they are quoted as saying the next day. DON DEDERA A parliamentarian was interrogated concerning his stand on a controversial question. He stated, “I don’t mind telling you just exactly what I think. I’m undecided.” OLIVER OTTO The states are asking for federal aid, and the federal government is asking for taxpayer aid, and the taxpayers are applying for social-service aid. This is known as the economic cycle. BILL FARMER When you listen to a political speech, it’s like shooting at a target: you must allow for the wind. HUGH ALLEN Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the…

Chairman of the board to other members: “Of course, it’s only a suggestion, gentlemen, but let’s not forget who’s making it.” SATURDAY EVENING POST Father greeting daughter’s date: “You must be the one who defies description.” DATEBOOK Teenager coming home from dance to mother: “Roger was the life of the party – that gives you an idea how dull it was.” KATE O’HARA, NEA Real estate agent to young couple: “Yes, I do have a house in your price range, but it’s in Guatemala.” SATURDAY EVENING POST Shivering wife in rowboat to duck-hunting husband: “Tell me again how much fun we’re having – I keep forgetting!” SATURDAY EVENING POST Officer escorting small boy into Pentagon general’s office: “The rocket expert from Franklin Junior High is here, General.” THIS WEEK MAGAZINE…

A pretty young journalism student recently asked Dorothy Dix, dean of columnists, for advice on how to become a famous newspaperwoman. When Miss Dix pointed out that it was usual to get a job as a reporter, work like an underpaid beaver for five or 20 years, and then hope for the best, her visitor protested, “But I’d be willing to write those simple little things you do in your column.” “Those simple little things” appear daily in 215 newspapers on three continents and are read by approximately 30 million people. Now in its 49th year, her column is the oldest continuous newspaper feature in the United States. And Miss Dix, who has never missed a deadline, shows no sign of being winded. Sceptics who never read the column think…

South, almost as far as you can go, there was once in Queen Maud Land a place called Maudheim. It consisted of two prefabricated huts completely covered by snow – headquarters of the 14 members of the Norwegian-British-Swedish Expedition to the Antarctic. The men of this little settlement have long since scattered to their homes, their adventure of living for two years on the Polar ice largely forgotten. One episode, however, they will never forget – an act of iron nerve and desperate ingenuity. On March 11, 1951, Alan Reece, the young geologist of the expedition, was working with two other men in the mountains near the Advance Base, some 320 kilometres south-east of Maudheim. He was hammering rock to get mineral samples when a chip of stone struck his…

Out in the suburbs where I live, there are no footpaths along the street. They’re not considered part of gracious living. And that’s too bad, for footpaths are nice things. Families get to know one another better when there are footpaths. Without them, it is awkward to take a walk. You feel you’re intruding. A man walking along a footpath seems to have a purpose; a man walking in the street or across your front yard looks suspicious. A footpath is fun. It’s a place for children to ride tricycles before they reach the envied maturity of the two-wheeler. It’s a place for hopscotch and other children’s games. There would be laughter and loud talk, and the boys and girls would walk along the footpath, holding hands When I was…

“One who has just finished, as I have, a 12-year stretch for murder generally tries to soften the facts in his record. Personally, I have no alibi to advance. I killed an Army sergeant to protect my own life. I served ten years in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, which was bad enough, and 20 months in Alcatraz prison, which was worse. By comparison with Alcatraz prison, life was soft in Atlanta. The routine was not so deadly, and the men had a chance to make a few dollars in the mills with which to buy treats and cigarettes. If they had more money they could get other privileges, too. Al Capone, for instance, lived like a king in Atlanta, and it was reported among us that he had money brought in…

“You’ve got a sick goose over there,” Gene Fleming remarked to his sister-in-law as they walked to his car. He had stopped by Billee Schuck’s farm in Nebraska to pick up some ducklings for his pond, and he noticed a goose that kept toppling over. Billee didn’t even look round. “No, that’s Andy,” she said. “He was born without feet.” With the ducklings safely stowed, Fleming went over to look at the handicapped goose. “You’re a gutsy fella,” he said as Andy, f lapping wildly, tried to run away. The grey goose looked like a little boy on his first pair of stilts. His legs, thin as twigs, ended in calloused knobs about five centimetres wide. The only way Andy could stay upright was to run as fast as he…

Drama critic Clive Barnes reviewing What Did We Do Wrong?: “One sure gauge I have of telling whether a play is boring me is when a telephone rings in the last act, and I start in my seat and hope it’s for me.” NEW YORK TIMES When a play entitled Ogodiveleftthegason opened in London, critic Michael Walsh responded with a one-word review: “Whataloadofoldrubbish”. UPI From a play review by Heywood Broun: “The leading role was played by Mr — — . He played it by throwing out his chest and following it across the stage.” E.E. EDGAR From a film review by Kenneth Tynan: “Mister Moses is about an African village that must either quit its ancestral home to accommodate the new dam or stay and get drowned. Like most…

As the chief judge recapitulated the defendant’s crimes, the two outwardly most impassive listeners in the crowded courtroom in Düsseldorf, West Germany, were the accused, former SS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Stangl, and Simon Wiesenthal, a private citizen who had tracked Stangl for 20 years and was responsible for bringing him to justice. At the opening of the trial, seven months previously, the prosecutor had declared, “Stangl is the highest-ranking official of a death camp that West Germany had ever been able to try.” In his two-and-half-hour review on that cold December 22, 1970, the judge said, “The defendant, as commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland, supervised the murder of at least 400,000 men, women and children.” The judge’s words gave new life to an ugly piece of history that many…

Author of The Echo Killing Like her fictional creation Harper McClain, Christi Daugherty was a crime reporter. She began covering murders at the age of 22, working as a journalist for years in cities such as Savannah, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. “Crime reporting was my first real job and something I did for nearly a decade,” Daugherty says. Given that she grew up reading Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell, P. D. James and Liza Cody, “I suppose it was inevitable that I’d eventually write crime novels,” she says. “You could say crime writing is in my blood.” What other writers does she admire? The list includes the Robert Galbraith/ J.K. Rowling Cormoran Strike novels (“the character development in those books is fantastic”), Ruth Ware (“The Death of Mrs Westaway was…

1. Marie Kondo became a sensation with a book about the ‘life-changing magic’ of what? 1 point 2. Who has appeared in three ‘12’ movies: 12 Years a Slave, 12 Monkeys and Ocean’s Twelve? 1 point 3. Who starred in movie adaptations of the young adult novels The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent? 1 point 4. The açai berry is commonly found in the delta of which major river? 1 point 5. What sea separates Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo? 1 point 6. What’s the last Coldplay song to have won a Grammy? 2 points 7. What 1980s TV show inspired an influx of tourists to Florida, USA? 1 point 8. It used to be that most popes were Italian. But who was the last Italian pope? 2 points…

YOU MIGHT SAY it got off to a ‘spurious’ start. That was the very first stumper in the inaugural Word Power quiz 75 years ago, in January 1945. (Correct definition: ‘false’.) The column came from author, publisher and lifelong word nerd Wilfred J. Funk – his father was the ‘Funk’ of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopaedias. Wilfred conjured nearly 5000 words in 20 years of writing ‘It Pays to Increase Your Word Power’. Then he passed the dictionary to his son, master linguist Peter Funk. Over the years, Word Power has had many spin-offs including books, audiobooks, apps and board games. It appears in all Reader’s Digest foreign-language editions – it’s called ‘Pris au Mot’ (‘taken at one’s word’) in the French Canadian version. The column hasn’t changed much – it…

Unholy Fruit Along the roads of Brittany, France, the tall hedges are rough and untrimmed, heavy in late summer with blackberries, the only harvest the frugal peasants do not gather. You are free to pick as many as you like, and if a Breton lady in a white cap and velvet apron frowns disapproval it is not because you are trespassing, but because the fruit is unholy. For Christ was crowned with thorns, and no pious Breton ever touches a thorn-bearing bush. Tea on Russian Railways Because Russian water is bad, and needs boiling, the tea habit is everywhere. The first time I was on a Russian train and it stopped at a way station, all the Russians got off and ran like the devil. So I got off and…

As your body’s largest organ and one of the easiest ones to observe, your skin offers interesting clues about your health. That said, you can’t read it like a book. Many skin changes have several possible explanations. Suppose you start itching all over: the lineup of suspects ranges from dry air to kidney failure (and the former is more likely). It’s always smart to ask a GP or a dermatologist about anything out of the ordinary, but to spare yourself unnecessary anxiety, don’t jump to the scariest conclusion right off the bat. A few skin changes, however, are more likely to indicate something serious. Most of us know to keep an eye out for possible signs of skin cancer, such as sores that don’t heal and moles that ooze, bleed…

I was at home alone at midday, working at my typewriter, when the phone rang. A man’s voice said, “Your name Bell?” “Yes,” I said. My stomach began to constrict. There was something in his tone. “This is police headquarters. You’d better get over to the hospital right away. Your wife’s been hurt in an accident.” Janet had gone out not ten minutes earlier to do some errands. As she left, I’d kissed her absentmindedly, and she had needled me. “You don’t even know who you’re kissing.” She was laughing as she went out the door. Ten minutes ago. Foggily, I said, “How badly is she hurt?” “I don’t know. The accident was just phoned in to headquarters, and I was told to call you. You’d better get over to…

One of the oldest legends in the Christian world concerns the constant quivering of aspen leaves, even in apparently still air. A large number of persons believe the aspen trees supplied the wood for the Cross and has never ceased to tremble for the part it played in the crucifixion. Sculptors occasionally make portrait busts with removable ‘hair’. One interesting example is the head of Plautilla in the Louvre, Paris, which has a separate wig that can be changed from time to time to keep the lady in fashion. Several years ago, Ecuador wanted to perpetuate the memory of its politician poet José Olmedo by a statue. As made-to-order statues were found to be expensive, it was decided to buy a discarded one. So, the junk yards of London were…

Eugene Field disposed of a would-be poet who had submitted a verse entitled, ‘Why Do I Live?’ by writing on the rejection slip: “Because you sent your poem by mail.” Thomas Babington Macaulay, reviewing Atterbury’s A Defense of the Letters of Phalaris: “The best book ever written by any man on the wrong side of a question of which the writer was profoundly ignorant.” THE GOLDEN BOOK Sir James Barrie when he lived next door to H.G. Wells remarked, “Almost every evening through the walls I can hear Mr Wells changing his mind.” Friends often asked novelist Marie Corelli why she never married. “There is no need,” she would reply, “for I have three pets at home which together answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog…

In the centre of a vast stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, 15 large black-clad men stand in a semi-circle. Their eyes bulge as they pound their thighs and jerk their legs at 15 equally burly men in green jumpers standing opposite them. With mounting vigour, the men in black stamp the grass and bellow in a Polynesian language. Fifty thousand spectators bay in defiance. The men in black advance a step at a time. Just when it seems the two groups must come to blows, the aggressors yell a final challenge, leap high into the air, turn and jog away. This is rugby, and the All Blacks team have performed their haka, a Maori war dance that precedes every test match the New Zealand national side plays. Today, August 24,…

Dorothy Dix’s name lives on today in a rather strange way. In the Australian parliament, a ‘Dorothy Dixer’ in political jargon is a ‘planted’ (pre-arranged) question asked of a government minister during question time. It enables the minister to give a prepared reply – spelling out policies or achievements. Also asking if the minister knows of any alternative policies then allows the minister to criticise other parties while staying on topic. The term references Dorothy Dix’s alleged practice of making up her own questions to allow her to publish more interesting answers. The term has been used in Australian politics since the 1950s, and is frequently shortened to ‘Dixer’. However, the term is virtually unknown in other countries where Dix’s column was equally popular.…

If living conditions don’t stop improving in this country, we’re going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men. RUSSELL P. ASKUE, LADIES HOME JOURNAL ONE TROUBLE WITH TELEVISION COMMERCIALS IS TOO MUCH TELL AND NOT ENOUGH VISION. MARJORIE JOHNSON If you want a baby, have a new one. Don’t baby the old one. JESSAMYN WEST, TO SEE THE DREAM People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. J. F. NEWTON, THE VILLAGER FAILURE IS THE LINE OF LEAST PERSISTENCE. STEPHANIE MARTINO Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time. JONATHAN SWIFT ANYBODY WHO WOULD GO TO A PSYCHIATRIST OUGHT TO HAVE HIS HEAD EXAMINED. SAMUEL GOLDWYN WOMEN’S STYLES MAY CHANGE BUT THEIR DESIGNS REMAIN THE SAME. OSCAR WILDE…

Seen on entering the town of St John, Indiana, US: “Drive Carefully. See St John, Not St Peter.” CONTRIBUTED BY KAREN ERICKSEN In a bakery department of a supermarket, a wedding cake was set out for shoppers with the sign: “He changed his mind. Have a piece of cake on us.” Fort Worth STAR TELEGRAM Sign on a hotel in the western sheep district of New South Wales: ‘Saloon Baa’ and ‘Public Baa’. ‘COlUMN 8’ IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Notice posted at the Johannesburg, South Africa, General Hospital: “Be nice to our staff. They’re harder to find than patients.” AP A sign by a motel: “Come in and take a road off your mind.” CONTRIBUTED BY JEAN ROCKWOOD…

OCTOBER 1934 Twists and turns of phrase In her single person she was a social commotion. … A perfect dreadnought of a woman, looking for whom she might sink. … Two or three males and females best described as et ceteras. … One of those women who go through life demanding to see the manager. A liberal mouth with happy corners. … A mouth as curly as her hair. … A smile that snapped back after using, like a stretched rubber band. … A smile 30 years his junior. … Lips with their zippers drawn. He was a self-made man, and worshipped his creator. … The black sheep of a rather greyish family. … He has a certain syrup, but it does not pour. … A handsome man, with an…

When asked how he had spent his first day at school, my nephew answered, “We sang.” “What did the class sing?” I asked. “I don’t know what they sang. I sang ‘Little Brown Jug’.” LACY MOON Message in a dry-cleaner’s window: “No matter how bad the stain, we’ll take it out – and sew up the hole”. CATHOLIC DIGEST Sign in a car repair shop: “We do precision guesswork”. For several years the most popular wines at Sonoma Vineyards’ tasting room in San Francisco were labelled simply ‘Adequate White’ and ‘Adequate Red’. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE There’s an organisation in [the US city of] Omaha whose letterhead reads: “The League of Wretched Writers, Poets and Artists”. AP…

Just off the rugged southeast shore of Nova Scotia in Canada lies a tiny island fashioned somewhat like a question mark. The shape is appropriate, for little Oak Island is the scene of a baffling whodunit that has defied solution for over two centuries. Here, ever since 1795 – not long after pirates prowled the Atlantic coast and left glittering legends of buried gold in their wake – people have been trying to find out what lies at the bottom of a mysterious shaft dubbed, hopefully, the ‘Money Pit’. Using picks and shovels, divining rods and drilling rigs, treasure hunters poured about $1.5 million into the Money Pit. Despite more than 20 attempts, no one has yet reached the bottom: each time a digging crew has seemed close to success,…

MAY 1934 Quips and one-liners There isn’t much to talk about at some parties until after one or two couples leave. That’s the kind of party where they burn the scandal at both ends. A day off is usually followed by an off day. Presents make the heart grow fonder. COLUMBIA RECORD A thing of beauty has joy rides forever. In politics the paths of glory lead but to the gravy. People who take cold baths all winter seldom have colds. But they have cold baths. PUNCH The trouble with champagne is that it makes you see double but feel single. When a girl finds that she is not the only pebble on the beach she becomes a little bolder. OHIO STATE JOURNAL Never go around with a married woman…

Disgraceland From murder to arson, overdoses, religious cults and drugs, Disgraceland explores the alleged true crime antics and criminal connections of musicians such as Jerry Lee Lewis, The Rolling Stones, Tay K-47, Tupac Shakur, Amy Winehouse and more. The Big Life Kids Podcast This podcast teaches children to stay resilient and believe in themselves. Zara and Leo travel the world from Malaysia to London to Paraguay to discover the living heroes that are making a difference in the world today. Last Trip of the Hindenburg The largest of the Zeppelin airships was built to represent Nazi superiority. It was a dangerously fragile behemoth. Listen to the RD Talks podcast to learn more about this historic tragedy in 1937 and the events leading up to it. HOW TO GET…

Bubble Maths Moderately Difficult Assign a whole number between one and seven to each of the seven bubbles. Each number occurs once. The sums of some of the numbers are revealed in the areas where their bubbles overlap. Can you figure out which number goes in each bubble? Cogs Moderately Difficult These four cogs are going to help you crack a safe. Imagine you turn the first cog two teeth (protruding bumps) in a counterclockwise direction. Naturally, this motion moves the other three cogs, as well. Next, you turn the second cog three teeth in a clockwise direction. This, too, moves the other three cogs. Finally, you move the last two cogs as indicated. The four teeth that are now positioned next to the four circles reveal a four-digit safe…

1. saturnine – A: ugly in looks. B: gloomy and grave. C: threatening in manner. D: bitter of tongue. 2. incarnate – A: vulgar. B: personified. C: inflammatory. D: crimson. 3. duff – A: clumsy fellow. B: parasitic plant that grows in swampy land. C: a small utility bag. D: partially decayed vegetable matter on the forest floor. 4. siesta – A: Spanish farm. B: carnival. C: Indian market. D: afternoon nap. 5. inveigh – A: carry. B: encroach. C: entice. D: rail bitterly. 6. viable – A: easily influenced. B: capable of living. C: powdery. D: land that can be ploughed. 7. serried – A: broken. B: uneven. C: compacted in rows. D: toothed on the edge like a saw. 8. limbo – A: dialect. B: acrobat. C: place…