Table of contents for July 2020 in Readers Digest Australia

I CAN CLEARLY REMEMBER the first time I watched The Sound of Music. I was nine, and it was being screened on TV as a Saturday night family film special. My dad was keen for me to watch it, and I was happy to oblige as it meant staying up beyond my usual 8.30pm bedtime. I loved it! My favourite scene was the grand ball and the von Trapp kids’ performance of ‘So Long, Farewell’. Needless to say, ‘Adieu, Adieu, to Yieu and Yieu and Yieu!’ soon became my signature nightly motto. It still is (when the mood is right!). I’m sure many of our readers can similarly recall their first encounter with this family and their fondness for singing through the extraordinary wartime challenges they faced. If you have…

CULTURE When will things go back to normal? What a post-coronavirus life could look like and how we’ll navigate the world differently. SCIENCE 12 of the most amazing space discoveries Each day we’re learning more about our amazing universe. PETS 15 CUTE PHOTOS OF WET DOGS YOU CAN’T HELP BUT SMILE AT These water-loving pups can’t wait to splash about. JOIN THE CONVERSATION! PLUS SIGN UP TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER FOR MORE HOT OFFERS, TOP STORIES AND PRIZES!…

Hello There ALANA YEARBY Early one morning, my father woke up to the strangest sound – still half asleep, he wondered if someone was calling out ‘hello’ to him. As he attempted to go back to sleep, he heard the strange greeting echoing out into the still, dark morning once more. Who could it be? Then he realised the strange ‘h-e-l-l-o’ was coming from our cat, Slinky. She was pacing around the verandah and when she heard dad move she repositioned herself outside his window and repeated the strange sound: a meow mixed with a loud drawn-out ‘h-e-l-l-o’. When dad told us about the strange sound Slinky had made over and over, my brothers and I didn’t believe him. Our cat saying ‘hello’? We figured Dad was pulling our legs.…

As a topic taught in school, the human brain, and all its inner workings, is more likely to be on the curriculum of a senior high school biology course than it would be in a class focused on helping kids with behavioural or emotional challenges. But that is exactly what a unique programme at Stanton Lodge in Townville, Queensland, is teaching – and it’s having outstanding results on the kids involved. “We teach the students about their brains and how they work, so they can then understand how to work with what their brains are doing to achieve the goal they’re after,” explains Kevin Butler, the programme’s creator and head. He says the goal is to improve personal and social capabilities, and to build resilience and emotional intelligence. “The kids…

Any job is a dream job if you fall asleep in meetings. @SOMADDYSMITH I sleep with a knife under my pillow. You never know when someone is going to break in and give you a cake. @SHAVI67 People in sleeping bags are the soft tacos of the bear world. @LONGWALL26 I used to be able to pull all-nighters but now I can barely pull all-dayers. @WOLFYNEYDA There are many theories on why humans even need to sleep, but I’m pretty sure it’s to charge our phones. @ALISPAGNOLA…

An old saying notes that ‘man makes plans and God laughs’. I imagine God cracking up when he heard my husband and I outlining our game plan to celebrate our milestone birthdays. Hiking Mount Kilimanjaro was one option. Riding elephants in Thailand ran a close second. Sitting in our backyard during a pandemic didn’t make the top ten, surprisingly enough, but that’s where we ended up. I will always remember my quarantine birthday as the day I made eye contact with a red cardinal bird, my heart cracked wide open, and for one stunning moment, I saw the world and all its wonders in high definition. Equipped with my new superpowers, I got a front-row seat to see a few things that had eluded my pre-pandemic eyes. A friend surprised…

Debby Schrecengast knows she should have seen the warning signs. When she looks back at 2014, the year she suffered a stroke, Schrecengast, 57, sees a “stubborn old donkey” in denial about her health. “I had let my blood pressure go uncontrolled, and I remained overweight for so long,” she says. Schrecengast joined a programme that eased her into an exercise routine. She took nutrition classes, dropped 14 kilograms and no longer needs blood pressure medication. It’s easy to measure how much weight you’ve lost or how much faster you can jog. It’s harder to calculate whether your heart is getting healthier. But if you keep an eye on these numbers with your doctor, you can tell whether your ticker is getting stronger or weaker as time goes by. Cholesterol…

Af ter Mar ty Huggins fractured her lower back four years ago, she says she spent “two years lying on a fuzzy brown sofa in our family room. I was afraid I would hurt my back if I moved even a little.” The pain forced the 65 year old to retire from her job as a physical education teacher, and she stopped going to the gym completely. But despite countless visits to special ists and doctors, who performed tons of tests, gave her dozens of steroid shots, and regularly offered her opioid pain relievers, nothing helped. What did it take for Huggins to finally tame her pain? She changed her brain. She star ted by researching chronic pain-management and rehabilitation programmes. Huggins enrol led in several classes on how the…

We all know someone – or maybe more than one person – whose constant barrage of negativity can add stress to your life. Some people, it seems, thrive on finding the cloud instead of the silver lining. Listening to a chronic complainer spout off about anything (and everything) can be stressful, especially if you can’t figure out how to get him to scale back his stream of negativity. But there are ways to get a complainer to taper off without offending him – although it might make him start complaining about you. WHY PEOPLE COMPLAIN Even the kindest, most considerate people complain. Researchers estimate that the average person – whether male or female, young or old – expresses dissatisfaction between 15 and 30 times daily. “It’s not a quantitative difference,…

Ever So Clever Who would have thought that little nylon ‘hooks’ clawing into fabric would be a useful or even possible way to close a jacket or secure a shoe (‘Accidents That Changed History’, May)? I suppose it makes sense then that the inspiration for Velcro’s creation was an accident. Either way, as someone who mastered tying shoe laces later than most, I’m very thankful for this particular invention. JAMES EDWARDS Credible Medical Advice Thank you for an excellent magazine. I have been a reader of Reader’s Digest for over 50 years. It has changed over time, as we all have, but recently it has evolved into a contemporary magazine that is attractive to all age groups and is excellent value. I am a GP in Sydney and the magazine…

PUPPIES ARE DELIGHTFUL and full of fun. They can also make a mess, cry at night and chew things they shouldn’t. Veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren shares her advice on the most important things to teach a puppy so it grows into a friendly, well-behaved dog. 1. TOILET TRAINING Observation, patience and positive reinforcement are the key to toilet training your puppy. Puppies usually want to toilet whenever they wake and after eating, drinking and playing. Take the puppy to wherever you want them to toilet, give them a command, then praise them afterwards. It’s important to be consistent – same place, same command, same praise. Puppies may need to urinate every few hours, so don’t expect them to be able to hold on all night. 2. SOCIALISATION The first few…

Gather round, one and all; our show is about to begin. Prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be dazed, but we warn you – we citrus are masters of disguise and experts at sleight of hand. You think you know us, but no, you do not. Behold this deck of cards. Pictured on each card is a different one of us: kumquat, kaffir lime, eureka lemon; satsuma mandarin, tangelo, star ruby grapefruit and Valencia orange. What names! What flamboyant colours and sweet, bright juiciness! Not to boast, but have you ever met one of us you didn’t like? OK, there was that bitter orange you had the poor sense to bite into once – we admit, we can be astringent. But all that variety is just an illusion. Here, pick…

When Char’s seventh grade teacher asked her class to sign up for pen pals, they were given a list of countries to pick from. Char originally wrote to a student in Japan but never heard back, so she returned to the list, this time writing to an Australian student. “I just really wanted to know if she had kangaroos in her backyard,” she says. Julie Polich Sapienza received the letter in Perth a short time later, and the two have been writing ever since. They transitioned from handwritten letters to emails to Facebook, but they’ve never fallen out of touch. Always writing Since they began in 1972, Char and Julie marked many of life’s milestones – school graduations, first jobs, weddings and the birth of children – through letters. One…

If you ask any coffee connoisseur, they’ll tell you that the way the beans are brewed makes a big difference to the final taste, freshness, aroma and texture of the drink. The style of brewing used to extract this goodness from the coffee beans also makes a difference to the drink’s nutritional value. From a simple plunger to an electric espresso machine, it’s easy to find a brewing method that suits any budget. 1. Plunger This is one of the simplest coffee-brewing methods. It works by steeping coffee grounds in boiled water before pressing the grounds down with a plunger. One of the main benefits of making coffee with a plunger is that the strength of the brew is very easy to customise. This preparation method produces a stronger cup…

Don’t I Know You From Somewhere? My friend’s dad, a professor, travels a lot. Once, when returning from a conference in Australia, he spotted a familiar-looking man but didn’t know where he knew him from. So he confronted him. FRIEND’S DAD: You look familiar. Were you at the conference this week for international trade law? MAN: Uh, no, I wasn’t. FD: I definitely know you. Are you in law? MAN: No, I’m not. FD: Well, I must have seen you at a conference somewhere. Which university are you with? MAN: I don’t work at a university. FD: Well, what’s your name, at least? MAN: Matt Damon. not_a_frog on reddit.com Keep Smiling As a brain wave technologist, I often ask post-operative patients to smile to make sure their facial nerves are…

SOMETIMES, YOU’VE JUST GOT TO DO WHAT’S required in order to get the dog you want. Especially if you’re not old enough to be making such a big decision for yourself and your family. For eight-year-old Katie Gregson, that required getting approval from both her parents. Katie’s mother, Christine, was fairly easy to persuade, though; she can’t help feeling maternal towards small living creatures, so Katie simply kept showing her photographs of puppies until she caved. Her dad, David, was a bit harder to crack. He’d had a dog before – a border collie – and when she died, he swore he could never go through that anguish again. So when his daughter began begging him for precisely that breed of dog, he didn’t think he could do it. No,…

1. To raise money for charities, who handwrote an 800-word prequel to her bestselling book series? 1 point 2. According to its former minister of tourism, which country is known abroad for its three ‘Rs’: reggae, romance and running? 1 point 3. Main-sequence stars fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores. What’s the closest one to Earth? 1 point 4. Razzie awards are meant to go to bad movies, but who got nominated for directing the now widely respected film Scarface? 2 points 5. Mauritius is the only African country where the most commonly practised religion is what? 1 point 6. Structures in Tokyo; Las Vegas; Shenzhen; and Paris, Texas all look like what French monument? 1 point 7. Which country’s late monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, received recognition for his…

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CHEWING Provide safe, indestructible chew toys to discourage puppies from chewing inappropriate items. DESTRUCTIVENESS Pick anything up from the floor, or separate the puppy from whatever you don’t want destroyed. If it’s accessible, expect it to be chewed. JUMPING UP Ignore your puppy when they jump up, make them sit nicely for attention instead. BOREDOM Interactive toys that dispense treats help to keep puppies occupied and stimulated. BARKING/WHINING Ignore, unless there’s a reason for the puppy to cry (hungry, toilet, etc).…

TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR PTSD In the short term, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) tends to respond similarly to psychotherapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), medication (certain SSRIs) or both combined. However, compared to medication by itself, psychotherapy – with or without drugs – appears to be more likely to lead to long-lasting improvement, according to a meta-analysis of 12 clinical trials. In real life, people commonly wait for weeks or months to access psychotherapy. Medication alone isn’t useless, especially if you need support right away. “Patients just need to know what outcomes to expect from the different treatment approaches,” said co-author Heike Gerger. DOG WALKING FRACTURES Taking a furry friend out for a stroll is a great way to exercise, although the benefits may not outweigh the risks for…

I know a lot of us are confused and hurting from the tremendous amount of suffering in the world right now. Don’t let the bad news distract you from your kindness and compassion.K.D. LANG, ON TWITTER I’ve always been an extreme athlete. I tried yoga and was bored. I wanted to do a backflip.TAYLOR HILL, MODEL A PARTY WITHOUT CAKE IS REALLY JUST A MEETING.JULIA CHILD, CHEF Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.DOUGLAS ADAMS, WRITER When I was younger, I had an ego. But it gets in the way.ANTHONY HOPKINS, ACTOR…

Julia was around 11 the first time it happened. She let herself into her dad’s apartment, dropped her school bag and flopped on to the sofa. She switched on the TV to her favourite channel in time for the cartoons. The screen filled up with a cartoon man with a huge head. On his chin were huge cracks. Suddenly, she felt like she was going to throw up in disgust. She screwed up her eyes and fumbled for the button to turn off the TV. Almost every three or four months she’d see something that she just couldn’t stand. Something that made her feel disgusted and terrified. Sometimes it was cracks, but other times it was patterns of holes or dots, or scenes from underwater nature programmes showing groups of…

Beating Them Hands Down At an event famous for giving out awards in bizarre categories, the emcee enthusiastically announces, “The next prize will go to the laziest person in the audience. If you think you qualify, raise your hand.” Everyone raises their hands except a middle-aged man who seems to show little interest. “Congratulations! You are the winner,” says the emcee to the man. “Your prize is this $100 bill!” Still showing no emotion, the man replies, “Would you mind coming over here and putting it in my pocket?” SUBMITTED BY JOSÉ J. ZULUAGA Slow Mover I ate dinner with a chess grandmaster last night. Problem was, we had a checked tablecloth. It took him two hours to pass the salt! Chessninja.com Carrying a Tune Doc, I can’t stop singing…

Heritage Watch was founded by Dougald O’Reilly in 2003, when he was working in Cambodia and witnessed looting of ancient antiquities across that country. “I felt the looting was an incredible tragedy,” says O’Reilly. “One can’t blame folks for digging near their homes to find anything of value, since poverty is what drives looters. But the sites give us clues to the rise of civilisations.” Sites include Angkor Wat (right) near Siem Reap. The 12th-century temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu covers 208 hectares and is the world’s largest religious complex. “When I was a kid, National Geographic dedicated an issue to Angkor Wat, and I was in awe,” recalls O’Reilly. He went on to do archaeological work there, and to author the excellent digital book, An Interactive Guide…

COSTLY MISTAKE After selling two vehicles for nearly US$23,000 in cash last August, a man in Oregon placed his haul in a shoebox. The low-security solution was temporary – he planned to spend the cash on a new vehicle a few days later. Unfortunately, his wife didn’t get the memo and chucked the container in the recycling bin, then brought it to the kerb. By the time the couple realised their mistake, the money had travelled to a recycling centre in California. After the facility received a panicked call explaining the situation, an employee spotted stacks of $20 bills moving along a conveyor belt and called the waste-management facility in Oregon to alert them that the cash had been recovered. SNACK BANDIT Police officers were called out last August to an unusual…

Customer’s child is doing a project on dinosaurs. Customer cannot believe our bookstore doesn’t have a single book with actual photographs of real dinosaurs. @WATERSTONES While I was working at a petrol station, a guy asked me for a refund on petrol he had just pumped because he changed his mind. @OBSCUREAARON I work at a pet supply shop. A customer once phoned to set up a delivery. Among the items he wanted was a dog toy, but he didn’t know which one. I had to pick out toys and squeak them into the phone for him until he heard the ‘right one’. @KRISTINNEUMAN I watched a woman demand that my colleague give her a haircut. I work at a bookstore. @LINDSEYFEVER When I worked at a video store, a…

1. crimp – A: restrict spending. B: compress into small folds. C: climb. 2. bung – A: stopper for a container. B: mechanical spring. C: insect nest. 3. cruller – A: flat-bottomed boat. B: felt hat. C: small cake made from a twisted strip of dough. 4. avast – A: nautical command to stop. B: large estate. C: north wind. 5. beleaguered – A: subjected to constant trouble. B: divided into small groups. C: well-equipped. 6. polder – A: head bandage. B: tract of low land reclaimed from the sea. C: hearty meat stew. 7. maelstrom – A: challenging path. B: raging fire. C: powerful whirlpool. 8. freebooter – A: lazy person. B: pirate. C: wanderer. 9. bulwark – A: strong protection. B: marsh. C: nonsensical statement. 10. boodle –…