READER'S DIGEST - October 01, 2022

service of his. After his death, she finds Reid is better than almost any other
herself living in a squalid apartment, writer in the game at establishing con-
surrounded by clutter, unfinished can- crete people in a concrete world, only
vases and mouse droppings. She has to unmoor every touchstone of truth
no children or family, just a landlord until both his characters and readers
who checks on her intermittently. are left questioning their own reality.
When Penny has a bad fall, her land- In We Spread, he combines that Hitch-
lord takes her to a long-term care cockian sensibility with a streak of
facility called Six Cedars—a place, he compassion. To some extent, it’s a full-
claims, she chose for herself, though circle moment that hearkens back to
she has no recollection of doing so. The his memoir about his grandmother:
both books unpack the melancholy
HER NEW HOME and ambivalence of aging, of produc-
QUICKLY TURNS tivity, of what constitutes a good life
MENACING, TIME and a good death. This reflection is
BECOMES ELASTIC especially resonant in the wake of the
AND SHE LOSES DAYS. Covid long-term-care crisis and as
society prepares to look after the larg-
facility, buried deep in the woods, is est elderly population in history. On
intimate and idyllic, at least at first, one level, the book is an addictive,
with only three other residents: a vio- straightforward psychological spook-
linist, a mathematician and a linguist. fest, full of haunting images—jagged
The rooms are cozy, the meals deli- and bleeding fingernails, maze-like
cious, and Penny is encouraged to pur- hallways, death notices for people who
sue her artwork. But the place quickly haven’t yet died. But you can also read
takes on a menacing aspect. Time turns it as a deeply empathic tour inside an
elastic, and soon Penny seems to be aging mind, as Penny reckons with dis-
losing days, months, years at a time. orientation, memory loss, fears of irrel-
Items move and morph with no expla- evance and an increasing conviction
nation. Her kind caretakers, Shelley that she wasted her life. Reid uses the
and Jack, start to feel more like her text to further break down Penny’s—and
jailers, obsessively grooming Penny, the reader’s—sense of certainty, with
keeping her from the outdoors and fractured dialogue and single sentences
gaslighting her when she complains of taking over pages like screams. Either
fears and discomfort. something sinister is going on at Six
Cedars or Penny is experiencing a rapid
cognitive decline. Both scenarios are
equally terrifying.

rd.ca 97

reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS

Order Up 1. If these four people stand in order of height, ORDER UP BY DARREN RIGBY, A-J FIT-IN BY FRASER SIMPSON
Medium Two parent-child pairs the fastest person is not at either end.
are at the climbing wall in their 2. Olivia, being only eight, is both the young-
gym at the same time, though est and the shortest person, but she’s not
they aren’t all from the same fam- the slowest.
ily. They are four different ages 3. Andre is faster at climbing the wall than his
and have a race to see who can father, Michael.
get to the top fastest. From these 4. Sunita teased Andre that his extra height
clues, can you rank all four people was the only reason he beat her to the top of
by age, height and speed? the wall.
5. The oldest climber said that it would have
been embarrassing to be beaten by Olivia.
6. None of the three orderings (oldest to
youngest, tallest to shortest, fastest to slowest)
are the same.
7. Sunita said that she hopes she’s as active as
Michael when she’s his age.

I A-J Fit-In
G Difficult Insert the letters
A to J, one per square, so
B that no two consecutive
letters in alphabetical order
98 november 2022 are in squares that touch in
any way, even at a corner.
Three letters have been
placed to get you started.

POPPIES BY DARREN RIGBY, CRYPTOQUOTES: NATURE BY DEREK BOWMAN Poppies
Easy There are two kinds of
poppies in the diagram,
turned 45 degrees from each
other. Can you find the poppy
that’s exactly halfway
between two poppies with
horizontal and vertical petals,
and is also exactly halfway
between two poppies with
diagonal petals?

Cryptoquotes: Nature
Difficult In the following cryptoquotes, one letter stands for another. Single letters,
punctuation and the length and pattern of words are all clues. The code is different
for each quote. Can you crack the codes to reveal the quotes?

—————— —— — —————— —————— ————
1.BMGMA R L F B F Z V H R S F T W L R U J P Z R

————— ———— —— — ———————
Z Y ZWD X Z B N L F B N X H J ZW .
—————————————— ——————
- B X U ZW L B R - E HWR NWZ R V P
—————— —————— —————
BMG P HW B X E ZWG V B AMF

————— ———— —————— ————— —— ———
2.Q Z QMP GQO L J CQON J Y G F J J H V X Q /

—————————— ———— ——— ——————
L GD HHQM F E S L MV X H A Q OD HD X E
————— ———————— ———————— ———
HMQQ . - Q E S G F J A E V Z QG F J H O E I
———— ————— ——————
C VQH QX F GP YMV EHQ

For answers, turn to PAGE 103

rd.ca 99

reader’s digest

TRIVIA 11. What innovative
comedy show did David
BY Beth Shillibeer Attenborough authorize
to begin airing in 1969,
when he was the BBC’s
director of programs?

1. What was the first 6. What record did the 12. Reader’s Digest pub-
superhero movie nomi- Guinness Book of World lished its first Canadian
nated for the Academy Records achieve in edition 75 years ago.
Award for Best Picture? November 2004? What language was it in?

2. What popular Reader’s 7. In Argentina, what 13. What American sci-
Digest section did poet imported food has entist won a 2019 Nobel
and publisher Wilfred become traditional to Prize at age 97 for contri-
Funk start in 1945? eat on or near the 29th butions to lithium-ion
of every month? batteries?
3. What historic first did
Walter Arnold achieve by 8. What do a nine-dart 14. Who invented the
driving at 13 kilometres finish in darts and a 147 in phrases “wild goose
per hour in 1896? snooker have in common? chase” and “in a pickle”?

4. Which popular con- 9. Researchers at the 15. Citrine gemstones
nectivity technology was University of South Aus- are commonly made by
named after 10th-century tralia have invented applying between 400
King Harald of Norway? drones that can monitor and 925 C of heat to which
what from the air? semi-precious gem?
5. Allison Cirioli was born
26 minutes after her twin, 10. The Severan decree
Peter. Why did the birth forbade what type of
certificate say that she combatant from fighting
was born first? in 200 CE?

Answers: 1. Black Panther (2018). 2. Word Power. 3. The first fine for speeding. 4. Bluetooth, after ISTOCK.COM/SUNCHAN
his nickname. 5. Daylight saving time ended between their births. 6. The bestselling book of all time
still under copyright. 7. ñoquis (gnocchi). 8. They both indicate a perfect score. 9. Blood-oxygen
levels in people. 10. Female gladiators, who continued fighting anyway. 11. Monty Python’s Flying
Circus. 12. French. 13. John Goodenough. 14. William Shakespeare. 15. Amethyst.

100 november 2022

WORD POWER C: burying something
that is alive.

Since 1925, the Scripps National Spelling 10. knaidel—
Bee has challenged participants to enrich A: dumpling eaten during
their vocabularies. Test yourself with some Passover. B: loveseat.
C: four-wheeled bicycle.
of the winning words.
11. catamaran—
BY Rob Lutes A: crocheted shawl.
B: boat with two hulls in
parallel. C: nursery rhyme.

1. fracas— B: American folk instru- 12. torsion—
A: crack in the earth’s ment. C: savoury sea- action of: A: lifting.
crust. B: rough, noisy weed dish. B: twisting. C: tilling soil.
quarrel. C: epithet
uttered in anger. 6. vouchsafe— 13. semaphore—
A: protect or defend. A: musical symbol indi-
2. abrogate— B: hide or conceal. cating a half note.
A: ignore. B: deny. C: allow or reply. B: horizontal structural
C: abolish. component in a wall.
7. kamikaze— C: system of signalling
3. démarche— A: showing reckless disre- using two flags.
A: political initiative. gard for personal safety.
B: drainage canal. B: rhythmically complex. 14. fibranne—
C: mechanical failure. C: extremely windy. A: tempered steel.
B: unbleached flour.
4. chlorophyll— 8. antediluvian— C: linen-like fabric made
A: green pigment in A: archaic. B: frugal. from rayon.
plants. B: acidic gas. C: rational.
C: chemical used to 15. serrefine—
purify water. 9. vivisepulture— A: little tomatoes.
A: training vines for hor- B: ridges on fabric scis-
5. dulcimer— ticulture. B: dividing sors. C: small forceps
A: cotton blanket. land into equal parts. used to clamp an artery.

rd.ca 101

reader’s digest

WORD POWER 6. vouchsafe—C: allow or 12. torsion—B: action of
ANSWERS reply; as, The official twisting; as, To preserve
would only vouchsafe that his back, Dr. Jennings
1. fracas—B: rough, a burglary had taken place advised Leonard to avoid
noisy quarrel; as, The and jewellery was missing. torsion of any kind.
twins’ disagreement
caused a fracas. 7. kamikaze—A: showing 13. semaphore—C: sys-
reckless disregard for per- tem of signalling using
2. abrogate—C: abolish; sonal safety; as, A fearless two flags; as, Tristan’s
as, With the stroke of a child, Ben had attempted skills earned him the
pen, the CEO abrogated countless kamikaze moves Scout semaphore badge.
the training program, on his bike.
imperilling the compa- 14. fibranne—C: linen-
ny’s future. 8. antediluvian— like fabric made from
A: archaic; as, Some of rayon, as, Said’s new
3. démarche—A: politi- Granny’s antediluvian fibranne shirts were com-
cal initiative; as, The sud- beliefs about gender fortable and wrinkle-free.
den invasion of neigh- roles made Annie wince.
bouring territory was a 15. serrefine—C: small
stunning démarche for 9. vivisepulture— forceps used to clamp an
the new government. C: burying something that artery; as, The surgeon
is alive; as, The horror film used the serrefine to stem
4. chlorophyll—A: green depicted scratches on the blood flow in the arm.
pigment in plants; as, The inside of a coffin to capi-
chlorophyll in the leaves talize on viewers’ fear of CROSSWORD
declined through the fall, vivisepulture. ANSWERS
turning the once-green
canopy orange and red. 10. knaidel—A: dump- FROM PAGE 104
ling eaten during Pass-
5. dulcimer—B: Ameri- over; as, Morrie tried his L A BOU R MG R
can folk instrument; as, first knaidel at the
For authenticity, Richie renowned Jewish deli. A T E RR E YOU
insisted on playing the
Appalachian reel on his 11. catamaran—B: boat VAL ENT I NES
father’s three-stringed with two hulls in parallel;
dulcimer. as, Alejandra loved to sail APAL CAS T A
her catamaran around
the small island. SARA O I L

R EMEMB R ANC E

ONO I C ED

I DTAG ROS A

STPATR I CKS

I OS I NAT I E

T SO CANADA

102 november 2022

BRAINTEASERS SUDOKU
ANSWERS

FROM PAGE 98 BY Jeff Widderich

Order Up 85 2
From oldest to youngest, 1
they are Michael, Sunita,
Andre and Olivia; from 35 4
tallest to shortest, they 72 9 4
are Michael, Andre,
Sunita and Olivia; and 129
from fastest to slowest, 4 68
they are Andre, Michael,
Olivia and Sunita.

Poppies

1 23

6

A-J Fit-In 59 SOLUTION

IA To Solve This Puzzle 491678532
GDF 657239814
C J BH Put a number from 1 to 9 in 283514679
each empty square so that: 726893145
E 518426793
) every horizontal row and 349751268
Cryptoquotes: Nature vertical column contains all 974182356
nine numbers (1-9) without 162345987
1. AUTUMN IS A SECOND repeating any of them; 835967421
SPRING WHEN EVERY LEAF
IS A FLOWER. ) each of the outlined 3 x 3
- ALGERIAN-BORN FRENCH boxes has all nine numbers,
AUTHOR ALBERT CAMUS none repeated.
2. EVERY LEAF SPEAKS
BLISS TO ME / FLUTTERING
FROM THE AUTUMN TREE.
- ENGLISH NOVELIST AND
POET EMILY BRONTE

rd.ca 103

reader’s digest

CROSSWORD 26 Super cool, maybe?
27 Pooch’s pendant
Anniversary Holidays 29 Noted bus rider and

BY Barbara Olson civil-rights activist Parks
33 March: Anniversary of
1 23456 789
the death of the “Apostle
10 11 of Ireland,” ___ Day
36 iPhone platform
12 13 37 Heading to overtime
38 Classical music grp. in
14 15 16 Ont.
39 July: Anniversary of our
17 18 19 20 nation’s confederation,
___ Day
21 22 23 24
DOWN
25 26 1 Goo in a groovy lamp
2 Give ___ on the shoulder
27 28 29 30 31 32 3 Composer Bartók
4 Warner’s words implying
33 34 35 consequences
5 Keats’s was Grecian, in
36 37 an ode
6 Isn’t working anymore:
38 39 Abbr.
7 Babbling bird
ACROSS 14 “C’mon, be ___” (bud- 8 Continues
1 September: Anniversary dy’s appeal) 9 Homespun
of the Nine-Hour Move-
ment, ___ Day 15 ___ spell on 13 “Why should ___?”
7 Work team ldr. 17 Tegan’s twin partner in 16 I.P.A. ingredient?
18 Guadalajaran gal pal
10 Touching the floor, in pop 19 Rival of TD
ballet 20 Air fryer’s lack 21 Versailles VIP, once
21 November: Anniversary 22 Breaks up with
11 Mirror image, maybe 23 RCMP’s “Maintiens le
12 February: Anniversary of of the First World War
armistice, ___ Day droit,” and others
a bishop’s martyrdom, 25 Creator of the Wish Tree 24 Whom Rocky called for
___ Day art series 28 Lhasa ___, Tibetan breed
30 “Eight” prefix, with -gon
31 Lose traction
32 Out of port?
34 Partner of tac and toe
35 “Messenger” molecule

For answers, turn to PAGE 102

104 november 2022

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