CANADA’S JULY/AUGUST 2020

MIRACLE MOST-READ
MAGAZINE
VEGGIES,
SUPERFOODS &
THE ONE DIET
THAT REALLY
WORKS! WHY HELPING
STRANGERS
IS GOOD
FOR YOU
PAGE
E 66

Saving for
Retirement in
a Pandemic
PAGE 80

Beware This
Email Scam
PAGE 40
0

Funniest
Town Names
in Canada
PAGE 104

Where Did All

My Hair Go?
PA
AGE 22
 RS OF CH
G 15 YEA ANG
TIN I

NG
BRA

LIVE
CELE

• ES
TA B L I S H E D 2 0 0 5
• S

The Better Magnesium.

BETTER-ABSORBING, BETTER-TASTING, BEST LOVED.

You know by now how important magnesium is for

your family’s overall health and why it might be hard
to get your dietary requirements in your diet alone.
Backed by thousands of 5 star reviews on Amazon,
hundreds of shining testimonials and being the
number one supplement in the U.S. for years running,
Natural Calm is North America’s favourite way to
ensure healthy magnesium levels.

RISURâWVGRQDWHGWRKHOSHQGSRYHUW\

naturalcalm.ca /LQGD%ROWRQ
Founder & CEO
Natural Calm Canada
 reader’s digest

CONTENTS

Features 40
society
compound from the
marijuana plant can

30
cover story
Scammed
Even the most savvy
among us can fall for a
cure anxiety, chronic
pain, sleeplessness
and a thousand other
THE NEW BASICS OF con and lose hundreds ailments. I decided
HEALTHY EATING of dollars. I learned to give it a try.
Small changes to your this first-hand when BY LEAH RUMACK
FROM CHATELAINE
COURTESY OF ERIC AND ROSE McMILLAN

diet can make a big dif- an imposter’s plea

arrived in my inbox.
ference. Ten ways to
improve your health BY BRUCE GRIERSON 56
FROM THE WALRUS crime
and save the planet
The Watcher
while you’re at it.
BY REBECCA PHILPS
48 The Broaddus family
health couldn’t wait to move
CBD & Me into their new dream
Some experts believe house—until sinister
on the cover:
photo by liam mogan the non-intoxicating letters began arriving
in the mail.
BY REEVES WIEDEMAN
FROM NEW YORK

88 rd.ca 1
reader’s digest

66 72 80
health drama in real life life lesson
The Benefits of Bitten! When the Rainy
Being Nice Doctors raced to find Day Arrives
Acts of kindness can an antidote as the The COVID-19 pan-
boost our health, lower snake’s venom spread demic also poses a
our stress and help us through Shalabha Kalli- threat to retirement
live longer. ath’s body, attacking savings. Here’s how you
BY MARTA ZARASKA her organs and inching can bounce back.
FROM GROWING YOUNG
her closer to death. BY BRYAN BORZYKOWSKI
BY STACY LEE KONG

86
humour
Mom Needs IT
Help Again
I’ve become her always-
on-call tech assistant.
BY CRAIG BAINES

88
editors’ choice
Play Time
When it opened in
1972, there was nothing
quite like it. How one
Ontario playground
reinvented the way kids
everywhere have fun.
BY NICK HUNE-BROWN
FROM THE LOCAL

12
JAIME HOGGE
 104
Departments
4 Editor’s Letter Humour
10 Contributors 15
Life’s Like That
11 Letters
20 Points to Ponder 39
Laughter, the Best
47 World Wide Weird Medicine reader’s digest
book club
big idea 55 100 2020 Summer
12 In It Together Down to Business Reading List
How one Facebook 64 Looking for an
group inspired As Kids See It escape? These
thousands of newly released
79
Canadians to help Laugh Lines novels, memoirs
each other through and story collec-
the pandemic. tions will do
BY COURTNEY SHEA the trick.
13 things
ask an expert BY EMILY LANDAU
18 What You Should
16 Are Opioids Know About watch list
Ever Safe? Summer Heat 102 What Eight
We ask ER doctor BY ANNA-KAISA WALKER Canadians Are
Daniel Kalla. health Streaming During
BY COURTNEY SHEA
22 A Hairy Situation the Pandemic
Sudden bald curiosities
patches can have 104 You’re From
Where?
(KALLA) LAUREN TAMAKI; (VULCAN) KYLE METCALF

many causes,
but most can The incredible-
be treated. but-true origins of
BY VANESSA MILNE Canada’s strangest
24 News From the town names.
BY ROSIE LONG DECTER
World of Medicine
BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT 106 Brainteasers
27 What’s Wrong 108 Trivia
With Me? 109 Word Power
A medical mystery
111 Sudoku
16 resolved.
BY LISA BENDALL 112 Crossword

rd.ca 3
reader’s digest

EDITOR’S LETTER

Gone to Seed
Y
ou know it’s extraordinary times
when packets of vegetable seeds
are a hot commodity. But we’re
now all backyard farmers, even if your
plot, like mine, is no bigger than a
postage stamp. We trade tips over
World Wars. The impulse driving them
is bright and optimistic: together we
can overcome this crisis by reconnect-
ing with the earth.
As this issue’s cover story (page 30)
argues, the best way to combat stress

(PUPO) DANIEL EHRENWORTH; (SEEDS) MICHAEL NEELON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

fences on how to avoid overwatering and anxiety, and protect your overall
and what bugs are good (almost health, is a diet high in vegetables,
none!). We take solace in our personal fruit, nuts and seafood—and smaller
produce section. portions of meat. Follow its 10 steps,
A few theories explain this sud- and you’ll greatly reduce your risk of
den spread of green thumb-itis. most diseases. After all, the more
One is a need to take some control we care for ourselves and for each
over what, during this terrible other, the stronger we’ll be once
year, seems beyond our control— the world returns to normal.
namely, a reliable supply of
food. Theory number 2 is
that many people have time
on their hands and find it P.S. You can reach
therapeutic to work the soil. me at mark@rd.ca.
My favourite explanation is
we’ve revived the Victory
Garden—the community-
run farming efforts that
offset rations during the

4 july/august 2020
SPECIAL FEATURE

VO
2020
S
TE AN
D BY
CAN A DI

Today, Canadian consumers are overloaded

with competing product messages and
choices in-store and online. How do you
decide which product to buy over the
next? How do you push through the noise
and clutter to determine which brands will
provide you the best quality and price?
The Reader’s Digest Trusted BrandTM
study is the answer. Celebrating its 12th
year in 2020, the Canadian Reader’s Digest
Trusted BrandTM study looks at 31 product
and service categories. More than 4,000
votes were tallied to identify which brands
Canadians trust most. Curious to find out
what brands came out on top? Turn the
page to find out!
So, when you are shopping or researching
your next purchase, look for the Trusted
BrandTM seal. A symbol of trust. Voted by
Canadians.
 SPECIAL FEATURE

10+ YEARS CELEBRATING OUR 2020

Breakfast Cereal

Sun Care Product Life Insurance

Company

YEARS
5–9
Passenger Car
Manufacturer

Hybrid Car
Manufacturer

Home
Improvement
Retailer
Non-Dairy
Beverage

Interior Paint Pharmacy/Drug Store Arthritis Pain

Reliever

Bottled Tea Headache Pain

Water Reliever
 SPECIAL FEATURE

1–4 YEARS
Allergy
Reliever*

Home Insurance
Company

Health & Dental

Insurance Travel Insurance
Company* Company

Probiotic
Pads/Liners Supplement

Beauty Retailer
Lawn Care

Sensitive/Dry Breakfast Bar

Skin Lotion
Allergy Health & Dental
Reliever* Insurance
Company*

Exterior Paint
Sparkling
Incontinence Water Cold Symptom
Product Reliever

Exterior Stain Automobile Pet Food

Insurance Grill
Company
 SPECIAL FEATURE

WINNERS SPOTLIGHT

BEHR
Behr Paint Company is a leading manufacturer of interior and exterior paints
and exterior stains for DIYers and Pros. For over 70 years, its BEHR® and
KILZ® brands have shown an unwavering commitment to quality, innovation
and value. The BEHR® SIMPLE POUR All-Plastic Lid with Pour Spout is a
break-through packaging innovation that will change the way you interact
with paint on a daily basis: eliminates drips, fresher paint longer, and a more
sustainable 100% recyclable package.
Visit behr.ca to learn more.

ABOUT THE STUDY

For the past 12 years, Reader’s Digest
Canada has conducted an annual
Trusted Brand™ Study, which – in
2020 – polled Canadians about the
brands they trust the most across 31
product categories, such as consumer
packaged goods, financial institutions,
and Canadian retailers. Respondents
are asked to identify their most trusted
brand within each category in an
open-ended question format. To learn
more about the 2020 Trusted Brands™
study, visit rd.ca/trusted-brands
 P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T M A G A Z I N E S C A N A D A L I M I T E D, M O N T R E A L , C A N A D A

Christopher Dornan chairman of the board

James Anderson publisher
Barbara Robins vice president and legal counsel
Mark Pupo editor-in-chief
deputy editor Lauren McKeon art director John Montgomery
executive editor, associate art director Danielle Sayer
digital Brett Walther graphic designer Pierre Loranger
senior editors Megan Jones, content operations
Micah Toub manager Lisa Pigeon
assistant editor, circulation director Edward Birkett
digital Robert Liwanag
contributing editor Samantha Rideout contributors: Diane Baher, Craig Baines, Mathias Ball,
Lisa Bendall, Linda Besner, Bryan Borzykowski, Derek
proofreader Katie Moore Bowman, Natalie Castellino, Anson Chan, Marcos Chin,
senior researcher Lucy Uprichard Emily Chu, Rosie Long Decter, Daniel Ehrenworth, Taryn
researchers Nour Abi-Nakhoul, Ali Gee, Bruce Grierson, Clayton Hanmer, Jaime Hogge,
Amad, Martha Beach,Rosie Nicholas Hune-Brown, Susan Camilleri Konar, Emily
Long Decter, Beth Landau, Stacy Lee Kong, Jackie Lee, Kyle Metcalf, Vanessa
Milne, Liam Mogan, Paul Paquet, Rebecca Philps, Darren
Shillibeer, Suzannah
Rigby, Leah Rumack, Julie Saindon, Megan Sebesta,
Showler, Leslie Sponder Courtney Shea, Fraser Simpson, Lauren Tamaki, Conan
copy editors Chad Fraser, Amy de Vries, Anna-Kaisa Walker, Jeff Widderich, Reeves
Harkness, Richard Johnson Wiedeman, Victor Wong, Marta Zaraska

THE READER’S DIGEST ASSOCIATION (CANADA) ULC

Corinne Hazan financial director
Mirella Liberatore product manager, magazine marketing

national account executives Suzanne Farago (Montreal), 121 Bloor St. E.

Robert Shaw (Vancouver), Melissa Silverberg (Toronto)
Suite 430
marketing and research director Kelly Hobson
Toronto, ON
head of marketing solutions and new product development Melissa Williams
production manager Lisa Snow M4W 3M5

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS

Bonnie Kintzer president and chief executive officer
Raimo Moysa editor-in-chief, international magazines

VOL. 197, NO. 1,171 Copyright © 2020 by Reader’s Digest Magazines
Canada Limited. Reproduction in any manner in whole or in part in
English or other languages prohibited. All rights reserved throughout
the world. Protection secured under International and Pan-American
copyright conventions. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40070677.
Postage paid at Montreal. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to
5101 Buchan St., suite 300, Montreal, QC H4P 1S4.
Print subscriptions, $34.50 a year, plus $8.99 postage, processing and
handling. Please add applicable taxes. Outside Canada, $53.96 yearly,
including postage, processing and handling. (Prices and postage subject
to change without notice.) ISSN 0034-0413. Indexed by the Canadian
Periodical Index. Single issue: $4.95.
We acknowledge
with gratitude the
financial support of
the Government of Canada. / Nous remercions le
Gouvernement du Canada pour son appui financier.
Reader’s Digest publishes 10 issues per year and may
occasionally publish special issues (special issues
count as two)‚ subject to change without notice.

rd.ca 9
reader’s digest
CONTRIBUTORS
LIAM MOGAN
Photographer, Toronto
“The New Basics of
Healthy Eating”
Mogan used to specialize mostly in
fashion photography, until a chance
assignment took him to a Toronto
restaurant and he soon became the
“food guy.” His work has since been
published in Cottage Life and
Maclean’s, and he has won several
photography accolades, including
two National Magazine Awards. See
his photo on page 31.
LINDA BESNER
Writer, Toronto
“Word Power”
Besner is both an
accomplished poet and a journalist.
Poetry allows her to engage with lan-
guage, while journalism is where she
turns to engage with people and their
stories. Both her poetry and non-
fiction writing have been published
in The Atlantic, New York Times
Magazine and The Walrus, among
other places. Check out her latest
work on page 109.
10 july/august 2020
BRYAN BORZYKOWSKI
Writer, Winnipeg
“When the Rainy
Day Arrives”
A 10-time National Magazine Award
nominee, Borzykowski was named
the Financial Journalist of the Year
by the CFA Society of Toronto last
year. He currently writes a weekly
column for MoneySense, where he
breaks down complicated financial
issues readers want to better under-
stand. Pick up his tips on weathering
a financial crisis on page 80.
ANSON CHAN
Illustrator, Markham, Ont.
“The New Basics of
Healthy Eating”
Last summer, Chan was selected to
create a poster to promote an album
by the Canadian rapper Shad—as a
hip-hop fan, it was a dream opportu-
nity. His illustrations in this month’s
Reader’s Digest mark the first time
Chan’s work has been published in a
magazine—another dream opportu-
nity. Take a look at his editorial debut
on page 33.
 LETTERS

SAFE AT HOME
I just finished the April 2020 issue of
Reader’s Digest. As usual, it was packed
with a great variety of stories and funny REQUIRED READING
anecdotes. I found “The 2020 Home I was moved by “Written on the Body”
Safety Checklist” particularly timely (January/February 2020). What a beau-
and informative, given that we’re all in tiful letter to medical students! I hope
the midst of quarantine. I was shocked many health-care workers in training
to learn that there can be mites in bed- read this story and that it touches them
ding, and that candles and air freshen- deeply, too.
ers can worsen the air quality in our — LYNN McPHEE, Glace Bay, N.S.
homes. I’ll certainly be applying the
tips I’ve learned as I spend more time VERY PUZZLING
than usual at home. I’m a big fan of your Sudoku puzzles
In the March 2020 issue, I caught and normally finish each one before
another piece of writing that’s more the next issue arrives. One of the puz-
timely than you likely intended. This zles in June had me stumped, though.
joke: “Spring break is all about family The oddly shaped Sudokus are frus-
PUBLISHED LETTERS ARE EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY

togetherness… meaning we’re all shar- tratingly hard to do. I don’t mind them
ing the same disgusting virus.” How once in a while, but I much prefer the
chillingly prescient is that! usual fare.
— ANDY KLEMENSOWICZ, Courtice, Ont. — CATHY KETTLE

CONTRIBUTE
Send us your funny jokes and anecdotes, and if we publish one in a print FOR SERVICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Pay your bill, view your account
edition of Reader’s Digest, we’ll send you $50. To submit, visit rd.ca/joke. online, change your address and browse our FAQs at rd.ca/contact.

Original contributions (text and photos) become the property of The
Reader’s Digest Magazines Canada Limited, and its affiliates, upon
publication. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity, and
may be reproduced in all print and electronic media. Receipt of
your submission cannot be acknowledged.
CONTACT US
CUSTOMER SERVICE customer.service@readersdigest.ca
Reader’s Digest Customer Care Centre, P.O. Box 970 Station Main,
Markham, ON L3P 0K2
EDITORIAL OFFICE 121 Bloor St. E., Suite 430 | Toronto, ON M4W 3M5
editor@rd.ca, rd.ca
MAIL PREFERENCE Reader’s Digest maintains a record of your pur-
chase and sweepstakes participation history for Customer Service
and Marketing departments, which enables us to offer the best
service possible along with quality products we believe will inter-
est you. Occasionally, to allow our customers to be aware of other
products and services that may be of interest to them, we provide
this information to other companies. Should you wish, for any rea-
son, not to receive such offers from other companies, please write
to: Privacy Office, Reader’s Digest, 5101 Buchan St., suite 300,
Montreal, QC H4P 1S4. You may also write to this address if you no
longer wish to receive offers from Reader’s Digest or should you
have any questions regarding your record or wish to examine or
correct it.

rd.ca 11
reader’s digest

BIG IDEA

How one Facebook group inspired thousands of

Canadians to help each other through the pandemic

In It Together
BY Courtney Shea
photograph by jaime hogge

W
HEN THE COVID-19 pandemic
hit in March, 53-year-old
Toronto disability support
worker Mita Hans worried that her
elderly neighbour might have trouble.
Hans asked if she could help out. At
first, the neighbour was more annoyed
than appreciative, curtly telling Hans
to stop “scaremongering” her. “I’m not
trying to scare you; I care about you,”
Hans responded. A few days later, she
dropped off groceries and has done so
several times since. “She’s my biggest
fan now,” Hans says.
Hans knew her neighbour wasn’t
the only person who’d require an extra
hand in the coming weeks, as shelves
emptied and the entire country went
into lockdown. Along with her 46-year-
old friend Valentina Harper, who works
in e-commerce, Hans launched a Face-
book group called “CaremongersTO.”
They imagined the group would con-
nect a few dozen neighbours with oth-
ers who needed help.
Within two days, hundreds of vol-
unteers had signed up. Soon the group
numbered in the thousands, as spinoffs
launched in Hamilton and then Hali-
fax. By April, it had gone interna-
tional. As proof of their impact, the
term caremongering is now used to
describe thousands of mutual-aid-
style groups that have sprung up

12 july/august 2020
Co-founder
Mita Hans
sparked a
movement
to be kind.
reader’s digest
during the global pandemic. Both
Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama have
tweeted their praise.
While Hans jokes she didn’t set out
to invent a verb, she’s always been
invested in giving back to her commu-
nity. Raised Sikh, she and her siblings
performed regular sevas, or selfless
services. She now devotes most of her
hours away from her full-time job
working with disabled adults at Com-
munity Living Toronto to the caremon-
gering cause. She says the only way
she’s been able to do it all is thanks to
the group’s 23 volunteer moderators
and admins.
VOLUNTEERS SAY
HELPING OTHERS
THROUGH COVID-19
BOOSTED THEIR OWN
WELL-BEING.
The movement has helped thousands
left vulnerable as a result of COVID-19.
To ask for help, a person simply posts
a request with the hashtag “ISO” (in
search of ) on their community’s care-
mongering page. People have asked
for everything from groceries and
masks to help filling out government
funding forms. Volunteers will then
meet requests in the comments or
post messages that they have goods
and services to share.
14 july/august 2020
Most #ISO posts are answered
within hours, and many volunteers say
helping others during the pandemic
has boosted their own well-being.
Toronto’s Abigail Millar is one of them.
She saw an #ISO post for protective
gear in late March from a health care
worker and got to work transforming a
bed sheet into masks. She has since
made more than 3,000. Being a care-
monger, says Millar, has helped her
through the hard time: “Having a sense
of purpose has been really great. I get
up, I have my tea, and I get sewing.”
Hans says this reciprocal positivity
is an essential part of caremongering’s
model. So too is amplifying marginalized
voices. Her advisory team includes four
Indigenous people and members of the
University of Toronto’s Black Medical
Students Association. And while she has
no plans to turn caremongering into a
full-time job, she sees endless potential
in expanding the mutual aid frame-
work. “What’s happening right now,”
she says, “is sparking all sorts of conver-
sations about how our world operates,
who benefits from our economic struc-
ture and what we mean by essential.”
She hopes that the basic principle
underlying caremongering—giving
according to ability and taking accord-
ing to need—will outlive the pandemic.
She says the caremongering model will
come in handy as we face the next
major crisis. “We’ve got climate change
coming,” she notes. “What we’re expe-
riencing now is just a test run.”

LIFE’S LIKE THAT
All That Jazz
— Financial Times, SHARED ON TWITTER BY @DBROGAN
I asked my grandpa why A Fishy Tale
he wrote his cellphone When we immigrated
number on the back of to Canada in 1966, one
the phone. “So if it gets of the first things we
lost, someone can call wanted to do was visit
that number and find Niagara Falls, and we
me,” he said. especially wanted to
— SARAH CROWTHER- see the aquarium on
MUHUSEEN, Spruce the U.S. side of the bor-
Grove, Alta. der. While preparing for
the trip, our friends
Just did my own taxes. warned us that at the
So should be in jail border we would be
by Friday. asked, “Where are you
— @YELLOWBONEMAMA going?” I practised my
answer: “Aquarium.”
It’s been six months The day arrived, and
since I joined the gym, while we were in the
and no progress. I’m checkpoint queue, I
going there in person kept repeating, “Aquar-
tomorrow to see what’s ium, aquarium.” Finally,
really going on. we got to the front and
— @_CAKEBAWSE the guard asked me,
“Where were you
born?” “Aquarium!”
I told him.
— DOUGLAS PETERS,
North York, Ont.
Growing up in the ’70s
as the youngest of 11
children, I used to beg
my dad to get a TV with
a remote control. He
would reply: “Why do
you think we had kids
in the first place?”
— PAUL LAROCQUE,
Tecumseh, Ont.
My local Costco is out of
Eggo waffles. A man and
a woman reached for
the last box at the same
time. Though he was
there first, by about two
seconds, the woman
insisted they should go
to her and her children.
I kid you not, the man,
who had his two teens
with him, replied,
“Ma’am, leggo my Eggo.”
— @EMILY_R_KING
Send us your original
jokes! You could earn $50
and be featured in the
magazine. See page 11
or rd.ca/joke for details.
rd.ca 15
reader’s digest

ASK AN EXPERT

Are Opioids
Ever Safe?
We ask ER doctor
Daniel Kalla

BY Courtney Shea
illustration by lauren tamaki

We hear so much about opioid mis-

use and abuse, but is there a safe way
to use these drugs?
Absolutely. We give fentanyl to people
in the hospital for things like draining an
abscess or if they’ve had their gallblad-
der out and need to get through the
operative pain. It’s safe when controlled.
The problem is that doctors were pre-
scribing opioids too liberally as a way to
manage long-term pain. After a while,
there was no pain—just addiction.
Then, when people are no longer able
to get what they need legally, or they
aren’t getting the same high and
require something stronger, they tran-
sition to street drugs.
When did opioid abuse in Canada go
from a problem to a crisis?
About six years ago, we started to see
the overdose levels spike. At St. Paul’s
Hospital in Vancouver, arguably the
epicentre of the opioid crisis in this
country, I went from seeing three to
four overdoses a day to 10 to 20.
The game changer was fentanyl,
which is 50 to 100 times stronger than
morphine, and the street versions can

16 july/august 2020
be 100 times more potent than that.
In the ER, we’ve provided primary
care to “familiar faces”—long-term
opioid users—who would come in on
a semi-regular basis. But when fentanyl
arrived, a lot of them disappeared.
You also write novels on the side. How
does that fit with your day job?
Writing is a release for me, a way to vent
some frustrations with my work. My
latest—The Last High—is about the opi-
oid crisis, and I’ve had a front row seat
to this tragedy for 20 years. It’s hit me
hard both personally and profession-
ally, so I was very inspired to tackle it.
A lot of people think, “Opioid abuse
could never happen to me.” Is that
part of the problem?
Absolutely. People have their own
vision of what someone addicted to
opioids looks like, and it’s not usually
them or the people in their family. This
is dangerous because it diminishes
empathy and can lead to a sense of
imperviousness that could make you
more susceptible.
Is this addressed in your book?
Yes, it’s one of the reasons I chose an
emergency doctor who specializes in
toxicology as the protagonist. Her back-
story is that she and her partner used
hospital-based fentanyl—and he died
in her arms.
Although there are risk factors that
can make people more susceptible to
opioid abuse—genetics, poverty, men-
tal health issues—it’s important to
understand that nobody is immune.
Outside of your experience in the ER,
what other research did you do for
your book?
A friend of mine, who is an undercover
cop, gave me a crash course in the
underground world that fuels the opi-
oid crisis. He described the cavalier
attitude among dealers and criminal
organizations. Because they have no
regard for life, supply is not something
we’re ever going to be able to fix.
IT’S IMPORTANT
TO UNDERSTAND
THAT NOBODY
IS IMMUNE TO
OPIOID ABUSE.
What can we do? Do you support
harm reduction strategies?
One hundred percent. We can’t treat
a medical condition with a criminal
solution. Very few people who abuse
opioids would choose to be in the posi-
tion they’re in. We need to focus on
decreasing demand by managing the
people living with addiction, including
legal access to the drugs they need
and government-subsidized access to
detox and rehab. None of that involves
the police.
rd.ca 17
reader’s digest

1 Canadian scientists
forecast that climate
change will mean lon-

13 THINGS
ger, hotter summer
heat waves (defined as
three or more days with
temps above 30 degrees

What You Should Celsius). By 2051, major

Canadian cities such

Know About as Ottawa could experi-

ence heat waves of

Summer Heat 17 days or more.

BY Anna-Kaisa Walker
2 “One of the most
important ways to
prevent heat-related ill-
illustration by clayton hanmer
nesses is to drink plenty
of fluids,” says Ian Fitz-
patrick, Prevention and
Safety, Canadian Red
Cross. Aim for eight
250 mL glasses of fluid
a day.

3 You can trick your-

self into drinking
more water. You can
easily add at least three
cups a day by drinking
a glass of water before
your morning coffee,
right before lunch, and
another as you’re get-
ting ready for bed.

4 Spicy food will help

you beat the heat.
Capsaicin, a compound

18 july/august 2020
in chilies that gives and loose-fitting light alone, take certain
them kick, triggers a clothing that allows medications or have
response in your nerv- sweat to escape. cardiorenal disease.
ous system that makes
your face sweat and
cools you down. 8 Never leave your
child or pet in a
parked car, even for just
11 Early symptoms of
heat-related illness
in elderly people don’t

5 Sleep better by tak-

ing a warm bath an
hour or two before bed.
a few minutes—deaths
have been recorded
with outside tempera-
always include thirst.
Check in with those who
may be isolated; head-
The warmth of the tures as low as 21 ache, confusion, dizzi-
water sends blood to degrees Celsius. ness or nausea may be
your extremities, allow- signs they need imme-
ing body heat to dissi-
pate more quickly. 9 Cracking a window
won’t help. “Vehi-
diate medical attention.

Your core temperature

will gradually decline,
cueing the start of your
cles are an enclosed
space with a metal
outer shell,” Fitzpatrick
12 Planning an espe-
cially long bike
ride? Ease into it. Prior
body’s sleep cycle. says. “They heat up very to a major event in the
fast and have little, if heat, let your body

6 Save energy and

cool your house by
setting your air condi-
any, air movement
when the windows are
closed.” Even with the
gradually acclimatize.
Expose yourself to one
to two hours of heat
tioner as close to the windows ajar, the inside exertion a day for at
outside temperature as temperature can least eight days.
you can comfortably quickly increase to
stand, supplementing
with ceiling fans if
dangerous levels.
13 Although a frosty
margarita might
needed. Keep windows
shaded during the day,
and turn off sneaky
10 Age can make you
more vulnerable
to heat stress. “Babies,
seem like just the ticket,
alcohol is a diuretic,
meaning it dehydrates
heat-producing devices children and the elderly you. For every unit of
like incandescent are less able to sweat alcohol you consume (a
bulbs, PCs and laptops. and adjust to changes shot of liquor, half a pint
in temperature,” Fitz- of beer or half a glass of

7 Dress for success.

When under the
sun, wear a light hat
patrick says. The risk
becomes even greater
for seniors who live
wine), you urinate
80 mL extra on top of
your normal output.

rd.ca 19
reader’s digest

POINTS TO PONDER

I’m sure the little girl
in me who wanted
an invisible jet and
lasso is pleased.
–Author Mariko Tamaki,
ON WRITING A WONDER
WOMAN COMIC BOOK
PHOTOS: (TAMAKI) MARIKOTAMAKI.COM; (BIEBER) IMAGE PRESS AGENCY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; (ALIU) HC LITVÍNOV; (O’HARA) DFREE/SHUTTERSTOCK.
I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED
AIRSTREAMS. I LOVE THE
VINTAGE LOOK. I LOVE
THE SILVER ALUMINUM. I
LOVE THE SHAPE OF THEM.
–Under the Influence host
Terry O’Reilly, ON WHERE
HE RECORDS HIS SHOW

I’M WASHING MY HANDS, BUT I STOPPED

SHOWERING, AND THERE’S NOTHING I,
YOU OR THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO ABOUT IT.
–Comedian Nour Hadidi

YOU CAN’T SIT AND Indigenous peoples know what

WALLOW. YOU CAN GRIEVE, it is to face the end of the world.
BUT YOU HAVE TO REPLACE Our stories give us guidance,
THAT PAIN WITH THE LOVE and also speak to a life beyond
THAT YOU REMEMBER. the despair of the now.
–Tragically Hip bassist Gord Sinclair, –Daniel Heath Justice, AUTHOR OF
ON THE DEATH OF HIS FRIEND GORD DOWNIE WHY INDIGENOUS LITERATURES MATTER

I think it’s up to Hailey,

because it’s her body.
–Justin Bieber, ON HOW MANY KIDS HE AND HIS WIFE WANT,
ON THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW

20 july/august 2020
 I always tell everyone it’s a
beautiful game, it’s the best game
in the world, but I feel like it could
change a little bit for the better.
–Former NHLer Akim Aliu, ON RACISM,
TO RON MacLEAN ON HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

I’VE OFTEN HEARD CONRAD BLACK DOESN’T

PEOPLE SAYING PAY DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR
THEY’RE HUMBLED ON HIS HIGHEST LEVEL OF
WHEN RECEIVING INCOME. WHY WOULD WE
AN AWARD, BUT I’M ASK OUR LOWEST INCOME
NOT SO SURE THAT’S CANADIANS TO BE PAYING
TRUE. MY HEAD TAX AT THAT LEVEL?
IS GETTING BIGGER –Former Conservative senator
AS I SPEAK. Hugh Segal, ON CANADA’S WELFARE SYSTEM

–Catherine O’Hara, ON RECEIVING A

GOVERNOR GENERAL’S PERFORMING ARTS
LIFETIME ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
If you’re grateful for what you
have and you focus on the
positives, it has tremendous
benefits for heart health, mental
health and reducing stress.
–Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin

You almost forget that what the

audience looks for is a really
genuine performance; they want
to see who you are onstage.
–Ballerina Jillian Vanstone

rd.ca 21
reader’s digest

HEALTH

A Hairy
Situation
Sudden bald patches can
have many causes, but
most can be treated

BY Vanessa Milne

H
AIR LOSS IS often begrudgingly
accepted as a natural part of
life. After all, most people,
women included, will lose some or all
growth cycle of healthy hair. Usually,
most of your hair is in a growing phase,
during which strands lengthen by
about 1.25 centimetres a month. This
ISTOCK.COM/ALEXANDRBOGNAT

of their hair as they get older. But when
hair loss happens suddenly—handfuls
coming out in the shower or while
brushing—it can be truly distressing.
It can also be a signal of a health issue
that needs to be addressed.
To understand why unexpected hair
loss happens, it’s useful to know the
part of the cycle carries on for between
two and eight years.
After that, there’s a middle phase,
lasting about three weeks, during which
the hair isn’t getting longer but also
isn’t falling out. Finally, strands enter a
resting phase, where the hair is loos-
ened but sits in its follicle. Then, when

22 july/august 2020
the follicle begins to grow a new hair, the
old one drops out.
Due to this cyclical process, we all
lose up to 100 strands of hair each day.
“At any one time, about 10 per cent of
our hair is in the falling out phase,”
explains Jennifer Jones, a dermatolo-
gist who practices in London, England,
and is an advisor to the British Associ-
ation of Dermatologists.
When that balance is disrupted, a
person can have too much hair in the
resting phase—and a few months later,
he or she might find that a large amount
comes out all at once.
One of the main triggers for this
disturbance is hormonal changes in
the body. Estrogen keeps hair in the
growth phase, while androgens
shorten the growth cycle. For this rea-
son, giving birth and thyroid issues—
both of which shift the balance more
toward androgens—can cause hair
loss. “Stress is also a massive trigger,”
says Jones. “So life events like divorce,
bereavement or even moving house
have this effect.”
Another common culprit is auto-
immune conditions, most notably alo-
pecia. This condition, which affects
two per cent of people worldwide, runs
in families and can be activated by a
stressful event. In some cases, alopecia
is subtle; other times, sufferers lose all
their hair—including their body hair,
eyebrows and eyelashes. Patches of
alopecia tend to grow back, while full-
body loss is usually permanent.
Scarring from other autoimmune
conditions—including eczema, psori-
asis and lichen planopilaris—can lead
to patches of hair loss. Similarly, ring-
worm, a fungal infection, can affect the
part of the head that it appears on.
Some people on prescription drugs
also experience a disruption of their
growth cycle. For instance, hair loss is
a known side effect of some blood
pressure medications, statins and hor-
mone replacement therapy, among
others. “If you notice hair loss, dis-
cuss it with your doctor,” says Jones.
“We can often switch medications.”
ABOUT
90%
OF WOMEN EXPERIENCE
SOME HAIR LOSS AFTER
GIVING BIRTH.
Treatment depends on the under-
lying cause. To discover that, a doctor
might order blood tests, perform a
small skin biopsy or examine the hairs
under a microscope. If the loss is hor-
mone- or stress-related, it is usually
temporary, and resolves within a few
months without any intervention.
For cosmetic solutions, topical ster-
oids can help thicken hair, and hair
transplants are another option. Some
people, of course, simply embrace
their baldness.
rd.ca 23
reader’s digest

Osteoarthritis:
News from the There’s an App
WORLD OF for That

MEDICINE The first-line treatments

for osteoarthritis
(OA) include tailored
BY Samantha Rideout exercise, which can
strengthen the muscles
around the affected
joint, enhance its func-
tioning and reduce
pain. However, frequent
visits with a physiother-
apist can be inconven-
ient for OA patients.
A Swedish trial investi-
gated whether the same
kind of guidance could
be provided online.
After six months of
using an app called
MEET YOU AT THE Joint Academy, OA suf-
MEMORY CAFÉ ferers improved their
mobility and cut their
When a person shows symptoms of dementia in pain almost in half, on
public, others around them may not know how to average. “The app’s
react. As a result, many people living with dementia program is delivered in
withdraw from society, along with their caregivers. a structured way on a
To help them feel less isolated and stigmatized, daily basis, supported
ISTOCK.COM/ VISIT ROEMVANITCH

hundreds of memory cafés have opened up around by a physiotherapist,”

the world—non-judgmental places where families explains researcher
affected by dementia can meet. Each memory café Håkan Nero of Lund
is a bit different, but they typically offer games, University. The app’s
music, snacks and opportunities to share stories. US$89 per month cost
Their main goals are to provide enjoyment and is sometimes covered
boost social support—for both the person with by public and private
dementia and the caregivers who share their lives. health insurance.

24 july/august 2020
 Erratic Sleep-Wake Who Should
Patterns Raise Get Tested for
Heart Disease Risk Hepatitis C?

Having established that Hepatitis C is a liver

the amount of sleep you infection that often goes
get makes a difference undetected for years,
to your health, scientists until serious complica-
are now looking at the tions such as liver
effects of sleep timing. scarring arise. The U.S.
In a study of Americans Preventive Services
over age 45, the partici- Healthier Mouth, Task Force recently
pants without a usual Healthier Body recommended hep-C
bedtime and wake time screening for everyone
were nearly twice as In a recent study of over aged 18 to 79, given that
likely to develop cardio- 185,000 Koreans, tooth medication now exists
vascular disease, com- brushing at least three to offer a safe and quick
(PERSON SLEEPING) ISTOCK.COM/MACTRUNK; (TOOTHBRUSH) ISTOCK.COM/GAWRILOFF

pared to people who times per day was asso- cure. The Canadian
more or less stuck to a ciated with a lower risk Association for the
schedule, even on of developing diabetes. Study of the Liver sug-
weekends. An irregular This could be more than gests a one-time test for
sleep pattern remained a coincidence, since people born between
a significant risk factor gum disease involves 1946 and 1975. Mean-
even after the research- long-term inflamma- while, the European
ers accounted for other tion, which is known to Centre for Disease Pre-
influences, such as the increase insulin resist- vention and Control is
average number of ance. Previous studies focused on the highest-
hours slept. Harmful have connected poor risk groups, such as
disturbances to the dental health to other people who received
body’s circadian rhythm inflammation-related blood transfusions,
may help to explain this problems, including organs or underwent
apparent link. heart attack and stroke. surgery before hep-C
Besides brushing and safety regulations were
flossing every day, you enforced in their coun-
can also reduce your tries. Regardless of
risk of serious diseases where you live, you can
by visiting the dentist request testing if you
as regularly as you can. think you’re at risk.

rd.ca 25
reader’s digest

Lessons in Happiness Cannabis Might

Interact With
There are plenty of classes claiming they can make Your Meds
you happier, but few are backed up by the gold
standard of evidence: a randomized controlled Cannabis use is on the
trial. Investigators from the London School of Eco- rise among seniors,
nomics conducted such a study for an eight-week the majority of whom
curriculum called Exploring What Matters, devel- are also on prescrip-
oped by the international charity Action for Happi- tions. (In 2019, seven
ness. The course’s themes, which are rooted in per cent of Canadians
positive psychology studies, include how to foster over 65 reported recent
good relationships, cope with adversity, make the cannabis use, compared
workplace happier and build caring communities. to less than one per cent
The trial looked at 146 people who’d registered in 2012.) “If you take
for the course. For the participants who completed cannabis—or are con-
it, self-rated life satisfaction rose from an average sidering taking it—have
of 6.4 out of 10 before the course to 7.4 afterwards. a conversation with your
This one-point increase is bigger than what happi- pharmacist or doctor
ness researchers usually measure when an unem- about the risk of interac-
ployed person finds a job or a single person enters tions,” advises Tony
a new relationship. The course participants also Antoniou, co-author
reduced their anxiety and depression, going from of a Canadian Medical
mild to minimal symp- Association Journal
toms, on average. report. It warns that can-
The course is run by nabis could affect how
volunteers, and anyone you metabolize some
can sign up on Action drugs, making them too
for Happiness’s website strong or too weak. For
to learn how to offer it instance, it might dan-
in their own cities. Par- gerously increase the
ticipants pay by donat- effects of warfarin (a
ing what they can blood thinner). And
ISTOCK.COM/GLOBALSTOCK

afford, making it finan- certain drugs, such as

cially accessible to all. ketoconazole (used for
So far, over 6,000 peo- fungal infections),
ple in 250 locations could make cannabis’s
around the world have effects more potent
tried it out. than intended.

26 july/august 2020
 HEALTH
WHAT’S WRONG
WITH ME?
BY Lisa Bendall
illustration by victor wong
THE PATIENT: Davi*,
a five-month-old boy
THE SYMPTOMS: Wheezing, swelling
and a widespread skin rash
THE DOCTOR: Dr. Edna Lucia Souza,
pediatrician at Hospitalar Universitário
Professor Edgard Santos, Salvador, Brazil
D
AVI WAS THE picture of health
when he was born in the sum-
mer of 2010 near the city of Sal-
vador, Brazil. He was a chubby, full-
term baby and breastfed easily, to the
delight of his young first-time parents,
Carla and Andre. But when Davi was
just four months old, a red, blotchy
rash began to spread across his chest.
*IDENTIFYING DETAILS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.
Andre earned a meagre wage work-
ing on a fruit farm, and Carla was
unemployed. Like many low-income
Brazilians, the family didn’t have a phy-
sician or pediatrician. Instead, over the
next month they visited a series of
clinics. Each time, a new diagnosis was
offered, along with a treatment. Davi’s
parents were told their son might be
experiencing eczema, an allergic reac-
tion to something in the environment
or scabies from skin mites. Following
the doctors’ instructions, Carla and
Andre diligently applied antifungal
cream, antibiotic ointment and then
a corticosteroid to Davi’s chest. But
none of it helped.
In fact, the rash began to spread,
with widening areas of scarlet, and
rd.ca 27
reader’s digest
angry bumps that would peel and turn
raw. Davi was in pain and became
increasingly fussy.
As the rash took over most of his
body, Davi displayed more symptoms.
He began coughing and wheezing.
Desperate, his parents consulted yet
another doctor; this one suggested Davi
had a bacterial infection and gave him
an oral antibiotic. Carla and Andre anx-
iously waited for their baby to improve.
Instead, his legs began to swell.
DAVI’S RASH BECAME
SEVERE AND PAINFUL,
COVERING HIS ENTIRE
BODY. THE BABY WAS
INCONSOLABLE.
With matters steadily worsening,
Davi’s distressed parents were begin-
ning to think they would never figure
out what was wrong with their son,
now five months old. But Carla spoke
to a second cousin who suggested they
try the Salvador teaching hospital
where her own son, who lived with a
chronic illness, received care.
At the Hospitalar Universitário Pro-
fessor Edgard Santos, the family met
Dr. Edna Lucia Souza, who immedi-
ately started running tests. “The par-
ents were very worried and sad,” she
recalls. “They didn’t have a hope that
we could help them.”
28 july/august 2020
The rash was so severe now that it
covered Davi’s face, limbs, stomach and
back, even his buttocks. New lesions
opened up while others scabbed over.
Each swollen thigh looked almost as
wide as Davi’s waist. The uncomfort-
able baby was inconsolable.
At first, to Souza, this looked like a
severe reaction to the oral antibiotic
he’d recently finished: his blood tests
even showed low levels of the protein
albumin, which can be caused by a
drug reaction.
Davi, however, had fat droplets in
his stools. That was a possible sign of
malabsorption, in which nutrients
aren’t properly taken into the body.
The swelling—called edema—can also
be an indicator of poor nutrition. In
fact, so can low albumin. Was Davi
undernourished? He wasn’t particu-
larly small or underweight, but the
edema could mask any weight loss.
There are a few conditions, Souza
says, that her team considers when
infants appear to have inadequate
nutrition. One is cystic fibrosis (CF),
a genetic lung disease. It restricts the
normal movement of salt compounds
and water in the body and can cause
thick mucus to build up in the lungs,
causing infections. Often, the pancreas
doesn’t produce sufficient enzymes for
digestion. Respiratory symptoms can
burn up calories. But a widespread skin
rash is not a typical CF symptom.
Nevertheless, Davi had been in hos-
pital for seven days with no diagnosis,
and his coughing and wheezing gave
Souza pause. Cystic fibrosis is genetic,
and it just happened to be the disease
that Davi’s distant cousin was being
treated for. “He wasn’t a close relative,”
says Souza. “But it helped us to think
it could be CF.”
DAVI’S DISTANT
COUSIN HAD CYSTIC
FIBROSIS, WHICH IS
GENETIC. HIS DOCTOR
RAN A TEST.
In many countries, babies are tested
for CF at birth. But Davi, born three
years before his Brazilian state brought
in screening, hadn’t been. Cystic fibro-
sis causes higher levels of salt chem-
icals in sweat, so Souza ran a test in
which the sweat glands are stimulated
by a mild electrical current, and sweat
is collected in a tube and analyzed.
The test turned out to be positive.
Like his distant cousin—and about
70,000 other people around the
world—Davi had cystic fibrosis. In
fact, bacterial cultures of his lungs
showed three active infections.
The diagnosis explained his respira-
tory symptoms and nutrition status,
but what had caused the severe rash?
Only 30 or so cases like this in patients
with CF have been reported world-
wide. Souza suspects the skin changes
may have been connected to the
nutritional deficiencies.
Davi stayed in hospital for another
five weeks. He was given vitamins,
enzymes and a drug to clear his air-
ways. “When he was discharged, he
was very well, and since then, he hasn’t
had any hospitalization,” says Souza.
When Davi’s younger sister was born
with CF a couple of years later, she was
able to start treatment at an even ear-
lier age, thanks to prompt testing.
Today, Souza still sees Davi and his
sister. “We have a close relationship
with the mom and dad,” she says. “I
think that they feel very safe. They
know that we are trying to do the best
for their children.”

Funny Runners
Jogging is very beneficial. It’s good for your legs and your feet.
It’s also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed.
CHARLES M. SCHULZ

My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life.

I think he was right. I feel10 years older already.
MILTON BERLE

rd.ca 29
 COVER STORY

THE NEW

Small changes to your diet can make a big

difference. Ten ways to improve your health
and save the planet while you’re at it.
BY Rebecca Philps
photograph by liam mogan
illustrations by anson chan

30 july/august 2020
reader’s digest
 1. The Mediterranean diet
will help you live forever
Think of the Med diet as your healthy-
planet-healthy-me creed. It won’t make
you count calories or restrict meals. You
also don’t have to ban meat and dairy
from your plate. Eat like they do in
southern Italy and France, Greece and
Spain: lots of vegetables, fruits, herbs,
nuts, beans, olive oil and
whole grains with moder-
ate amounts of dairy, poul-
More
try, seafood and eggs. Half veggies
your plate should be filled every day
with a variety of veg and
fruit, a quarter with whole
equals
grains (whole wheat bread, fewer
whole wheat pasta, brown
rice) and a quarter with
ailments.
healthy proteins like beans, nuts, fish
or poultry. Red meat is an occasional
indulgence—once or twice per month.
Sweet treats should be limited, too (you
had to know that was coming). Light
daily exercise, like walking, and eating
together socially are also key to reap-
ing the benefits of this approach.
The Med diet is effective in reducing
the risk of overall mortality as well as
cardiovascular diseases: a study of
32 july/august 2020
nearly 26,000 women found that those
who followed the Med diet had 25 per
cent lower risk of developing heart dis-
ease and high blood pressure over the
course of 12 years. It’s even prescribed
by doctors as a cost-effective interven-
tion for high blood pressure, diabetes
and obesity, and to decrease the risk of
developing depression and dementia.
One long-term analysis of the eating
habits of 10,000 middle-
aged U.S. adults who were
monitored between 1987
and 2016 showed dramatic
results. None of the partic-
ipants had cardiovascular
disease at the start of the
(FISH) ISTOCK.COM/ VIKIF; (FOOD) ISTOCK.COM/RUDIGOBBO
study. The researchers then
categorized the partici-
pants’ eating patterns by
the proportion of plant-based foods
they ate, as espoused by Med-style diets,
versus animal-based foods.
People who ate the most plant-based
foods overall had a 32 per cent lower
risk of dying from a cardiovascular dis-
ease and a 25 per cent lower risk of
dying from any medical cause com-
pared to those who ate the least amount
of plant-based foods. In other words,
the benefits are real.
 2. Cut back on meat and
still max out on protein
Yes, you’ll absolutely get enough pro-
tein if you cut back on meat—and you
really don’t need that much (an adult
weighing 70 kilograms needs about
56 grams per day, or 0.8 grams per kilo
of body weight). “Many
of us still falsely associ-
ate animal food as the
only source of protein,
when there are so many
plant foods that contain
enough protein to sus-
tain ourselves on,” says
Desiree Nielsen, regis-
tered dietitian and author of the best-
selling Eat More Plants cookbook.
Whole grains have a lot more protein
than you might think, along with many
other vital nutrients. Protein is found
in peas, beans and lentils, nuts and
seeds and their butters, soy products,
plus the usual suspects: meats, fish,
poultry, eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt.
Fruit and veg also add small amounts
of protein to your diet, and even more
importantly, eating protein from a wide
variety of food sources will help you
meet your needs for nutrients like
iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and calcium.
But plant-based sources
aren’t as concentrated
in protein, so a sprinkle
of chickpeas won’t cut
it—you need to eat three-
quarters of a cup in order
to get 11 grams of pro-
tein. “The biggest mis-
take I see people mak-
ing is they remove the meat from their
plate and don’t replace it with a plant
that offers a similar amount of pro-
tein, plus some healthy fat,” says Niel-
sen. “Then they’re hungry and filling
up on starchy convenience foods and
not feeling their best.”

3. The humble bean is a miracle food

(BEANS) ISTOCK.COM/PICTUREPARTNERS

Why are dietitians so gaga for lentils and beans? They’re high in
protein and fibre and low in fat; plus, they’re inexpensive to buy
and easy to prepare. And they’re a great source of iron, which is
important for vegetarians. Think beyond beans on toast and look
to Indian, Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisines for hundreds of
rich and flavourful ways to prepare them.
Legumes are also climate-smart because they can adapt to rough
weather, restore degraded soil by converting nitrogen in the air
into fertilizer for soil, and even make cattle feed more digestible
(meaning the cows burp less methane).

rd.ca 33
reader’s digest
4. Bugs are
coming to dinner
Guess what else is high in protein,
low cost and eco-friendly? Bugs.
They’re nutritional powerhouses:
rich in essential amino acids,
omega-3 fats, iron and calcium.
Approximately two billion peo-
ple, more than one-quarter of the
world’s population, eat them as
part of their standard diet. Round
these parts, they remain a tough
sell. That hasn’t prevented Cana-
dian entrepreneurs dedicated to
entomophagy—the human con-
sumption of bugs—from experi-
menting with snacks and flours
made from dehydrated insects.
Even President’s Choice carries a
powder of Canadian-farmed crick-
ets that adds a blast of protein
and B12 to smoothies, sauces,
chili, curries and baking batters.
Bugs are entering our food
chain, even if you aren’t keen on
crunchy mealworms as a salad
topper. Two Canadian companies
are already breeding insects in
vertical farms (factories where
food is grown in stacks) as feed for
chickens and fish. Creepy-crawlers
may just be the way forward.
34 july/august 2020
5. Fill your plate with
these 10 trendy superfoods
Nutritionists and dietitians generally
recognize superfoods as anything with
high levels of nutrients, particularly
vitamins and minerals, and antioxi-
dants, which help prevent disease and
shield our bodies from cell damage.
“Just remember,” cautions Nielsen, “no
one food is going to be the key to over-
all health. To reap the benefits, you
need to eat a variety of whole plant
foods every day.”
Studies show that curcumin—the
active antioxidant in turmeric—may
help protect heart, immune and met-
abolic health. Combine it with black
pepper, which increases the body’s abil-
ity to absorb curcumin by 2,000 per
cent, and a simple veg curry goes super-
nova. Or blend a quarter teaspoon of
(CURCUMIN) ISTOCK.COM/KAANATES
ground turmeric with some cinnamon
and ginger into warm milk and espresso
for a healthful latte.
All berries are good for you, but fresh
raspberries have twice as much fibre
as blueberries, and the frozen ones
contain three times the vitamin C of
frozen blueberries (no disrespect to the
antioxidant-rich blues). Blackberries
 get their colour from anthocyanins,
and there’s promising research that
this phytonutrient may help delay age-
related cognitive decline.
(HEMP HEARTS) ISTOCK.COM/LINDA HALL; (SESAME SEEDS) ISTOCK.COM/CHICTYPE; (KELP) ISTOCK.COM/HAWK111
Sprinkle hemp hearts into a smoothie
or onto a salad: the plant-based pro-
tein contains all nine essential amino
acids, omega-3 essential fatty acids,
plus calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium,
potassium, and vitamins A, C and E, as
well as B vitamins. Plus, they’re grown
in Canada, so you’ll support a local farm
economy. Boom.
Not only are prunes packed full of
fibre (hello, GI health), but eating 100
grams per day has been shown to help
prevent bone loss. You can also purée
them for a healthier sugar substitute in
baked goods.
Sesame seeds are a great source of
polyunsaturated and monounsaturated
fats (the good ones that provide essen-
tial fatty acids and deliver fat-soluble
vitamins), fibre, protein, calcium, iron
and magnesium. Blend them with olive
oil, chickpeas and lemon juice for
homemade hummus.
The amino acids found in pea pro-
tein support muscle repair, which is
what makes it so popular with vegan
athletes. Mix it in smoothies, puréed
soups or pesto. Initial studies show pea
protein may help reduce blood pres-
sure and lower cholesterol and tri-
glyceride levels. Plus, it’s eco-friendly:
peas grow in concert with bacteria in
the soil to take nitrogen from the air
and convert it into a natural fertilizer.
All seaweeds are mineral-rich and
climate friendly, but kelp in particular
is a nutritionally dense superhero: it’s
loaded with potassium, iron, calcium,
fibre, iodine and a bevy of vitamins.
Use it in pasta sauce, stir-fries, or to liven
up a sheet pan of roast vegetables.
Dietitians agree that consuming food
that’s rich in different types of fibre
helps maintain the balance of good
bacteria in your intestines, as do fer-
mented foods like kimchee and miso,
which contain naturally occurring pro-
biotics that feed that good bacteria.
Add kimchee to a grilled cheese sand-
wich for a tangy, slightly spicy twist
on the classic.
rd.ca 35
reader’s digest

6. Pick the right

milk substitute
There are now about a gazillion milk
substitutes at the grocery store and
local coffee shop, which is good news
for anyone going dairy-free. But milk
replacements aren’t always good for
your health. “Some of these plant-based
beverages have no nutritional value
and are packed with sugar,” warns
Nielsen. “Make sure the alt-milk you
choose has been fortified with calcium
and matches the amount found in a
cup of cow’s milk: 30 to 35 per cent of
your daily needs. Opt for unsweetened.
Flavoured or even ‘original’ flavoured flax are good locally produced alterna-
plant-based milks can contain twice tives. Hazelnut is especially virtuous in
the sugar of a cup of cow’s milk.” And terms of sustainability. The nuts grow
know that of all the alt-milks, soy milk on trees that pull carbon from the
is the only one that’s nutritionally com- atmosphere, and they’re pollinated
parable to cow’s in terms of its protein by the wind rather than stressed-out
content (important for small children). bees. Plus, they grow in wet climates,
The environmental benefits of giving such as the Pacific northwest, where
up milk are decidedly mixed. While water is less of an issue. The downside:
Oxford researchers concluded that pro- hazelnut milk is still a niche product
ducing a glass of cow’s milk has at least and not yet widely available (check
two times the environmental impact of your local health food store).
producing a glass of any non-dairy milk, And give cow’s milk a second chance.
there are drawbacks to the demand “If you aren’t vegan and can tolerate it,
(SOY MILK) ISTOCK.COM/PHIVE2015

for milk replacements, including the
exploitation of tropical workers and
rainforests, extreme pressure on pol-
linating bees, excessive use of irriga-
tion water and waterway pollution
from fertilizers.
So what’s the answer? As far as plant-
based options go, soy, oat, hemp and
consider sticking with dairy,” says Bar-
bara Seed, a registered dietitian. Milk is
local to most places in Canada, and it
helps to keep farmers farming and to
preserve agricultural land. And we
can work with the producers to keep
reforming practices to improve envi-
ronmental impacts.

36 july/august 2020
 7. Grow your own salad
Seriously! If that sounds like too much work, relax: lettuce
is one of the easiest and most forgiving vegetables to grow,
and provides fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals
for few calories. These greens don’t need deep soil to take
root, so you can plant them in just about anything: an
upcycled metal colander, an old tire, a garbage pail or, the
Rolls-Royce treatment, an elevated VegTrug planter. You’ll
save money and reduce waste (no more chucking out
those half-full clamshell boxes). Plus, studies show that
gardening reduces stress and improves cognitive function.

STEP 1 one-quarter inch deep garden centre and plop

Step outside. Is it spring in loose garden soil. To
or fall? Perfect. You can keep fresh lettuce com-
grow lettuce. Find a spot ing in, plant more seeds
in your yard that gets a every 10 to 14 days until
bit of sun and a bit of the weather heats up;
shade, or tuck a con- then wait until things
tainer in the corner of cool off to plant fall sal-
a deck or balcony. ads. Or, even easier,
pick up a pot filled with
STEP 2 pre-grown mixed
Sow some seeds greens from your local
it into the container.
STEP 3
Wait a few weeks and
harvest! Looseleaf
varieties will mature in
40 to 45 days, while
romaines and butter-
heads peak between
55 and 70 days.
Congrats: you did it.

8. Avoid plant-based “meats”

(MEAT-LESS BURGER) FUDIO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

short, no. Plant-based meats contain

You’ve seen plant-based burgers at the
grocery store, on fast food menus and
at your neighbour’s backyard party.
They’re made with either pea protein
(like the products from Beyond Meat
and Maple Leaf’s Lightlife) or soy
(like the Impossible Burger,
which was approved for sale
in Canada early in 2020).
But are they healthier? In
similar amounts of saturated fat and
protein, and often more sodium and
carbohydrates than a beef burger.
“Most of these new plant-based prod-
ucts are highly processed,” says Seed,
“meaning they’re full of added ingre-
dients. If you’re looking to make
a healthy choice, look for grain-
or veggie-based burgers with
fewer calories and less satu-
rated fat.”

rd.ca 37
reader’s digest

9. Lab-produced food
is coming sooner
than you think
Can you make dairy without a cow?
Now we can, with cellular agriculture,
the science of producing animal and
plant foods in laboratories. Last sum-
mer, Canadian scientist Isha Datar and
fellow co-founders of the Silicon Valley
startup Perfect Day introduced the first That would’ve been easy to write off
animal-free ice cream produced in a as Franken-science even a decade ago,
lab without a cow. To put an incredibly except now we’re in dire need of an
complex process in simple terms, the alternative to counter the outsize envi-
scientists use cow’s milk DNA to gen- ronmental effects of large-scale dairy
etically alter micro-organisms such as operations. Cellular agriculture won’t
yeast. Then they use fermentation to replace meat and dairy, but it has the
convert those micro-organisms into potential to shrink livestock farming’s
the milk proteins whey and casein, environmental footprint, address the
which can be combined with water to crisis of antibiotic resistance and
create dairy products. The startup is improve animal welfare by offering alter-
currently working to create the other natives (and competition) to big indus-
crucial ingredient in dairy: milk fat. try operations. That’s a win-win-win.

10. Choose better

(VEGETABLE BASKET) ISTOCK.COM/FCAFOTODIGITAL

The idea of choosing better for your own health and

the planet’s means different things for different people.
“In Canada, it may mean supporting local farms and
food businesses,” says Seed, “or supporting farms at
all scales who are making proactively sustainable
choices—reducing fossil fuel use and food waste,
increasing biodiversity, land and water use efficien-
cies on the farm, etc.—or simply choosing legumes as
a protein source more often.” There’s no best or right
way to do it; just do something. Be flexible. Be open
to new ideas. And enjoy every last bite.

38 july/august 2020
 Community Support
LAUGHTER Me ordering delivery
the Best Medicine regularly:
-lazy
-needlessly expensive
Inventing the Soul Patch Me: I’m going to sleep -pathetic
Friend: You missed in today. Me ordering delivery
a spot. The 500 birds outside during the COVID-19
Guy: I don’t care. my window: Lol. pandemic:
— @DONTTOUCHJAMES — @GROOVYTASIA -heroism
-singlehandedly
Two in One Taking Chances keeping every small
The opposite of formal- One out of every three business afloat
dehyde is casual- blueberries is an abso- -Nobel Prize in
dejekyll. lute nightmare. Economics
— @BROWTWEATEN — @CHASE__CHASE — @ORANGE_PAULP

Drive-thru attendant:
THE BEST JOKE I EVER TOLD Would you like to try
By Ophira Calof the chicken club?
Me: [Imagining chick-
In a medical emergency, I recommend you: ens getting down on
1) Call 911. the dance floor] Hell
2) Unlock the door. yes I would.
3) Summon every last — @PRUFROCKLUVSONG
ounce of strength you
have to shove your dirty Might as well go ahead
dishes in the sink so that and get in the pond if
the paramedics don’t you’re going to keep
see your shame. acting like a silly goose!
— @LOWENDFURY
Ophira Calof is a Toronto-
based comic and
co-creator of the sketch Send us your original
comedy revue Generally jokes! You could earn $50
Hospital. Find her online and be featured in the
at www.ophira.ca. magazine. See page 11
or rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca 39
 SOCIETY

Even the most savvy

among us can fall for a
con and lose hundreds
of dollars. I learned
this first-hand when
an imposter’s plea
arrived in my inbox.

BY Bruce Grierson FROM THE WALRUS

illustration by jackie lee

40 july/august 2020
reader’s digest
reader’s digest
the email popped up on my screen at
6:45 a.m. on December 24 last year. I’d
already been up for a couple of hours,
working to deadline. It was from some-
one I know quite well: the minister of
West Vancouver’s North Shore Unitar-
ian Church, which my family attends.
“I need a favour from you,” the mes-
sage said. “Email me as soon as you get
my message.”
“Ahoy Ron,” I replied.
A friend was in the hospital battling
cancer, he said, and he’d just learned
she was scheduled for surgery that
night. Could I possibly pick up some
iTunes gift cards? “She needs the cards
to download her favourite music and
videos to boost her confidence on her
next phase of surgery.” He’d do it him-
self, but he was tied up, he explained.
“I will surely reimburse you as soon
as I can.”
No one else in the house was up, so
there was no one to run this by. But
then, I probably wouldn’t have asked for
a second opinion anyway. It didn’t really
occur to me that this might be a scam.
“OK,” I emailed back.
“Thank you so much, Bruce,” my
correspondent replied. Then he got
down to business. I was to buy $300
of iTunes credit. (That is quite a lot of
music, I thought.) “I need you to
scratch the silver lining at the back of
each card to reveal the redemption
code, then take a snapshot and send
them directly to Sharon’s email.” He
gave the address.
42 july/august 2020
“Let me know when you’ve sent it,”
he wrote. “God bless.”
God bless? We’re Unitarians. Opti-
mistic agnostics at best. The “G” word
doesn’t come up much. Totally weird
sign-off there. I assumed Ron’s mind
was still on the dire circumstances of
his friend Sharon, who was evidently
a Christian.
“I can pick up the card around noon
and engineer this by tonight,” I replied.
WORD OF MY GIFT
CARD APPARENTLY
CIRCULATED AROUND
THE HOSPITAL. THEY
WANTED $500 MORE.
He was super grateful, he replied six
minutes later, but that would be too
late. “Can you please send them to her
by noon so she could be able to use
them before her surgery?”
This was awkward timing. But hey,
what was my slight inconvenience
against this woman’s cancer fight—on
Christmas Eve, no less? I drove to the
grocery store and purchased four gift
cards. The clerk activated them at the
till. At 9:30, I emailed pictures with
the following message:
Dear Sharon,
The codes on the cards below will buy
you music via iTunes.
Everybody is pulling for you.
a busy christmas eve day then unfolded.
I forgot all about this until, around 4:30
p.m., while waiting for takeout fish and
chips, I checked my email. A follow-up
message—one that contained some
odd grammar—was sitting in my inbox.
“Sharon just emailed me now saying
she got the cards. I want to really appre-
ciate you for that. I’m sure it’s going to
go a long way in her fight over cancer.”
But now there was a new develop-
ment. Apparently, word of the gift cards
had made its way around the cancer
ward. Other patients were asking Ron
for the same thing.
“Could you please get me additional
$500 worth of iTunes gift cards right
away? I will be paying you back $800.
I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.”
This was a bridge too far. The per-
sonal friend was one thing, but ran-
dom strangers on the ward?
I called Ron.
“Hey Bruce. What’s up?”
“Are we too late to help those other
patients?” I asked.
Silence. Then: “Um, I don’t know
what you’re talking about.”
“Those other patients on the ward
who now also want music,” I said.
“Bruce.” A long beat. “It’s a scam.
Somebody has been impersonating
me. I put out a warning on Facebook.”
“I didn’t . . . see that.”
phishing, “the easiest and the most
productive attack vector used by crim-
inals,” as one security consultant put
it, is now so common it’s practically a
demonstration sport at the fraudster
Olympics. Indeed, reports of this exact
scam I’ve just described can be found
on the Internet in five seconds. But it
never occurred to me to check. The
question is, Why?
Near the end of the film The Sixth
Sense, director M. Night Shyamalan
springs his trap. And you go: Wait. Bruce
Willis is . . . dead? I remember feeling
stung. Disoriented. And yet, in retro-
spect, the evidence was there all along.
It was exactly the same experience
when Ron—the real Ron, that is—said
over the phone: “It’s a scam.” There
was the sudden reframe, the forehead-
smacking denouement.
That is the brain on a well-crafted
fiction, says Vera Tobin, a cognitive
scientist at Case Western Reserve Uni-
versity in Ohio and the author of Ele-
ments of Surprise: Our Mental Limits
and the Satisfactions of Plot. The
sympathies and attention of the “vic-
tim” are expertly manipulated by nar-
rative sleight of hand.
The stakes start small. In my case, the
initial contact was modest and believ-
able. There were the shoe-shuffling
apologies, the thanks in advance. From
there, the story unfolded. Next thing I
knew, I was putting on my jacket.
Scammers exploit thinking errors in
the same way storytellers do. We are
“cognitive misers,” says University of
Toronto psychologist Keith Stanovich,
taking mental shortcuts and jumping
rd.ca 43
reader’s digest
to conclusions wherever possible.
That’s why Stanovich insists that gull-
ibility isn’t a sign of low intelligence.
It’s a sign of “low rationality,” which is
different. The front brain never has a
chance; the horse has already left the
barn with that first snap judgment.
Scammers take advantage of other
cognitive errors, too, like “optimism
bias.” Most people think they’re a little
bit charmed, a little luckier than aver-
age. We harbour a personal fable that
things are likely to go well for us. The
possibility that we’ve been hood-
winked just isn’t as “available” as a
happy ending.
And then there’s “consistency bias,”
which says people tend to act in accor-
dance with whom they believe them-
selves to be. When I received the first
email it spoke to my sense that I’m a
nice guy, and here’s an opportunity to
prove it. “You were on a goodwill mis-
sion,” said the cop at a North Shore
RCMP detachment who dutifully took
down my report. “And that kind of put
blinders on you.”
Lastly, behavioural economists
coined a term, “anchoring,” which psy-
chologists also use—the act of relying
too heavily on one piece of informa-
tion. “It’s hard for people to set aside
something they already know,” says
Tobin. “And that, then, constrains our
ability to reason.” The scammer had
fixed in my mind the image of a cancer
ward, and to make matters worse, I
could see Sharon in my mind because
44 july/august 2020
I have been there—I was at my father’s
bedside when he died of cancer.
All these factors together may incline
scam victims to overlook what should
be glaring red flags. My minister didn’t
use my name in the first email. Then
again, maybe he was in a hurry? (The
scammer didn’t use my name because
he didn’t have it. Until, with my
response, I gave it to him.) And the
grammatical errors from a person I
knew to be fastidious with language?
I chalked it up to stress. Basically, I
read those emails through a filter that
cleaned up the language and imputed
only good motives.
THERE’S EVIDENCE
THAT CON ARTISTS
DISPROPORTIONATELY
TARGET RELIGIOUS
GROUPS.
if successful scams exploit these uni-
versal cognitive biases, why don’t all of
us fall for them? Around 20 per cent
of the population is especially vulner-
able to scams, says Stephen Lea, a psy-
chologist at the University of Exeter.
And of the folks who receive phishing
emails like mine, only around three
per cent actually bite, according to a
recent study by telecom giant Verizon.
So we few, we sorry few, we band of
schlemiels: What’s different about us?
 There’s a widespread perception that
scam victims are predominantly older
folk. But that isn’t quite right. Millenni-
als are actually scammed more than
any other group, according to Federal
Trade Commission data from the
United States. But they lose less money
than seniors because they have less.
(Curiously, seniors are more likely to
get scammed face-to-face. One theory
is that older people are less likely to
notice visual cues of insincerity.)
The stereotype that the lonely are sit-
ting ducks is true. Lonely people are
more likely to let scammers get their
foot in the door; they open unsolicited
mail and stay on the line with those
bogus Canada Revenue Agency officers.
I’m not lonely nor a millennial. But
I was randomly phished in a pool that
is viewed as promising for scammers:
a minister’s congregation. There’s evi-
dence that con artists disproportion-
ately target religious groups—although
it’s less clear whether “people of faith”
are actually more gullible to such
scams. Most Unitarians, I’d venture,
are of the “trust but verify” variety. And
sure enough, I learned that no one else
in my congregation was fooled. This
scammer was lucky to have found me.
“Remember the time you almost
bought a car with a lien on it?” my wife
reminded. “Or the time you went to the
Downtown Eastside to pay the guy who
said he’d found your stolen camera his
promised finder’s fee?” (He collected
the fee up front, then disappeared into
his apartment to “get the camera,” never
to be seen again.) She started enumer-
ating the scams she could remember; it
took two hands.
Perhaps gullibility, as Stanford psy-
chiatrist David Spiegel believes, is a
“neural trait” in the way that hypno-
tizability is. (Brain scans of “very hyp-
notizable” people reveal distinct activ-
ity patterns, Spiegel found.) Whether
that proves true, there are other char-
acter traits that we scam victims
demonstrably share.
We are decisive. Okay, impulsive.
Deficient “depth of processing” is
another way to put it, and mine was
abysmal in this case.
“Naive” or “trusting” could also
apply, although social scientists prefer
the descriptor “unsuspicious.” And we
are “risk takers,” physically, financially
and emotionally. Psychologist Ste-
phen Lea found that self-reported risk
takers were much more likely to be
victims of scams.
You’d think ignorance would be a
precondition of getting bilked. But
weirdly, the opposite may be true.
Sometimes the problem isn’t knowing
too little but too much. One of Bernie
Madoff ’s victims was a psychiatrist
named Stephen Greenspan, who lost
about a third of his retirement savings
to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Just two days
before he learned he’d been hood-
winked, Greenspan had published a big
authoritative tome, the fruit of decades
of research in his area of expertise. It’s
rd.ca 45
reader’s digest
called The Annals of Gullibility: Why We
Get Duped and How to Avoid It.
Overconfidence, it turns out, can
produce a kind of unwarranted swag-
ger, an almost comically obtuse mis-
reading of events. The more we know,
the less likely we are to second-guess
our initial take on something.
I had actually been in the middle of
editing some articles on how to avoid
scams when the first email arrived.
This should have made me be able to
smell a ruse at 50 paces. But here’s the
thing: while I had a solid general
knowledge, I’d never encountered this
particular scam. There was no Nigerian
prince, no one claiming to be from the
Canada Revenue Agency or Microsoft
or Apple. It didn’t even involve money
directly. Why would a crook want
music? (The answer is, of course, that
they don’t. The reason scammers ask
for iTunes gift cards is simple: the
codes are hard to trace. And, once they
have them, they can resell them.)
“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can
do,” said the agent from Visa’s fraud
department after silently hearing out
my whole story, back on shift after
Christmas break.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not fraud,” he said.
“When we dispute a charge, our claim
Not Just Skin Deep
Beauty is being the best possible version of yourself, inside and out.
AUDREY HEPBURN
46 july/august 2020
is against the merchant. But the mer-
chant didn’t do anything wrong here.
You willingly purchased those gift
certificates.”
Wait, what? I didn’t willingly pur-
chase them. Or did I?
what distinguishes fraud from all other
crimes is that it demands cooperation
from the victim, notes Lea. Or, in other
words, the dupe is always complicit.
But what could possibly be the payoff
in getting robbed?
Maybe the answer is not so different
from why we go to magic shows, or
The Sixth Sense–style movies with whip-
crack endings. It’s weirdly pleasurable
to suspend our disbelief and then have
the rug pulled out from under us. “That
‘aha’ moment,” says Tobin, “is some-
thing humans like a lot.” The tension
and release, after being expertly led into
jeopardy, is something I’ve probably
been missing on the flat sea of midlife.
And of course, for a writer like
myself, drama is its own kind of payoff.
What did I get out of the whole ordeal?
Well, I got a “moment”—a frisson of
aliveness, a memory to distinguish this
day from all others, forever. And, not
least, a story.
© 2020, BRUCE GRIERSON. FROM “HOW A GOOD SCAM
CAN BYPASS OUR DEFENSES,” THE WALRUS (FEBRUARY
11, 2020), THEWALRUS.CA
 WORLD WIDE WEIRD
BY Rebecca Philps
Work(out) From Home
Restaurant server Elisha
Nochomovitz of Balma,
France, intended to
compete in the Barce-
lona marathon on
March 15, but COVID-
19 disrupted his plans.
He decided he would
run anyway—42 kilo-
metres back and forth
on his 23-foot balcony.
The journey took six
hours and 48 minutes—
significantly slower than
his three-and-a-half-
hour marathon best.
Nevertheless, he shared
the feat on social media
and inspired house-
bound runners around
the world to take to their
stairs, gardens or balco-
nies to stay in top form.
Safe Breaker
Stephen Mills, a
pierre loranger
machinist and welder
from Fort McMurray,
Alberta, unwittingly
solved a decades-old
mystery when he visited
Alberta’s Vermilion Her- Dear Diary
itage Museum last May. In late January, 50-year-
In the basement sat a old Robert Shull God-
2,000-pound sealed dard smashed the glass
safe, which had been on the back door of a
donated in the 1990s. Nashville home and
Everyone from profes- stole a television and
sional locksmiths to the firearm but accidentally
safe manufacturer had left behind incriminat-
unsuccessfully tried to ing evidence. City police
crack the combo. After a arrested the orderly bur-
tour guide told him the glar after he dropped a
tale, Mills jokingly spun notebook full of identi-
the dial in a random fying clues. The journal
combination: 20-40-60, contained a list of other
three times right, two targets—including the
times left, one time address of a house a few
right. To everyone’s sur- miles away that was
prise, the door creaked robbed that same day.
open. Sadly, there were It also featured a note
no gold bars or precious from his daughter—as
jewels inside—just a well as her home
few papers from a wait- address. Goddard was
ress’s order book dated convicted of aggravated
1977, and a pay sheet burglary in late March
for around $9.95 from and sentenced to 12
1978. Solving the years in prison, proving
40-year mystery, crime can sometimes be
though, was priceless. a little too organized.
rd.ca 47
reader’s digest
 HEALTH

BY Leah Rumack
FROM CHATEL AINE
illustration by marcos chin

Some experts believe the non-intoxicating

compound from the marijuana plant can
cure anxiety, chronic pain, sleeplessness
and a thousand other problems.
I decided to give it a try.
rd.ca 49
reader’s digest
I
“ 
’d like a Relaxed Fit,” I type in an
Instagram message to my poten-
tial drug dealer. It’s the code for
her high-dose CBD cookies. (The
THC-forward ones are called
High Rise, get it? They’re both
jeans, but those ones are high.)
They’re $55 for a dozen, but she only
has ginger with turmeric (blech!) avail-
able at the moment. I give up and log
on to cbd2go.ca, load my cart with
two tinctures and a pain salve and
then begin watching my mailbox for
the package that’s promising me sweet,
sweet relief.
I’m not the only one waiting for the
mail—CBD2GO’s website has constant
pop-ups informing me that, in the past
10 hours, someone in Stouffville or
Brampton or some other Canadian
town purchased a 1,000-milligram
Calyx Heal or coconut tincture. It’s like
they’re shouting, “You! Law-abiding
middle-aged mom—you are not alone!
All these Extremely Average Humans
have heard the promises of this magi-
cal elixir called CBD, and they, like
the poster on Fox Mulder’s wall on The
X-Files, want to believe.”
And I do. I do want to believe. I’m one
of the many average humans who, along
with not-so-average scientists, doctors
and investors around the world, are cur-
rently obsessed with the possibilities
that CBD—short for cannabidiol, one of
at least 480 components of the canna-
bis plant—is dangling before our eyes.
CBD isn’t intoxicating, unlike THC
50 july/august 2020
(a.k.a. tetrahydrocannabinol), the better-
known cannabis derivative stoners have
been buying from “a guy” for years.
It’s also a potent anti-inflammatory,
and its advocates say this potential mir-
acle medicine can help treat everything
from pain, anxiety and sleep disorders
to arthritis and even schizophrenia. The
U.S. National Institutes of Health took
out a patent on certain cannabinoids
in 2003, and in 2018 the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration approved a CBD-
derived drug for the treatment of par-
ticular types of epilepsy (a similar med-
ication underwent a promising clinical
trial in Canada last summer). In the
U.S., depending on what state you’re in,
you can buy a dizzying array of CBD-
infused products, including luxury skin
care, teas, makeup, beverages and lube.
Canada legalized the use and sale of
certain kinds of recreational cannabis—
flower, oils, seeds and plants—in 2018.
The next wave of legalization, which
covers edibles, extracts and topicals,
happened last fall. Ever since the weed
door opened, the biggest buzz has been
around CBD. This makes sense given
the potential size of the market—your
neighbour might not smoke a joint in
the rec room with you, but she definitely
has sore knees and would like to try
some of that “special” balm you told her
about. People have always found ways
to get high, but can CBD make us well?
DEENA GANDIN certainly thinks so.
After years of pain caused by her house
cleaning job—and two car accidents
within 10 months in 2018—the 48-year-
old from Binbrook, Ont., was ready to
try anything.
“I’m the most skeptical person on the
planet,” she says. “But I didn’t want to
be on narcotics. I finally just said, ‘The
heck with it,’ and tried CBD.” She used
a CBD oil. “It was life changing. I was
like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this what it’s like to
not live in pain?!’ I used to come home
at four and barely be able to make it to
the couch. Now I can keep going until
nine. I’ve told everybody—I’m ready to
shout it out from the mountaintops.”
Gandin also noticed another inter-
esting change when she started taking
CBD—her lifelong depression and anx-
iety subsided. “I don’t have that horri-
ble feeling of worry in my stomach
anymore,” she says.
How can one molecule affect so
many things? And if CBD does, in fact,
help treat all the conditions researchers
think it might, how does it know where
to go in the body? “There are scientists
all over the world trying to figure that
out,” laughs Danielle Blair, the founder
of Calyx Wellness, a Canadian company
that produces CBD products. “Our body
just knows exactly where it needs to be.”
Part of the answer probably has to
do with our endocannabinoid system
(ECS). The ECS, which was only dis-
covered by medical researchers in the
1990s, is a network of cannabinoid
transmitters and receptors that helps
maintain the body’s homeostasis, or
balance. Our bodies naturally produce
cannabinoids on their own, and there
are receptors for them all over the
place—including in the brain, heart,
pancreas, nerve cells, skin, reproduct-
ive organs, digestive system and liver—
that influence things like our immune
response and levels of inflammation,
appetite and pain.
Cannabinoids are also produced in
cannabis plants—these are called phy-
tocannabinoids. When phytocannabi-
noids meet human body cannabinoid
receptors, it’s like an affair that was
always meant to happen.
IT SEEMS TO WORK.
I’M SLEEPING BETTER,
MORE CHILL AND LESS
GRUMPY, EVEN WHEN
I’M OVERTIRED.
Dr. Richa Love is one of the more
outspoken proponents of CBD. She’s
the founder of CannU Educational Ser-
vices, an online cannabis education
platform. “Think of the receptors as
locks,” she explains, “and think of can-
nabinoids as the keys.” (That’s the gist
of the ECS, though CBD doesn’t techni-
cally go into the locks—it just activates
them, prompting the body to produce
even more of its own cannabinoids.)
Love has been a family doctor for
almost 20 years. About five years ago,
rd.ca 51
reader’s digest
she turned down an elderly patient who
asked for a medical cannabis prescrip-
tion to help ease the pain of her arthri-
tis. “All my training and all my instincts
were to think of it as drug-seeking
behaviour,” Love says. “So she went to
another source, and then I saw how her
arthritis got significantly better. That was
a humbling moment as a physician.”
Love suffers from rheumatoid arthri-
tis herself. About four years ago she
had a flare-up that was so bad she was
in constant pain, on multiple medica-
tions and walking with a cane. Her
rheumatologist even suggested maybe
it was time to pause—or end—her
career. “I tried CBD oil, and it trans-
formed me,” Love says. “So I started to
look at it more seriously.”
MY PERSONAL INTEREST in CBD stems
from a long struggle with insomnia and
more recent issues with chronic pain.
Since I hit my 40s, I’ve been constantly
straining or tearing things, resulting in
a daily Advil-plus-Tylenol (then maybe
some more Advil, topped off with a
splash of Aleve) habit, which is likely
wreaking havoc on my liver and kid-
neys. I’ve also taken benzodiazepines
for sleep on and off for almost 15 years,
lately more on than off, putting me at
a higher risk for developing a depen-
dence and, eventually, dementia. Mas-
sage, osteopathy, surgery, acupunc-
ture, cognitive behavioural therapy
and meditation—among other things—
haven’t totally fixed either issue.
52 july/august 2020
In High Regard
CANNABIS
A hearty plant grown for
its tough fiber (as hemp) and
as an intoxicant.
THC
Tetrahydrocannabinol, a chemical
compound present in the canna-
bis plant. When the leaves and
oils have a higher concentration
of THC, they’re more intoxicating.
CBD
Cannabidiol, a non-intoxicating
component of the cannabis plant,
purported to help alleviate symp-
toms of stress, anxiety, arthritis
and other conditions.
HEMP
A non-intoxicating part of the
cannabis plant, often used in
textiles and rope. Its edible seeds
and oil are rich in vitamins
and minerals.
“Mommy can’t play with you right
now,” I tell my eight-year-old. “Mom-
my’s arm hurts. Mommy is tired.”
“You’re always tired,” he sighs.
I need to find another way. And then
my other way arrives in my mailbox.
I try a small array of CBD-infused
products—chosen by the extremely
unscientific method of how much I
like their websites—to deal with my
chicken-egg situation (my insomnia
exacerbates my pain, but my pain keeps
me from sleeping). A salve from a com-
pany called Organa doesn’t provide
relief to my arm, where I’m still healing
from a tendon- and ligament-repair
surgery, or my leg, where my doctors
think I’m experiencing referred pain
from a torn tendon in my ankle—per-
haps a tall order for a $35 product. I
take 30 milligrams of CBD oil capsules
from a company called CoCos Pure for
a couple weeks, to little effect.
I’m starting to lose hope. Then I
turn to the priciest option in my new
arsenal: Calyx’s Heal tincture, which
costs $140 for a 30-millilitre bottle of
1,000-milligram-strength CBD oil. “Heal
is intended to treat more serious health
conditions,” CBD2GO promises, with-
out naming any specific ailments. “It
delivers a larger dose to the mind and
body to kick-start the healing process.”
“Whatever,” I think, popping open
the top. “It’s all probably snake oil.” I
start taking the oil—holding it under
my tongue for 30 seconds and then
swallowing it—with my daily vitamins
and supplements. It’s, you know, oily,
but otherwise inoffensive. I misread
the instructions and end up ingesting
more than the maximum recommended
dose of 45 drops a day—about 60,
divided into two full droppers through-
out the evening—for about two weeks.
This amounts to approximately 68 mil-
ligrams of CBD a day, more than dou-
ble what I had tried before. (Thankfully
it’s very hard to overdose on CBD:
unlike opiate receptors, none of the
cannabinoid receptors are located in
the part of the brain stem that con-
trols your breathing and heart. Also,
because CBD research is still in its rel-
ative infancy, there isn’t a standard for
what’s an appropriate dose.)
And guess what? I think it starts to
work. It’s not like popping a Percocet
or a sleeping pill—where you get an
instant, obvious result—but I notice
I’m taking fewer pain and sleeping
meds, I’m sleeping better, and I’m
more chill and less grumpy, even when
I’m overtired.
“THE ENTHUSIASM
FOR THESE PRODUCTS
FAR EXCEEDS OUR
UNDERSTANDING
OF THEM.”
It could be the placebo effect, but I
feel it helps enough that I decide to try
to get a medical prescription for can-
nabis so my insurance will help with
the cost. Manulife and Sun Life both
cover it. To my great surprise, both my
family doctor and a pain specialist turn
me down immediately, saying there
isn’t enough evidence that it treats
insomnia or chronic pain.
How could this be? I call Love again.
It turns out they’re right—sort of. There
rd.ca 53
reader’s digest
is lots of evidence demonstrating CBD’s
efficacy for managing pain, but it’s all
from observational studies or animal
studies. There have been almost no
double-blind, placebo-control trials.
“The amount of enthusiasm people
have for these products at the moment
far exceeds our understanding of them,”
says Dr. Michael Allan, the director of
program and practice support at the
College of Family Physicians of Canada
and the lead author on a set of simpli-
fied guidelines for cannabinoid use.
The guidelines recommend medi-
cal cannabinoid use as a last resort for
a small subset of conditions, includ-
ing neuropathic and end-of-life pain,
and chemotherapy-induced nausea.
The guidelines don’t differentiate
between products that are high in
CBD and those that are high in THC.
The research that’s available, says
Allan, is focused on THC and is
obtained mostly from people who are
already using cannabis, which creates
a huge bias. “It’s guesswork at this
point,” he says. “The limited studies
seem to indicate a combination of
inhaled THC and CBD is needed for
pain. CBD on its own seems to have
no benefits.”
Love won’t give up on the promise
of CBD. “It isn’t a chemical model that
can be replicated the same way over
and over in a lab,” she says. “CBD is
plant-based medicine—it’s a square
peg that’s not going to fit in the round
hole we’ve created for pharma. Also,
54 july/august 2020
there are hundreds of different types
available on the Canadian market.
Which ones are you going to study?”
Love puts doctors’ reluctance to pre-
scribe it down to a combination of a
lack of education when it comes to the
rapidly evolving field—since the endo-
cannabinoid system wasn’t discovered
until the 1990s, a lot of doctors didn’t
learn about it in medical school, and
even now it’s often not on the curricu-
lum—and, worse, a hesitation born out
of a lingering discomfort around any
kind of cannabis use.
CBD may be just the beginning of the
useful compounds found in cannabis—
the properties and uses of the dozens
of others it contains are only starting
to be understood. (If you haven’t heard
about cannabigerol or cannabinol yet,
you probably will soon, but that’s a
story for another day.)
Despite the unknowns, there’s one
story I’ve heard from every CBD expert
I’ve spoken to, and it goes like this: In
a time that’s not so far away, taking
CBD will be as common as popping a
multivitamin or supplement.
“It will become an absolutely normal
thing,” predicts Blair. “You’ll wake up
and take your CBD and your fish oil.
It’s the best anti-inflammatory in plant
medicine and so many diseases stem
from chronic inflammation. People will
say, ‘Of course I take CBD.’”
© 2019, LEAH RUMACK. FROM “CBD IS TOUTED AS A
MIRACLE COMPOUND, BUT DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?
WE TRIED IT,” CHATELAINE (DECEMBER 2019).
 Silent Mode
DOWN TO BUSINESS The business I work for
had a dinner for all of
its employees and
invited all their family
members to come
along. Before the first
speech, the host made
an announcement: “We
kindly ask you to please
put all cellphones and
children on vibrate.”
— GREATCLEANJOKES.COM

Due to enormous per-

sonal flaws that I refuse
to work on, I will be
arriving 20 minutes late
to work and drinking
“Monica, could you please send in a rebounder?” an iced coffee. Please
be respectful.
High Expectations something my boss — @EWDATSGROSS
Today at work, a said,” my friend replied.
woman got huffy with “What did your boss My boss, on Friday: “This
me because she didn’t say?” the co-worker is the fifth day in a row
know that sabre-toothed asked. that you’ve been late.”
cats are extinct and “You’re fired.” Me: “Well, I can prom-
thought the museum — DISTRACTIFY.COM ise it won’t happen
would have a live one tomorrow.”
on display. Strategy for Success — JOKES4US.COM
— @ADDISON_PEACOCK I have a phone inter-
view today, and some-
Are you in need of some
A friend of mine was one told me to just
professional motivation?
CONAN DE VRIES

getting to know his new be myself, so I’m Send us a work anecdote,

co-workers when one not going to answer and you could receive
of them asked why he the call. $50. To submit your
left his old job. “It was — @CAITHULS stories, visit rd.ca/joke.

rd.ca 55
reader’s digest

PHOTO CREDIT TO COME

56 july/august 2020
 CRIME

T H E B R O A D D U S FA M I LY
C O U L D N ’ T WA I T T O
M OV E I N T O T H E I R N E W
DREAM HOUSE—UNTIL
SINISTER LETTERS BEGAN
ARRIVING IN THE MAIL

BY Reeves Wiedeman FROM NEW YORK

reader’s digest
after he’d finished painting one even-
ing at his new house in Westfield,
New Jersey, Derek Broaddus found an
envelope addressed in thick, clunky
handwriting to “The New Owner.”
Dearest new neighbour at 657 Bou-
levard, allow me to welcome you to the
neighbourhood.
Buying 657 Boulevard had fulfilled a
dream for Derek and his wife, Maria.
The house was a few blocks from Maria’s
childhood home. Their three kids, who
were five, eight and 10 years old, were
already debating which of the house’s
fireplaces Santa Claus would use.
The note went on:
My grandfather watched the house in
the 1920s, and my father watched in the
1960s. It is now my time. Do you know
the history of the house? Do you know
what lies within the walls of 657 Boule-
58 july/august 2020
vard? Why are you here? I will find out.
The letter identified the Broadduses’
Honda minivan, as well as the workers
renovating the home.
I see already that you have flooded 657
Boulevard with contractors so that you
can destroy the house as it was supposed
to be. Tsk, tsk, tsk ... bad move. You don’t
want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy.
Earlier in the week, the family had
gone to the house and chatted with
their new neighbours. The letter writer
seemed to have noticed.
You have children. I have seen them.
So far I think there are three that I have
counted ... Once I know their names I will
call to them and draw them too [sic] me.
The envelope had no return address.
Who am I? There are hundreds and
hundreds of cars that drive by 657 Bou-
levard each day. Maybe I am in one.
Look at all the windows you can see from
657 Boulevard. Maybe I am in one.
Welcome, my friends, welcome. Let
the party begin.
A signature appeared in a cursive font:
—The Watcher (PREVIOUS SPREAD) CHRISTOPHER SADOWSKI
it was after 10 p.m., and Derek was
alone. He raced around the house turn-
ing off lights so no one could see inside,
then called the police. An officer came
to the house and read the letter. He
asked Derek whether he had enemies
and recommended moving a piece of
construction equipment from the back
veranda in case the Watcher tried to
toss it through a window.
 Derek and Maria emailed John and
Andrea Woods, the couple from whom
they’d purchased 657 Boulevard, to ask
whether they had any idea who the
Watcher might be.
Andrea replied that a few days before
moving out, they’d received an odd
note signed “The Watcher.” She said
that she and her husband had never
received anything like it in their 23 years
in the house and had thrown the letter
away without much thought.
A P O L IC E OFF I C ER
A R R IV ED AT T HE
H O U SE . H E WAN T ED
TO KN OW I F D ER EK
HA D A NY EN E M I ES.
The Broadduses spent the next weeks
on high alert. Derek cancelled a work
trip, and whenever Maria took the
kids to the house, she would yell their
names if they wandered into a far cor-
ner of the yard.
Soon, another letter arrived. Maria
recognized the thick black lettering
and called the police. This time, the
Watcher used their names, misspelling
them as “Mr. and Mrs. Braddus” and
identifying their three kids by their
nicknames—the names Maria had
been yelling.
657 Boulevard is anxious for you to
move in. It has been years and years
since the young blood ruled the hall-
ways of the house. Have you found all
of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young
blood play in the basement?
Or are they too afraid to go down
there alone? I would [be] very afraid if
I were them. It is far away from the rest
of the house. If you were upstairs, you
would never hear them scream.
Will they sleep in the attic? Or will
you all sleep on the second floor? Who
has the bedrooms facing the street? I’ll
know as soon as you move in. It will
help me to know who is in which bed-
room. Then I can plan better.
Have a happy moving-in day. You
know I will be watching.
Derek and Maria stopped taking
their kids to the house. They were no
longer sure when, or if, they would
move in. Several weeks later, a third
letter arrived. Where have you gone to?
657 Boulevard is missing you.
many westfield residents compare
their town to Mayberry, the idyllic set-
ting for The Andy Griffith Show. West-
field is 45 minutes from New York City,
and the town’s 30,000 residents are
largely well-to-do families. Built in
1905, 657 Boulevard was perhaps the
grandest home on the block, and when
the Woodses put it on the market,
they received multiple offers. The
Broadduses won the bidding war and
got the house for US$1.3 million. They
initially suspected the Watcher might
be someone upset over losing out on
rd.ca 59
reader’s digest
the house. But the Woodses said one
interested buyer had backed out after
a bad medical diagnosis, while another
had found a different home. Andrea
Woods thought it was more likely some-
one in the neighbourhood.
The letters did indicate proximity.
They had been processed in Kearny, the
U.S. Postal Service’s distribution cen-
tre in northern New Jersey. The first was
postmarked June 4, before the sale
was public—the Woodses had never
even put up a for-sale sign.
AN YO NE C OU LD H AV E
B E E N T HE WATC HE R .
M A R IA S P EN T
HO U RS G O OG LIN G
S U S P IC I O U S P EO PL E .
A few days after the first letter, Maria
and Derek went to a neighbourhood
barbecue. They hadn’t told anyone
about the Watcher, as the police had
instructed, and found themselves scan-
ning the party for clues while keeping
tabs on their kids, who ran guilelessly
through a crowd that made up much
of the suspect pool.
John Schmidt, who lived two doors
down, told Derek about the Langfords,
who had lived in the house between
theirs since the 1960s. Peggy Langford
was in her 90s, and several of her adult
children lived with her. The family was
60 july/august 2020
a bit odd, Schmidt said, describing one
son, Michael Langford, as “kind of a
Boo Radley character.” (A mysterious
recluse from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill
a Mockingbird.)
Derek thought the case was solved.
But detectives said they had already
spoken to Michael. He denied knowing
anything about the letters. Without hard
evidence, there wasn’t much the depart-
ment could do. Frustrated, the Broad-
duses began their own investigation.
They set up webcams and employed
private investigators, including two for-
mer FBI agents.
One of them, Robert Lenehan, rec-
ognized several old-fashioned tics in
the letters that pointed to an older
writer. Envelopes were addressed to
“M/M Braddus,” and the sentences
had double spaces between them. The
letters had a certain literary panache,
which suggested a “voracious reader,”
and a surprising lack of profanity given
the level of anger, which Lenehan
thought meant a “less macho” writer.
He didn’t think the Watcher was likely
to act on the threats, but the letters had
enough typos to imply a certain errat-
icism. Lenehan recommended look-
ing into former housekeepers or their
descendants.
To Maria, it seemed like almost any-
one could have been the Watcher, which
made daily life feel like navigating a
labyrinth of threats. She probed the
faces of shoppers at the local supermar-
ket to see whether they looked strangely
at her kids and spent hours googling
anyone who seemed suspicious.
But the Watcher left no digital trail,
no fingerprints, and no way to place
someone at the scene of a crime that
could have been hatched from pretty
much any letterbox in northern New
Jersey. The letters could be read closely
for possible clues or dismissed as non-
sensical ramblings. In December 2014,
six months after the first letter had
arrived, police told the Broadduses they
had run out of options. Derek showed
the letters to his priest, who agreed to
bless the house.
the renovations, including a new alarm
system, were finished, but the idea of
moving in filled the Broadduses with
overwhelming anxiety. They moved in
with Maria’s parents while continuing
to pay the mortgage and taxes on 657
Boulevard. They told only a handful of
friends about the letters, which left oth-
ers to ask why they weren’t moving
in—“Legal issues,” they said—and won-
der whether they were getting divorced.
Meanwhile, they fought constantly
and started taking medication to fall
asleep. “I was a depressed wreck,” Derek
said. Maria decided to see a therapist
after a routine doctor’s visit that began
with the question “How are you?”
caused her to burst into tears.
The Broadduses decided to sell 657
Boulevard. But rumours had already
begun to swirl about why the house sat
empty. They told their real estate agent
that they intended to show the letters
to anyone whose offer was accepted.
Several bids came in, but they were
well below the asking price.
The media caught wind of the tale.
News trucks camped out at 657 Boule-
vard, and one local reporter set up a
lawn chair to conduct his own watch.
The Broadduses got more than 300
media requests but decided not to
speak publicly. The attention forced
Derek and Maria to explain to their
children the real reason they hadn’t
moved into their new home. The kids
had plenty of questions: who is the
Watcher? Where does this person live?
Why is this person angry with us? Derek
and Maria had few answers.
SIX MO NT HS A F T ER
THE F IR ST L E T T ER
A RRI VE D, P OL IC E
HA D RU N OUT
OF OPT IO NS.
“Can you imagine having that con-
versation with a five-year-old?” Derek
said. “Your town isn’t as safe as you
think it is, and there’s a bogeyman
obsessed with you.”
From a safer distance, the Watcher
was a real-life mystery to solve. A group
of reddit.com users obsessed over Goo-
gle Maps’ Street View, which showed a
car parked in front of 657 with, one
rd.ca 61
reader’s digest
user thought, a man holding a camera.
Proposed suspects included a jilted
mistress, a spurned real estate agent, a
local high schooler’s creative-writing
project, guerrilla marketing for a hor-
ror movie and “mall goths having fun.”
Then Barron Chambliss, a veteran
detective who had been asked to look at
the case, discovered something surpris-
ing: investigators had analyzed the DNA
on one of the envelopes and deter-
mined that it belonged to a woman.
The police asked for permission to test
Maria’s DNA. It didn’t match.
THE HO US E B E C A ME
A CREEPY URBAN
L E GE ND —A P LAC E
TO WA LK BY
ON H AL LOW EE N.
Chambliss decided to look more
closely at neighbour Abby Langford,
who worked as a real estate agent. Was
she upset about missing a commission
right next door? But her DNA sample
wasn’t a match either.
One night, Chambliss and a part-
ner were sitting in a van watching the
house. Around 11 p.m., a car stopped
out front long enough for Chambliss to
grow suspicious. He says he traced the
car to a woman whose boyfriend lived
on the block. She told Chambliss her
boyfriend was into “some really dark
62 july/august 2020
video games,” including one in which
he was playing as a character: the
Watcher. He agreed to come in for an
interview on two separate occasions.
He didn’t show up either time. But
Chambliss didn’t have enough evi-
dence to compel him to appear.
while the broadduses continued to be
consumed by stress and fear, for the
rest of Westfield, the story eventually
became little more than a creepy urban
legend—a house to walk by on Hallow-
een if you were brave. In spring 2016,
657 Boulevard went back on the mar-
ket. But potential buyers would back
out once they read the letters.
Feeling as if they were out of options,
the Broadduses’ real estate lawyer pro-
posed selling the house to a developer,
who could tear it down and split the
property. But the two lots would be just
shy of the 21-metre width mandated by
zoning laws. When the planning board
met to discuss granting an exception,
more than 100 residents showed up.
Neighbours expressed concern that
the plan might require knocking down
trees and that the new homes would
have aesthetically unpleasing front-
facing garages. After four hours, during
which there was little discussion of
the reason the Broadduses sought to
tear down their dream home in the
first place, the board unanimously
rejected the proposal.
Derek and Maria were distraught.
“This is my town,” Maria said. “I grew
up here. I came back; I chose to raise
my kids here.” On top of the mortgage
and renovations, the Broadduses
have paid more than $100,000 in
Westfield property taxes—the town
denied their request for relief—and
spent at least that amount investigat-
ing the Watcher.
Not long after, a family with grown
children and two big dogs agreed to
rent 657 Boulevard. The rent didn’t
cover the Broadduses’ mortgage, but
they hoped that a few years of renting
without incident would help them sell.
When Derek went to the house to deal
with squirrels that had taken up resi-
dence in the roof, the renter handed
him an envelope.
Violent winds and bitter cold
To the vile and spiteful Derek and his
wench of a wife Maria,
You wonder who the Watcher is?
Turn around, idiots. Maybe you even
spoke to me, one of the so-called neigh-
bours who has no idea who the Watcher
could be ....
The letter indicated revenge could
come in many forms. Maybe a car acci-
dent. Maybe a fire. Maybe something as
simple as a mild illness that never seems
to go away but makes you fell [sic] sick
day after day after day after day after
day. Maybe the mysterious death of a
pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and
cars and bicycles crash. Bones break.
“It was like we were back at the
beginning,” said Maria. The renter was
spooked but agreed to stay. The Broad-
duses continued to press the case, send-
ing new names to investigators when-
ever they found something odd.
Finally, in July 2019, a buyer pur-
chased 657 Boulevard—for far less than
the Broadduses paid for it.
The prosecutor’s office has kept the
case open, but the Broadduses believe
it is unlikely the Watcher will ever be
caught. They can’t help but feel, as the
last letter taunted:
The Watcher won.
NEW YORK (NOVEMBER 19, 2018), © 2019 BY NEW YORK
MEDIA, THECUT.COM.

Sunny Days
There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing
the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.
POET SARAH KAY

A pool is, for many of us in the West, a symbol not of affluence but of order, of
control over the uncontrollable.
JOAN DIDION

If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it.
JIMMY BUFFETT

rd.ca 63
reader’s digest

AS KIDS SEE IT

“Mother, I think I’m good enough to exhibit on the living room walls now.”

Our six-year-old wasn’t Welcome to parenting. they don’t know how to

eating his lunch, and Your choices are: open their fruit snack.
then started flicking A) Listen to your toddler — @MOMTRIBEVIBE
SUSAN CAMILLERI KONAR

poppy seeds off his scream and cry for 10

bagel one at a time. minutes because you My cousin’s three-year-
When I asked what he opened their fruit snack. old grandson, James,
was doing, he said, “I B) Listen to your toddler loved playing doctor
don’t like the freckles!” scream and cry for with his stethoscope.
— NESYA JACOB, Toronto 10 minutes because One day, my cousin

64 july/august 2020
said to him, “James, My daughter just asked me where we keep
come and check Grand- our crow bar. I’m pretty sure that’s my cue to
ma’s heart!” He quickly
replied, “Not today! I end the unsupervised play portion of our day.
don’t work on Fridays.” — @SARABELLAB123
— WENDY HAUSER,
Chilliwack, B.C. apiece,” he said. “And then replied: “I have a
I’ve packed four things dollar and 32 senses!”
Dad: Cameron, you put so far!” — SUSAN WARMINGTON,
your boots on the — CHRISTINA JOHNSON, Toronto
wrong feet. Breadalbane, N.B.
Three-year-old Cameron: Co-worker: You look
No, these are definitely I was driving back from tired.
my feet. a camping trip when, Me: (Remembering
— PETER BELYEA, from the back seat, that at 2 a.m. I had to
Woodstock, N.B. my three-year-old explain to a crying
granddaughter said, three-year-old that
My four-year-old threw “Grandma, I have a just because it was
a wrapper on the floor. frog in my throat.” I told snowing did not mean
I told him to pick it up her to cough it up, and it was Christmas.) No
and put it where it she vomited all over idea why.
belonged. He put it in her car seat. — @MOM_THO
my purse. — BARRY DUNBAR,
— @MOMMAJESSIEC Madoc, Ont. When my kid was a
toddler, my sister tried
My children and I were I sometimes volunteer to teach him to say,
helping my mother to tutor young children. “What’s up, homie?” He
pack and move. My One day, I was watch- couldn’t pronounce it,
mother told my kids ing a fellow tutor teach so he went around for
that she would give six-year-old Peter about like six months saying,
them five dollars apiece the five senses, and he “What’s up, pony?”
for helping. After she seemed to have an — @ANNE_THERIAULT
said that, I heard my excellent grasp of the
son counting “Five, 10, concepts. As the session
Send us your original
15, 20,” and I asked was wrapping up, I jokes! You could earn $50
what he was doing. asked Peter how many and be featured in the
“She said she was giv- senses he had. He pon- magazine. See page 11
ing us five dollars dered for a minute and or rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca 65
 HEALTH

Acts of kindness
can boost our health,
lower our stress and
help us live longer

of
Being Nice
BY Marta Zaraska FROM GROWING YOUNG
illustration by taryn gee

rd.ca 67
reader’s digest
HUMANS LIKE TO pretend we are unique
in truly caring for others. In reality,
altruism and helping behaviours are far
from rare in the animal kingdom. Just
Google “animals saving other animals”
and your screen will be flooded with
videos of hippos rescuing drowning
baby zebras and baboons chasing off
leopards to save antelopes. If that’s not
enough to convince you, rest assured
that proper scientific studies also find
genuine altruism in many animal spe-
cies, from capuchin monkeys and chim-
panzees to ravens and rooks.
Yet there are some evolutionary rea-
sons why human altruism should differ
from that of other species. One popular
hypothesis states that caring for others
developed from parenting behaviours.
Since human babies are born particu-
larly vulnerable (thank you, big brains),
they require unusually high amounts
68 july/august 2020
of care—just ask any under-slept new
parent. To ensure that mothers and
fathers won’t abandon these needy
creatures, nature equipped us with two
systems: one reward-inducing and the
other stress-reducing.
Snug in the middle of our brain is a
grape-sized area known as the insula,
which is activated by such things as
helping others, donating money to
charity and, yes, caring for kids. Addi-
tional reward-related brain areas, the
septal area and ventral striatum—the
very same ones that light up when you
find a winning scratch-and-win card—
also buzz with activity when you take
care of others. In other words, parent-
hood and other forms of caregiving are
wired to the brain’s reward system.
Evolution also linked caring with
mechanisms that dampen stress. For
elderly human volunteers, taking care
of infants reduces cortisol levels in the
saliva (which could translate into such
health benefits as a reduced risk of
high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes
and osteoporosis).
The upshot is good news. Whether
we’re parents or not, everyday kindness
can ultimately lower our stress, boost
our health and help us live longer.
ONE WAY CAREGIVING may inhibit stress
is through dampening the activity of
the amygdala, the brain’s centre for
emotions, emotional behaviour and
motivation, and disrupting its connec-
tions with the fight-or-flight response.
When adults hear the whimpers of
infants, the response of the amygdala
is tempered, allowing them to care for
little ones without burning out.
Down the road, this altruism-related
turning down of the stress response has
an impact on our immune systems and
inflammation. People who frequently
volunteer have lower levels of C-reactive
protein—a marker of inflammation. If
your blood is teeming with C-reactive
protein, that’s a bad sign, suggesting
you may be headed toward such health
problems as cardiovascular disease.
Experiments confirm that it’s the act
of volunteering, not some other char-
acteristic of people who tend to sign up
for unpaid work, that keeps inflamma-
tion at bay. At one high school in West-
ern Canada, students were divided
into two groups. The first group was to
volunteer, helping kids in after-school
programs. The second was wait-listed.
When blood samples were compared,
a clear image emerged: people who
volunteered had significantly lower lev-
els of an inflammatory marker called
interleukin 6. Elevated levels of inter-
leukin 6 can mean double the risk of
dying within the next five years.
If you don’t have the ability to vol-
unteer in person, monetary donations,
informal caregiving and even simple,
everyday kindness work well for our
health, too.
Research by Lara Aknin, an associate
professor of psychology at Simon Fraser
University in British Columbia, shows
that although we believe we gain the
most happiness from buying stuff for
ourselves, in reality we end up better
off if we lavish money on others.
Imagine you’ve found $20 on a
deserted sidewalk. What would you do
with it? In one experiment, Aknin and
her colleagues handed volunteers either
a $5 bill or a $20 bill, then instructed
half of the participants to blow the
windfall on themselves and the other
half to spend the gift on someone else.
Once the money had been spent and
everyone’s moods had been carefully
evaluated, Aknin discovered that those
who used the money to please others
ended up significantly happier.
EXPERIMENTS
CONFIRM IT’S THE ACT
OF VOLUNTEERING
THAT KEEPS
INFLAMMATION AT BAY.
A pleasant mood is not the only
benefit we may derive from treating
others. The gains can be as varied as
better sleep, sharper hearing, stronger
muscles and lower blood pressure.
When seniors suffering from hyper-
tension were handed $40 per week
for three consecutive weeks to either
spend on themselves or on someone
else, those who donated saw their blood
pressure drop as much as if they had
rd.ca 69
reader’s digest
picked up a healthier lifestyle or started
new medication.
You can also boost your health by
caring for your family. It may seem
counterintuitive that, say, nursing an
ailing parent could make us physically
better off, as caregiving often involves
poor sleep, labour and psychological
strain. However, several studies have
shown that many caregivers actually
live longer. In one such analysis, a
study published in 2013 in the Ameri-
can Journal of Epidemiology, scientists
carefully compared over 3,500 family
caregivers with more than 3,500 peo-
ple who didn’t nurse anyone and dis-
covered that the former had 18 per cent
lower mortality rates.
YOU CAN BOOST YOUR
HEALTH BY CARING
FOR FAMILY. MANY
CAREGIVERS ACTUALLY
LIVE LONGER.
If you are a grandparent, and not
too frail, family caregiving can take the
form of babysitting your grandkids.
Offering such help occasionally can
lower mortality rates by as much as 37
per cent—more than regular exercise.
IN JANUARY 2019 I decided to test
whether I could boost my health through
everyday acts of kindness, which I’d
70 july/august 2020
perform in my hometown—a small
village in northwestern France. I con-
tacted two scientists at King’s College
London who study cortisol response—
Carmine Pariante, a professor of biologi-
cal psychiatry, and Naghmeh Nikkhes-
lat, a post-doctoral researcher—and
they generously agreed to help me out.
We discussed the details of my experi-
ment, and soon a package arrived in
my mailbox. Inside were printouts to
be filled out on each day and a stash of
small plastic tubes called Salivettes.
For seven days, I was to collect my saliva
in the tubes, morning, noon and eve-
ning, and then ship them back to Par-
iante and Nikkheslat, who would mea-
sure my cortisol levels. On four of the
saliva-collection days, I’d follow my
regular routine. The remaining three
would be my “intervention days,” where
I’d add small acts of kindness.
I woke up on day 1 and reached for
the Salivette prepared on my night table.
I unscrewed the blue cap and slid a roll-
shaped swab into my mouth. I repeated
this three times a day throughout the
week, dutifully noting my moods and
everything that happened in a journal.
On the third day, it was time for my
first kindness intervention. As I sat
down at my desk planning fun things I
could do for others, I felt my spirits lift-
ing. The implementation phase was
even more fun. I left a smiley-face sticky
note on my neighbours’ car. I bought
and delivered a small box of chocolates
for the nice lady at our local library.
At a grocery store, I opened the doors
for an elderly woman. I didn’t know
whether my cortisol response was
healthier, but I certainly felt happier.
Over the next two days, I continued
with random kindness. I bought sand-
wiches for a homeless family. I donated
books. I baked cookies for my husband
to share with his colleagues. And I felt
really good.
When the experiment ended, I pack-
aged up the Salivettes and mailed them
back to London. About two weeks later,
I received news from Nikkheslat: they
had the results.
While on my regular days I produced
on average 64 nmol/L of cortisol, on
my acts of kindness days I produced
just a little under 54 nmol/L, suggesting
lower levels of stress. Pariante and
Nikkheslat found that on my first day of
random kindness, I woke up with quite
elevated cortisol levels, which then
dropped significantly by noon—by
which time I’d already started my acts
of kindness. The next two intervention
days, I woke up with considerably lower
cortisol levels.
OF COURSE, the health-boosting effects
don’t mean you can just skip your
hypertension medications. In a perfect
scenario, you’d still eat well, do 30 min-
utes of physical activity a day, and
engage in kindness. But sometimes it’s
easier to skip the gym and instead just
do a few nice things for people.
For my part, I look for more oppor-
tunities to perform acts of kindness in
everyday life. I’m not always as delib-
erate as I was during my experiment,
but I’m trying. I certainly let more cars
pull in ahead of me when I’m driving.
Unlike other healthy habits, philan-
thropy is contagious. By giving to others,
you will not only live longer, but you may
also end up spending the extra years in
a slightly better, kinder world.
EXCERPTED FROM GROWING YOUNG: HOW FRIENDSHIP,
OPTIMISM, AND KINDNESS CAN HELP YOU LIVE TO 100 BY
MARTA ZARASKA. COPYRIGHT © 2020 MARTA ZARASKA.
PUBLISHED BY APPETITE BY RANDOM HOUSE®, A DIVI-
SION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CANADA LIMITED.
REPRODUCED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PUBLISHER.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Fighting Fright
Courage is the most important of all the virtues
because without courage, you can’t practise
any other virtue consistently.
MAYA ANGELOU

Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not

there to scare you. They’re there to let
you know something is worth it.
C. JOYBELL C., WRITER

rd.ca 71
reader’s digest

B
 DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

e d to fi n d a n
Doctors rac nake’s venom
n ti dote as the s a bha
a o ug h Sh a l
spread thr body, attacking
Kalliath’s g her

!
nd i nc h in

N
a
her organs eath

T T E
closer to d

B I BY Stacy Lee Kong

illustration by mathias ball

rd.ca 73
 W
reader’s digest
when shalabha kalliath arrived on
Thailand’s Ko Phi Phi Don Island last
spring, her plan was to sightsee, sun-
bathe and check out the island’s night-
life with her high school friend Santra
Navas. The 26-year-old Kalliath lived
in Waterloo, Ont., where she was com-
pleting her master of applied science
degree at the University of Waterloo,
while Navas was working as an assis-
tant art director in Singapore. After
four years apart, they were excited to
catch up.
The Phi Phi Islands are known for
their white sandy beaches, turquoise
ocean and soaring limestone cliffs. At
the end of the day, crowds flock to
beachside bars and restaurants. That’s
where Kalliath and Navas found them-
selves on their first night in Thailand,
still wearing their swimsuits, cover-ups
and flip-flops while watching one of
the island’s famous fire shows. The pair
looked on as young Thai men spun
flaming staffs, ropes and balls of fire on
chains, their choreographed motions
set to pulsing dance music.
During an intermission, the pair
opted to explore the beach. But as they
74 july/august 2020
stepped from the sand to the sidewalk,
Kalliath felt a sharp pain in her right
pinky toe. She lifted her leg and saw a
skinny, half-metre-long brown snake
dangling from her foot. She instinc-
tively kicked, slamming the reptile
against the wall of a nearby building.
Seconds later, she was hit by excruci-
ating pain. It started in her toe and
swiftly moved to her ankle, calf, knee
and, finally, her thigh.
“It was like hot lava travelling upward
through my system,” she says.
Kalliath’s leg buckled and she fell
to the ground. Navas and a passerby
picked her up and carried her to Ko
Phi Phi Don’s WorldMed Center, a
medical office with a small walk-in
clinic, while another passerby fol-
lowed with the dead snake.
Within minutes of reaching the
clinic, Kalliath’s leg started swelling
and the pain became even worse. “We
held on to each other’s hands, and
I kept telling her that she would be
okay,” Navas says, “but I was uncertain
of my own words.”
kalliath had been bitten by a Malayan
pit viper. Found throughout Southeast
Asia, these snakes typically grow to
around 50 centimetres in length,
though some can reach more than a
metre. Malayan pit vipers are not con-
sidered aggressive, but they will bite if
disturbed—and bites can be serious,
leading to swelling, pain, skin discol-
oration, blistering, hemorrhaging and
 necrosis—the death of cells
in tissues and organs. Severe
necrosis can require limb
amputation, and in cases of
hemorrhaging or a bacterial
infection, bites can even
cause death.
At first, the clinic staff
weren’t sure whether the
viper had actually injected
venom—roughly 25 per cent
of pit viper bites are “dry.”
But Kalliath’s leg was so
swollen that her flip-flop no
longer fit her foot. The staff Shalabha Kalliath and Santra Navas in Thailand.
administered pain medica-
tions, IV fluids, antibiotics and a tetanus weak and fading in and out of con-
vaccine. Then they performed a blood sciousness. “I could hear everything,
test to determine whether there was but I couldn’t respond with anything
venom in her system. While they waited other than a yes or no,” she says.
for the results, Kalliath and Navas called Antivenins are made by injecting
their respective fathers, who are both animals—usually horses and sheep,
doctors. Kalliath’s father was half a day both of which have very strong immune
away by plane in Brunei, but her symp- systems—with snake venom so they
toms were progressing so quickly that can produce antibodies that neutralize
they worried about him being unreach- its toxins. Then the blood is harvested,
able for even that length of time. Both purified and concentrated into anti-
men offered advice over the phone. venin. Venom has different qualities
Seven hours later, the results were depending on the species it comes
in: Kalliath needed antivenin, and fast. from and even where that species lives,
COURTESY OF SHALABHA KALLIATH

Snake venom doesn’t stay at the site of so every bite must be treated with a
a bite—it floods into surrounding tis- specific antidote. In Kalliath’s case,
sues, where it can start to destroy cells the clinic didn’t have the right type on
and impact the blood’s ability to clot. hand. She had to be transferred to Phi
The doctor told her that there was no Phi Island Hospital, a larger facility
guarantee she’d survive. about 10 minutes away.
The terrifying news was made worse There, the hospital staff decided to
by the fact that Kalliath was extremely run blood work again to confirm that

rd.ca 75
reader’s digest
Kalliath needed antivenin. The added
delay intensified the women’s sense of
helplessness. But antivenin can cause
an anaphylactic reaction in the short
term and an uncomfortable immune
response known as serum sickness in
the long term, so the attending doctors
didn’t want to risk giving her a dose
unless it was necessary.
When the second test confirmed she
had venom in her system, the doctor
administered the antivenin, then waited
to see how Kalliath’s body reacted. If
her blood started clotting normally,
she wouldn’t need additional doses.
Unfortunately, her blood didn’t clot.
And another problem had arisen: the
doctor was concerned that the venom
was causing tissue in Kalliath’s foot
and leg to die, which could mean she
would need an amputation.
The language barrier made the
already tense situation more stressful.
Neither woman spoke Thai, and the
doctor struggled to communicate
complicated medical information in
English, saying they might need to
“chop” her leg.
Ten hours after Kalliath’s first dose
of antivenin, the doctor tried a second.
This time, it worked—but not without
side effects. Kalliath’s grip on reality
began to disintegrate. As she slipped
in and out of consciousness, she
was unable to differentiate between
dreams and reality. Kalliath would fall
asleep mid-sentence, then wake up
seconds later, feeling like she’d slept
76 july/august 2020
for hours. She was disoriented, scared
and in constant pain.
But by the following morning—her
third in Thailand—she was beginning
to see small improvements. She was
still in pain and her leg was very
bruised, but she was alert. The doctor
even allowed Navas to take her out of
the hospital in a wheelchair so she
could get some fresh air.
BRUISES BEGAN
TO BLOOM ACROSS
KALLIATH’S OTHER
LEG AND ARM.
SHE FELT DIZZY.
The day after that, she was able to
move around on crutches, and her
doctor decided she was out of danger.
With just over 24 hours left of her trip,
Kalliath was discharged.
Though her leg was still painful and
swollen, she wanted to see as much of
the island as she could. She slowly
made her way around Ko Phi Phi Don
on crutches with Navas, checking out
restaurants, boutiques and even a
beach party. “I couldn’t dance much,
but we took it slow and still made an
effort to dress up,” she says. The next
morning, they even went on a boat ride
and snorkelled. Kalliath was eager to
try swimming with sharks, but Navas
nixed that plan.
 “After our ordeal with the snake bite,”
Navas says, “I thought it was best not to
interact with wildlife for some time.”
Later that day, the friends started
their separate journeys home. Kalliath
had to travel in shorts because her leg
was still too swollen to fit into her
pants, but otherwise her trip went
smoothly. Her insurance company even
upgraded her to first class, allowing
her to keep her leg elevated during her
flights. By the time she touched down in
Canada, she figured the worst was over.
six days after being bitten, Kalliath
was back home in Waterloo. Initially,
she’d planned to get some sleep and
then call her family doctor. But after a
nap and a shower, Kalliath realized her
exhaustion hadn’t improved at all.
Bruises began to bloom across her
other leg and arms. She felt dizzy.
Kalliath called two university friends,
Bharat Venkitesh and Jerry Wilson, and
asked them to get her to a doctor.
They first tried a nearby walk-in
clinic but were quickly sent to Grand
River Hospital, three kilometres away.
They waited in the emergency room
for several hours, chatting and trying
to keep Kalliath awake. She was
exhausted and fell asleep easily—
sometimes in the middle of speaking
with Venkitesh. Eventually, medical
staff tested Kalliath’s blood to see how
freely it could clot.
The results were so extreme that they
were undetectable by the hospital’s
machine. The medical staff ran the tests
again. When the second test yielded
the same results, they realized that the
problem was Kalliath’s blood, which
was taking a dangerously abnormal
time to clot.
Dr. Russell Uppal, the ER doctor on
duty that evening, usually sees patients
with abdominal pain and injuries to
the extremities. He’d never encoun-
tered a venomous snake bite.
He contacted the Ontario Poison
Centre and consulted a toxicologist,
who speculated Kalliath hadn’t
received enough antivenin in Thai-
land, or that her body had experi-
enced a delayed reaction to the
snake’s venom.
Either way, she needed another
dose. Finding one wouldn’t be easy.
The closest option was at the Toronto
Zoo, which had on hand an antivenin
for Ontario’s only venomous snake,
the Massasauga rattlesnake, also a
venomous pit viper. The toxicologist
hypothesized it was similar enough to
the Malayan pit viper to be effective.
The second option was a polyvalent
antivenin, which was located at
Indian River Reptile Zoo in Asphodel-
Norwood, Ont., just east of Peterbor-
ough. It was more easily accessible, but
the toxicologist wasn’t sure if it would
be effective—no one had ever used it
to treat a Malayan pit viper bite. The
closest vials of Malayan pit viper anti-
venin were in the United States. The
hospital put in requests at both of the
rd.ca 77
reader’s digest
Canadian locations. They also raced
to obtain frozen plasma for Kalliath.
Her blood’s ability to clot was so low
that she was at risk of brain hemor-
rhage, bleeding from her body’s
mucous membranes and organ fail-
ure. She’d need a transfusion if her
health plummeted.
Lying in her hospital bed, Kalliath
felt more tired than sick. “I could still
talk—I was communicating, laughing,”
she says. “I didn’t realize the serious-
ness of the situation.”
In fact, she felt so much better than
she had in Thailand that she thought
she must be recovering. But when Ven-
kitesh asked if they could step out for a
coffee, she quickly learned otherwise.
“The medical staff told me I shouldn’t
walk,” she says. “If I bumped into some-
thing and fell, I could bleed out.”
In fact, she was so fragile that even
minor ailments, like nausea or light-
headedness, could cause serious dam-
age. Even vomiting could cause a life-
threatening internal tear or rupture.
Her organs were shutting down, a
nurse explained, and she already had
internal bleeding. “There’s a 50 per
cent chance that you won’t survive the
next six to 12 hours,” the nurse said, as
the medical team moved her from the
ER to the intensive care unit.
Kalliath was stunned. She wasn’t
prepared to die.
kalliath waited anxiously for one of
the antivenin options to arrive. She
78 july/august 2020
was almost never alone while hospital
staff closely monitored her for worsen-
ing local spread—increased pain,
swelling, redness—and any signs of
additional internal bleeding.
Two hours later, the antivenin finally
arrived via car from the Toronto Zoo,
accompanied by a police escort. After
a small test dose to rule out serious
allergic reactions, Kalliath received the
full dose via IV. Then, more waiting,
for a blood test that would indicate
whether she was stabilizing.
The results came in: the antivenin
was working. Doctors and nurses
cheered and hugged one another,
while Venkitesh ran to the only shop
that was open in the hospital to buy
chocolate for everyone.
within days, kalliath’s blood work had
corrected, the internal bleeding had
stopped, and her organs were return-
ing to their normal functioning. It took
a few weeks for the swelling in her bit-
ten leg to relent and for Kalliath to get
back on her feet. For a few months
after being bitten, she’d still feel the
tingling of pins and needles in her foot
and lower leg.
A year later, she’s back to normal,
living in Ottawa and working for an
engineering consulting firm. Despite
the ordeal, she doesn’t fault the snake.
“At the end of the day,” she says, “we
were the ones in its path.” But she
vows to always buy travel insurance.
And to always look where she walks.
 LAUGH LINES

Never get into a lane-merging The worst thing

game of chicken with a about parallel parking
person who has a garbage is witnesses.
— @ARMYVET1972
bag for a car-door window.
— @MELVINOFYORK

Somebody
actually
If anyone
complimented my
catches me
singing in my car,
my reaction is to
Laughs driving today. They
left a little note on
the windshield that
stare at them until
it’s awkward for in the said “parking fine.”
— @AADIL

—
both of us.
@RHODES411 Fast Lane
How is it that a The irony of
parking spot gets being hit by
paid more per hour a Dodge.
than I do? — @RIKPAYNE
— @MARKEDLY
JENNY STURM/SHUTTERSTOCK

rd.ca 79
reader’s digest
 LIFE LESSON

The COVID-19 pandemic

also poses a threat to
retirement savings. Here’s
how you can bounce back

WHEN THE
RAINY DAY
ARRIVES
BY Bryan Borzykowski
illustration by megan sebesta

rd.ca 81
reader’s digest
THE NIGHT OF this past February 25
was one I’ll never forget. Earlier in the
day, my wife and I had paid a photog-
rapher a $1,000 deposit for my daugh-
ter’s bat mitzvah in August. Even bigger
bills for the event would be due soon.
That week, thanks to growing concerns
over COVID-19, our bat mitzvah sav-
ings, which were tied up in a mostly
stock-filled tax-free savings account
(TFSA), fell by about 7 per cent. I began
to panic: what if it falls further and I
can’t afford to have the party?
The next morning, I moved all of the
money in that account out of stocks
and into cash, narrowly avoiding a
steeper loss as the market fell by close
to 30 per cent over the next few weeks.
What I didn’t do, though, was sell off
my retirement assets held in a regis-
tered retirement savings plan (RRSP),
which lost thousands of dollars in that
first month. I turned 40 this past Feb-
ruary, so it’s likely that I’ll make that
money back and then some by the
time I retire.
It’s a different situation for my father,
a 66-year-old project manager who still
takes on freelance contracts. If the
market doesn’t rebound in the next
couple of years, the hit to his savings
could force him to significantly rethink
his retirement plans.
No matter your age, a financial crisis
will impact your savings, investments
and earning power. What you can do
about it depends on how much time you
have left before your last day of work.
82 july/august 2020
Early Income
Earners
In some ways, the youngest group of
savers—people between 25 and 39—
are in the best shape during and fol-
lowing a crisis, says Allan Small, a
senior investment advisor in Toronto.
Many of them don’t have much money
in stocks, which rise and fall more
dramatically than a savings account.
Whatever they do have in stocks,
though, has plenty of time to recover
from the fall. “Investments will not go
to zero, and we will get through this,”
says Small.
Although it may seem counterintui-
tive, Small’s advice for this group is to
start putting money into the stock
market if they haven’t already. In 2008,
during the last financial crisis, many
investment portfolios lost close to half
their value, but investors who held tight
were rewarded in the end: between
the date the market bottomed and the
day the current crisis began, stock
markets in Canada and the United
States were up 137 per cent and 398
per cent, respectively.
Of course, many early income earn-
ers have goals that aren’t as far away
as retirement—a house, a new car or
a big event like a bat mitzvah. For the
expenses that can’t be put on hold,
there is one immediate upside to the
crisis. “If someone wants to make a big
purchase, interest rates are low, and
that makes borrowing attractive right
now,” says Jason Heath, a financial
planner in Markham, Ont. “You just
have to keep in mind that the economy
is weak, and taking on more debt at a
time when we are entering a recession
is risky.” He suggests creating a
detailed budget to make sure you’ll be
able to pay back a line of credit before
opening one.
If you have some time to save for
your goal, Heath advises putting what-
ever you can into a high-interest sav-
ings account. Despite its name, the
interest rate won’t be very high—
maybe two per cent or so—but you
won’t lose anything if the market keeps
going down.
For people with credit card debt,
however, it’s always best to pay that
down first, as a savings account will
never bring in more than most credit
cards charge in monthly interest.
High Income
Earners
If you’re in your 40s and 50s, and still
10 to 20 years away from retirement,
your RRSP may be more invested in
stocks than bonds. If that’s the case,
you’ve likely seen your assets plummet
by thousands of dollars.
The first thing you should do is make
sure your financial house is in order.
INVESTING 101
RRSP
Contributions into a registered retire-
ment savings plan are tax deductible.
Later, when you withdraw during
retirement, you’ll pay income tax but
at a lower rate than when you deposited
those funds.
High-interest savings account
While a chequing account is best for
day-to-day expenses, banks often offer
higher interest in a savings account. You
may be required to keep a minimum
amount of money in the account.
TFSA
Like an RRSP, a tax-free savings account
is another place you can invest in stocks
and bonds—often for shorter-term
goals. Unlike an RRSP, you don’t pay
any tax when you withdraw.
RRIF
At age 71, when RRSPs must be closed,
you can convert your account into a reg-
istered retirement income fund, where
you can continue generating investment
gains without paying taxes on them.
Stocks vs. Bonds
Investing in stocks, which give you an
ownership stake in a company, can be
more volatile than bonds, which are
loans you provide to the government or
a corporation in return for an interest
payment. —Micah Toub
rd.ca 83
reader’s digest
With job losses rapidly rising across
the country, you’ll want to be prepared
for a potential hit to your income, pay-
ing down credit card debt and paring
back expenses wherever possible.
As with the early income earners, if
there are unavoidable costs coming up
in the weeks or months ahead, put
whatever money you can into a high-
interest savings account so it stays out
of the stock market, which could con-
tinue to fall if COVID-19 doesn’t
improve as quickly as expected.
If you are continuing to earn a sal-
ary, don’t stop saving—a drop in the
market can give you an opportunity to
buy stocks at a cheaper price. In fact, if
you’ve reached this age and have never
held stocks, now is a good time to talk
to a financial planner to see if getting
into the market is right for you.
If you are already investing, you
likely have a balance of stocks and
bonds. As the stocks portion of those
savings goes down, and if you’re still
feeling okay about taking some risk,
you can move funds from the bond
part of your portfolio into stocks to
keep the balance as it was.
Nearly Retired, or
Already Clocked Out
People like my dad may imminently
need the money they’ve saved. The
first step for them is to take a deep
84 july/august 2020
breath. For anyone who was able to
save the recommended 10 per cent of
your income during your working
years, you’re not pulling all of your
money out of your RRSP or your regis-
tered retirement income fund (RRIF)
at once. “A lot of older people think
their stocks don’t have time to recover,”
says Small. “But unless you need it all,
then it does have time to rise again.”
Of course, some retired or nearly
retired people may need more cash to
cover their day-to-day expenses. Per-
haps they didn’t save enough or their
investments were more concentrated
in stocks than bonds than they should
have been at this late stage of life. If
this is you, then you may have to delay
your retirement or, if you’re already
retired, find a part-time job to make up
for lost savings.
You won’t be alone. A study by
Brooke Helppie McFall, an economist
at the University of Michigan Institute
for Social Research, found that 40 per
cent of older Americans postponed
their retirement after the Great Reces-
sion of 2008.
At least for the moment, though,
scaling back expenses is easier than
usual: even as the COVID-19 lockdown
eases, most retirees aren’t spending as
much, especially when it comes to
travel. If that’s the case, you can use
those saved dollars for daily purchases,
or put them into a high interest sav-
ings account for potential unexpected
expenses to come.
 Unfortunately, the value of pension
group investment savings has fallen,
too. However, if you’re still working
and making contributions into one, try
not to stop. If you think you’re at a real
risk of losing your job and would rather
have that money in your pocket, then
you can either reduce the amount of
money you put towards your pension
or stop contributing entirely. Remem-
ber, though, pension payments come
right off your paycheque, so it’s not
money you’re used to spending any-
way. “It’s forced investing,” says Rona
Birenbaum, a certified financial plan-
ner in Toronto. “And that’s always a
good thing.”
For everyone, it’s a good time to
review your pension plan investments,
as you may have signed up for one
years ago. Fortunately, today’s most
popular options are called “target date
funds,” which automatically get more
conservative as you get older. If you’re
in one, then you may have lost less
than you think. If your plan was
instead overly weighted towards stock-
heavy equity mutual funds, then you
may want to find different funds to
invest in at this time.
Saving and investing in a time of cri-
sis is not easy. But no matter your age,
if you stay invested and if you’re able
to continue saving, then you’ll come
out farther ahead when the rebound
finally comes.
That’s my plan and it’s one I’m
encouraging my dad to adopt, even
though we’ve both had more than a few
sleepless nights. As Birenbaum says,
“Those who can invest through this time
will be glad they did. And those who
can’t shouldn’t worry—they will get
another opportunity in the future.”

Marital Mischief
I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person
you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
RITA RUDNER

The best way to get most husbands to do something

is to suggest that perhaps they’re too old to do it.
ANN BANCROFT

I’m getting married today. My only fear is that instead of “I do” I’ll say “I do do.”
TIG NOTARO

Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer
with slow Internet to see who they really are.
WILL FERRELL

rd.ca 85
 HUMOUR

Mom
Needs LATELY, WHEN “MOM” pops up on my
call display, I look at my phone, sigh
heavily and think, “What now?” At

IT Help
almost 80 years old, my mother seems
to have more tech gadgets than I do,
and yet she’s hopeless when it comes

Again
I’ve become her always-
on-call tech assistant
BY Craig Baines
illustration by emily chu
to basic troubleshooting. Whether I
like it or not, I am her dedicated tech
support. I field calls about her laptop,
smartphone, printer, scanner, univer-
sal remote, Wi-Fi network, Bluetooth
speaker and ultrasonic toothbrush,
just to name a few. Twenty-four hours
a day. Rain or shine.
If you have been similarly con-
scripted, here are some tips from
the trenches:

86 july/august 2020

Always take her call. I know, I
know, it can be painful, but you have
to trust me on this and pick up. She is
your mom, and she’ll play that card. I
usually get a “Craig, I am your mother.”
Plus, if she detects even the slightest
hint of my exasperation, she hits me
with “I changed your diapers!” Well,
Mom, being your personal Geek Squad
is a crappy job, too!
Don’t troubleshoot in front of
co-workers. Over the years, Mom
and I have developed a familiar, “unfil-
tered” tone when we talk to each other.
My side of a typical call starts with “Yes,
Mom?” and quickly spirals from there
to “You can’t do what?” to “I would love
to help, but I don’t think ‘thingamajig’
is a $%&# technical term!!!” Such talk,
while often justified, doesn’t go over
well in an open-concept office. Your
colleagues will think you’re The. Worst.
Son. Ever. To avoid raising any eye-
brows, take the call from the nearest
supply closet. (Pro tip: if you need
something to scream into, a roll of
paper towel works great!)
Share the burden. The next time
Mom hands you her smartphone to “fig-
ure out,” take a proactive step by creat-
ing a new contact called IT Emergency
Helpline and encourage her to use it.
But instead of inputting your number,
use your sister’s. (Sorry, Krista!) It’s
about time she stepped up. Sure, she
may be balancing three kids and a new
reader’s digest
job, but since when is that a Get Out of
Jail Free card from helping Mom figure
out where her Spider Solitaire icon dis-
appeared to? (I have a life, too, Sis!)
Help mom’s wi-fi help her.
Recently, while taking a break from
looking out her front window, Mom
managed to locate that one corner of
her home that has a weak Wi-Fi signal.
What prompted her to use her tablet in
the furnace room I’ll never know, but
she sure as sugar called me afterwards
to complain about it…followed by
an update on her neighbours. Faster
than Roto-Rooter, I was over fixing her
network and decided to rename it. I
felt “Linda Wi-Fi” was boring. Thanks
to me, folks within a five-house
radius have seen “Pick Up After Your
Dog Wi-Fi,” “Mow That Lawn Dammit
Wi-Fi” and “Your Powder Room Needs
Blinds Wi-Fi!”
Avoid emojis at all costs. Finally,
a word of caution. I mistakenly intro-
duced Mom to emojis thinking they
would liven up our otherwise mundane
text exchanges. At first, I needed the
Rosetta Stone to decipher Mom’s mes-
sages. For instance, on one occasion I
wasn’t sure if she was describing her
garden or curious about medical mari-
juana. But things turned really awk-
ward last August after Mom got home
from the local peach festival. Her
texts describing plump, lip-smacking
peaches still give me nightmares.
rd.ca 87
reader’s digest
 EDITORS’ CHOICE

PL AYTI ME
When it opened in 1972, there was
nothing quite like it. How one Ontario
playground reinvented the way
kids everywhere have fun.
BY Nick Hune-Brown FROM THE LO C AL

rd.ca 89
reader’s digest

The greatest playground in Canadian history was built

as an afterthought. In spring 1971, Ontario Place opened
with all the fanfare and anxiety that attends the launch
of any large-scale development in Toronto. Sparked by
the success of Montreal’s Expo 67, the massive water-
front project was conjured out of a mixture of large-
scale optimism and small-minded jealousy. The park’s
somewhat unpromising theme: the glorious past and
thrilling future of the province of Ontario.
During that opening season, visitors McMillan didn’t hesitate. “I think it’s
were awed by the IMAX movies, the boring,” he said. “Well, what would you
open-air Forum theatre and the park’s do?” asked Ramsay. “I don’t know,”
self-flushing toilets. They ogled archi- said McMillan. “Give me two weeks.”
tect Eberhard Zeidler’s series of man- McMillan huddled with his assis-
made islands and “pods,” which stuck tant David Lloyd, and when they
out of the water, skewered by columns. returned it was with a series of sketches
But one oversight quickly became clear: for a playscape unlike any seen before,
there wasn’t enough for kids to do. in Toronto or any other city—a colour-
When the park decided to build an area blocked kingdom of hanging punch-

(PREVIOUS SPREAD) COURTESY OF ERIC AND ROSE McMILLAN

devoted to children for the following
year, park director Jim Ramsay turned
to design consultant Eric McMillan.
McMillan was a lanky, wild-eyed,
30-year-old Englishman with the accent
and mannerisms of one of Monty
Python’s more unhinged characters.
He had designed Ontario Place’s most
successful exhibition that year, a multi-
media tour through the province’s
history, but he’d never built anything
for children. During a meeting with
Ramsay, McMillan remembers his boss
asking for his opinion on the park.
ing bags, vinyl-clad foam mountains
and soaring climbing nets. Children’s
Village would be a massive success.
It would launch McMillan’s career. It
would sit at the centre of kid life for
a  generation of Torontonians and,
briefly, promise to revolutionize the
way we play.
the playground is a curious creation.
The first one in North America was a
simple pile of sand in Boston’s north
end, installed in 1885 by female
philanthropists who wanted to give

90 july/august 2020
 poor immigrant children a place to play full of Dickensian deprivation and
and, crucially, a means to assimilate casual violence. McMillan’s biogra-
into American society. That push and phy—a mixture of fact and family
pull, between providing children with mythology that is difficult to untan-
autonomy and controlling them, has gle—was that he was stillborn during
been at the heart of playground design the bombing of Sheffield during WWII,
ever since. They’re places to expand revived by a nurse, and from there life
children’s imaginations while con- only got harder. “Lots of violence,” he
straining their bodies. “Playgrounds says, “lots of drinking, lots of poverty.”
are places made by adults, for children, As a kid, McMillan was often hungry
always with the hope of harnessing and nearly always dirty. For a time, his
their play to a specific location,” writes family lived in the shadow of the Man-
architecture critic Alexandra Lange in chester prison then called Strangeways.
her book The Design of Childhood. They were desperate enough that, one
In theme parks, where the prerequi- cold winter, his uncle and father broke
sites of play meet the demands of capi- into the prison to steal coal. He was
talism, the balance between controlling constantly moving from rooming house
a child’s behaviour and stimulat-
ing their creativity becomes more
wobbly. Parks in the Disneyland
mould are, above all, about man-
aging the play of children, mov-
ing them along efficiently, safely
and profitably. The equipment
is to be used in a specific way,
with no latitude for experimen-
tation. The modern theme park
seems to offer boundless cre-
ativity to its designers while
leaving little scope for the chil-
TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES

dren themselves.
McMillan wasn’t interested in
controlling kids. In designing
Children’s Village, his driving
philosophy was simple: “What
Eric McMillan
would I, as a child, like to do?”
asked: How did he
It’s an interesting question for have fun as a kid?
someone whose childhood was

rd.ca 91
reader’s digest
to rooming house, school to school.
His father was a day labourer, when he
had work. On weekends, he would put
on his one good suit and play piano in
local pubs, earning as much in a single
night as he would in a week, before
drinking it all away.
The flip side of a childhood of neglect
is absolute freedom. “My early memo-
ries were just being like a dog, let out
in the mornings and let in at night,”
says McMillan. In those early years, he
would play in the rubble of bombed-
out buildings, clambering over the
ruins, playing violent games with bricks,
building paper airplanes out of the
pages of discarded books. There were
no restraints, no control.
CHILDREN’S
VILLAGE OFFERED
AN EXHILARATING
AND EVEN SLIGHTLY
SCARY FREEDOM.
When he left school at 15, he could
barely read or write. He got a job as a
painter’s apprentice and prepared for
a life as a labourer. The trade school
was attached to an art school, however,
and as he slowly began to talk with the
neighbouring students, the idea of
applying there himself became fixed in
his mind. He took the exams, got in,
and immediately entered a new world.
92 july/august 2020
He graduated a few years later, with
growing confidence and an enormous
chip on his shoulder. After designing
museum exhibitions in England, he saw
ads looking for a designer for Expo 67
and made his way across the Atlantic.
At one point, McMillan’s personal
website included the story of how he
escaped his upbringing. He told the
story with a characteristic mix of arro-
gance and deadpan understatement:
“I became an apprentice house painter
and then moved up to art school, and
then I became a genius and moved to
North America.”
i’ve known Eric McMillan since I was
a child. My father, another English
immigrant who found himself in Can-
ada in the 1970s, was also on the ori-
ginal Ontario Place team, as an editor
on the park’s first IMAX film, and the
two quickly became friends. As a kid,
I remember McMillan striding into
our house—a wild presence, all jutting
elbows and knees, who would appear
out of nowhere with a trunk full of plas-
tic balls or a truckload of couch-sized
interlocking plastic blocks, prototypes
for a new experiment in fort-building.
At Children’s Village, he was given
free rein and a $700,000 budget—or
about $4.5 million in today’s dollars.
The time in which he was working was
a remarkably fertile one for children’s
design. In the postwar era, with the baby
boom, there were suddenly brand new
economies around childhood. With
 government and institutional sup-
port, designers felt free to experi-
ment. “People at the highest echelon
of design were interested in child-
hood,” says Lange. “It wasn’t a sub-
set; it was at the centre of design.”
This was the era in which “junk
playgrounds” or “adventure play-
grounds”—places where tiny chil-
dren were given tool belts and a
fistful of nails and left to build their
own forts—proliferated across the
continent, including one at the foot
of Bathurst Street in Toronto. It was
an era in which designers emerging
from the ’60s, full of dreams about
building political and social uto-
pias, took their visions to the local
parks, building abstract sculptures
and modernist experiments that chil-
dren could clamber over.
At Children’s Village, McMillan cre-
ated a hectare of mayhem under an
orange canopy—reproducing his feral
childhood scrabbling through rubble
in the safety of Toronto, with moun-
tains of colourful vinyl and foam. He
erected an enormous spiderweb struc-
ture made out of rope that hung from
COURTESY OF ERIC AND ROSE McMILLAN
soaring watchtowers. He built a series
of wooden ladders that spun on their
axes, hurling would-be climbers to the
mats below. He strung swinging mon-
key bars over a pool of water and sus-
pended a forest of punching bags at
the centre of the village that was, for
decades, the most reliable producer of
bloody noses in Toronto.
Children’s
Village was
instantly
popular
with kids.
In my memory, the overriding feel-
ing of entering Children’s Village was
of an exhilarating, perhaps even
slightly scary freedom. The world
under the iconic orange canopy was
capacious enough that you always
felt as if there were undiscovered cor-
ners—a kid-sized hamster wheel
beneath a small hill, a new rope bridge
from one of the watchtowers you’d
never taken. Here, at last, was a place
that had been built specifically for you
and then left to your dominion. There
were no parents to help you in the chaos.
Exactly how you chose to scramble
your brain flinging yourself between
the giant vertical rubber bands was
your business. The place was yours. It
was your village.
rd.ca 93
reader’s digest

children’s village was a hit. Families

flocked to it, and international media
praised it. McMillan remembers Time
calling it “one of the most imaginative
playgrounds in the world.” The next year,
the Ontario Place brass gave McMillan
control over another section of the park,
and he set to work creating a water play
area. It included lagoons and climbing
equipment amid rushing water, enor-
mous squirting faces controlled by
pumps and bicycle-powered water guns.
Built before the first water parks or
splash pads, McMillan’s attractions
were created from scratch, gathering a
team of prop builders, metal workers
and craftsmen who could manufacture
his dreams. One of the early visitors
to McMillan’s park was an American
named George Millay. Today Millay is
credited as the father of the water park,
the progenitor of a massive industry.
When Millay opened the first Wet ’n
Wild in Orlando in 1977, however, the
name he gave the children’s area was
a tip of the cap to his inspiration: Cana- asked to transform a 3,000-acre plot
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
dian Water Caper. into a science park. In 1980, McMillan ARCHIVES; COURTESY OF ERIC AND ROSE McMILLAN
With his success at Ontario Place, teamed up with Jim Henson’s Chil-
McMillan became a major figure in the dren’s Television Workshop to create
blossoming world of children’s design. Sesame Place, the first of a planned
“Suddenly I became the world’s expert series of tactile amusement parks to be
on child’s play,” says McMillan. People built across America with the aim of
began calling him the next Walt Disney. helping children learn through play.
Over the next decade he designed play- It was a decade of remarkable cre-
grounds in various SeaWorlds in Amer- ativity. McMillan remembers sitting
ica and amusement parks in France. around with Lloyd one day and look-
He built a park in a mall in Chicago ing at a glass jar of pickled onions.
and was shuttled out to Alabama and “Wouldn’t it be something to be able

94 july/august 2020

to roll around in there,” he thought.
Shortly after, they ordered masses of
light plastic balls for a “ball crawl” in
San Diego—the world’s first ball pit, an
invention that soon became ubiqui-
tous in McDonald’s PlayPlaces and
Ikea stores across the world.
It seemed to McMillan as if he
worked in virgin territory, designing
places for kids with a seriousness of
purpose he says he hadn’t seen before.
Watching the way children used his
equipment, often in ways he could
Chaos in the
much-loved
punching bag
forest.
never have anticipated, made him
more and more certain: play wasn’t a
frivolous distraction from learning, but
something essential to childhood and,
indeed, humanity. The line-up-and-go-
on-an-iron-ride model of the theme
park was unfulfilling. The key was to
build things that sparked interaction,
between kids and the equipment, but
especially between the kids themselves.
According to his design philosophy,
each park wasn’t just a place to jump on
a shockingly large air mattress. It was
rd.ca 95
reader’s digest
“a place where a child can ask ques-
tions of what it means to be human.”
McMillan formed his own design
company, determined to build a
series of parks his way. He admits
that, after Sesame Place, he began to
grow more confident and more arro-
gant. He had sites in Montreal and Sac-
ramento. He planned to build and also
operate his own parks, promising to
show everybody how it was done. “I
got crazy, mate,” he says today. “I was
going to change American culture
96 july/august 2020
and, therefore, the world. I was sure I
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
ARCHIVES; COURTESY OF ERIC AND ROSE McMILLAN
was going to do it.”
Instead, the world changed with-
out him. McMillan’s other parks were
never built. The skills required to fund
and run a theme park, of course, are
very different from the creativity needed
to design one. Spoiled by the freedom
he had been given at Ontario Place, he
often chafed at the demands and restric-
tions of his new corporate partners.
One project fell through, then another.
McMillan grew tired of throwing
himself into designs, only to watch
them collapse. “Eric could project
a  very pure kind of childlike play,”
remembers Hans-Henrich Piersig, a
German-born prop builder who was
one of McMillan’s collaborators. “But
maybe eventually he ran out of steam.”
More than that, the times had
changed. If the design for children in
the ’60s and ’70s had been full of pos-
sibility and experimentation, the pre-
vailing mood in the 1980s was of cau-
tion. After a series of lawsuits against
Full of ideas, Eric
McMillan also
helped to pioneer
the water park.
playgrounds, “liability,” not “creativ-
ity,” became the most important word
in children’s design. Most of the
adventure playgrounds that once dot-
ted North America were shuttered. The
massive wooden jungle gyms in school-
yards were replaced with modest
climbing structures. With its bright
colours and unruly design, Children’s
Village became a relic—a vision of the
future from the near past.
children’s village closed in 2002. Most
of the rest of Ontario Place officially shut
down in 2012. Today, as kids like me
who grew up getting bloody noses in the
punching bag forest are raising chil-
dren of our own, it’s impossible not to
think that Children’s Village represented
a brief moment when a different style
of mass play was possible. It feels like a
strange dream. Were the towers really
so high? Did the ziplines really run so
fast? Instead of an amusement park in
which kids line up for hours to sit pas-
sively on a moving piece of intellectual
property, what if a park just provided
the raw materials for child-instigated,
slightly dangerous adventure?
Nowhere is more infused with nos-
talgia than the places you played in as
a child. Looking back on the play-
grounds of the past, however, is more
than mere sentimentality, and it isn’t
limited to people who remember Chil-
dren’s Village. “There’s something in
the air,” says Lange. “We understand
that children’s play environment has
rd.ca 97
reader’s digest

been impoverished, and so looking himself from thinking about it.

back at those times when it wasn’t so
impoverished feels really important.”
In spring 2019, the provincial gov-
ernment began accepting proposals
for new developments on the Ontario
Place grounds. In the years since it
closed, there have been plans for a
year-round water park, for a casino or
an enormous Ferris wheel. There have
been calls to relocate Toronto’s Science
Centre to the waterfront or turn the
entire thing into a public park.
No one’s asked Eric McMillan what
should be on the site of the former
kids’ utopia he built on the waterfront.
Now 78, he lives with his wife, Rose, in
the Quebec countryside. He has an
orange tree planted indoors. He and
Rose grind their coffee by hand, with-
out a machine, build stone walls to
divide their various gardens, snowshoe
up the hills in the winter. The place is
their own personal playground. “I
can’t imagine a more privileged exis-
tence,” he says. He hasn’t visited his
first playground in years. “Ontario
Place long ago became a very sad ruin
of what could have been an interest-
ing place,” he says.
Still, McMillan can’t seem to stop
Recently, he came up with his own
proposal for the site. “They can just rip
down the pods and turn them into
scrap metal and build condos along
the edge,” says McMillan. “Or they can
go really crazy.”
In his reimagining, the empty pods
have been transformed into massive
lake filters—sucking up the water
from Lake Ontario, cleaning it, and
then sending it cascading into the
lake below. The design takes Zeidler’s
buildings and turns them into mas-
sive pieces of interactive art, where
kids can help control the flow of
water. “It would be a symbol of hope,”
says McMillan, a sign that that pol-
luted water can be healed and that,
he continues, “However small the first
drops are, accumulated they will
make a difference.”
The plan for the pods is whimsical
and audacious, as outside-the-box and
indifferent to the demands of com-
merce as ever. If people like me think
about Ontario Place with warm nostal-
gia, McMillan, as ever, is only thinking
about the future.
© 2019, NICHOLAS HUNE-BROWN FROM THE LOCAL,
THELOCAL.TO

Not in a Book
Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something
you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship,
you really haven’t learned anything.
MUHAMMAD ALI

98 july/august 2020
reader’s digest
reader’s digest
BOOK CLUB
Looking for an escape?
These newly released
novels, memoirs and story
collections will do the trick.
BY Emily Landau
100 july/august 2020
RODHAM
by Curtis Sittenfeld
(PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, $37)
Sittenfeld’s 2008 novel, Amer-
ican Wife, was a barely veiled
take on the life of Laura Bush. Her
newest, in sparkly prose, concerns a
young, ambitious, ferociously brilliant
Hillary Clinton. The book explores an
alternate history in which Hillary never
marries Bill—and asks whether either
would reach the White House.
STAY WHERE I CAN SEE YOU
by Katrina Onstad
(HARPERCOLLINS, $25)
In Onstad’s latest novel, the
(BOOK COVER) ISTOCK.COM/GRUFFI; (CLOUDS) EBERHARD GROSSGASTEIGER/UNSPLASH
middle-class Kaplans dis-
cover the downsides of a $10-million
jackpot. The book is part satire (the
dad dives into a kooky startup; the teen
daughter is a private school misfit)
and part domestic drama, as Gwen,
the matriarch, fears their new wealth
will dredge up her past and destroy
her family.
HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE
by Souvankham
Thammavongsa
(McCLELLAND & STEWART, $25)
In this short story collection,
Thammavongsa, who was born in a Thai
refugee camp and raised in Toronto,
crafts tender, sad and occasionally
hilarious short fiction about Laotian
immigrants, including a woman who
discovers country music (and the
charms of Randy Travis) and a father
who takes his kids to the rich side of
town for Halloween.
INDIANS ON VACATION
by Thomas King
(HARPERCOLLINS, $33, AUGUST 25)
Odds are that none of us will
be travelling this summer—
all the more reason to take a vicarious
literary vacation. The latest novel from
King, author of the Canadian classic
Green Grass, Running Water, is a swift,
madcap European picaresque about
an Indigenous couple hunting for fam-
ily heirlooms lost a century ago.
STILL HERE
by Amy Stuart
(SIMON AND SCHUSTER, $25, JULY 7)
The reigning queen of Cana-
dian thrillerdom is Amy Stu-
art, whose latest stay-up-past-your-
bedtime page-turner follows a troubled
loner PI with her own set of vices. As
Clare O’Dey uncovers the truth behind
the disappearance of her colleague
and his wife, she realizes he may not
be the trusted mentor she’d believed.
DEAD MOM WALKING: A
MEMOIR OF MIRACLE CURES
AND OTHER DISASTERS
by Rachel Matlow
(PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, $25)
Matlow has written an oddly hilarious,
often maddening account of their moth-
er’s decision to forgo chemotherapy
and radiation for colorectal cancer in
favour of natural tinctures and other
homeopathic remedies. The book
wrestles brilliantly with death, grief
and the surreal role reversal that takes
place when a child becomes their
parent’s caretaker.
NOTES FROM AN
APOCALYPSE: A PERSONAL
JOURNEY TO THE END OF
THE WORLD AND BACK
by Mark O’Connell
(PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, $37)
For this timely new book, Irish essayist
O’Connell travelled the globe collecting
stories about survivalists and doomsday
preppers: he visited Chernobyl, inter-
viewed aspiring Mars terraformers and
even popped by Peter Thiel’s billionaire
bunker in New Zealand. Despite its
uneasy prescience, it offers a surpris-
ing flicker of hope for the future.
THE VANISHING HALF
by Brit Bennett
(PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, $36)
Bennett’s latest novel des-
cribes the lives of two identi-
cal twins in Mallard, a southern town
populated almost exclusively by light-
skinned African-Americans. As the
girls grow up, one continues to live as
Black while the other passes for white,
marrying a rich man and keeping her
true identity secret. Her deception
works—until the twins’ daughters
cross paths years later.
rd.ca 101
reader’s digest

What eight Canadians

WATCH LIST are streaming during
the pandemic

I highly recommend Killing Eve (Crave).

First, I adore Sandra Oh. She’s luminous
as a security operative whose life becomes

(ROBINSON) RED WORKS STUDIO; (KILLING EVE) BELL MEDIA; (SUZUKI) JENNIFER ROESSLER/DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION;
intertwined with an assassin played by the equally
wonderful Jodie Comer. I love the action and
tension but also, more importantly, the way the
characters are given space and time to be their
own quirky selves. –Eden Robinson, AUTHOR

I am fortunate to be in isolation with

my wife, daughter, son-in-law and their
three young children. Helping take care
of the grandkids is a full-time job, but I’ve managed
to watch the new Michael Jordan docu-series

(THE LAST DANCE) NETFLIX; (0’NEIL) JULIE ARTACHO; (SUCCESSION) HBO

The Last Dance (Netflix), which provides
insight into an incredible athlete. It’s painful to
watch a hero being torn from his pedestal by
media and others who are hungry to find reasons
why he isn’t perfect. For me, he becomes even
more heroic in the way he responds to the
criticism. – David Suzuki, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST

I love Succession (Crave). It is about a media mogul

who manipulates and torments his children,
dangling the role of CEO in front of each of them.
You see the ways in which wealth and greed twist the
personalities of those who grow up in its vast arms.
The acting is phenomenal, and the writing is astute
and hilarious. It sucks you in like a high-powered
vacuum. – Heather O’Neill, AUTHOR

102 july/august 2020

(EDUGYAN) COURTESY OF ESI EDUGYAN; (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM) HBO; (JOJO RABBIT) IMDB/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX; (GALLOWAY) CBC; (CHERNOBYL) HBO; (DONOGHUE)
PUNCH PHOTOGRAPHIC; (LIGHTFOOT) COURTESY OF GORDON LIGHTFOOT; (KENNY ROGERS) PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO ; (FELICIEN) MARTIN BROWN

I just finished the second season of Mindhunter (Netflix).

It’s an intelligent, brooding crime drama with the cool
aesthetic of Mad Men. I was riveted. For lighter fare,
I turned to season 10 of Curb Your Enthusiasm (Crave), which
was, as always, irreverent and delightful. –Esi Edugyan, AUTHOR

The series Chernobyl (Crave) is extraordinarily

suspenseful and beautifully filmed, with awe-
inducing visuals of catastrophe. Even more
importantly, it dramatizes the dogged heroism of scientists
insisting on the facts in the face of wilfully ignorant,
tyrannous leaders in a way that couldn’t be more timely
in our COVID-19 moment. – Emma Donoghue, AUTHOR

We’re watching one thing a week as a family. We’re using

the opportunity, when we’d normally be pulled in four
different directions, to go slow and be together in the same
room. The biggest hit so far was JoJo Rabbit (Amazon Prime). It’s
smart and funny and subversive and weird enough that two teenagers
could enjoy it with their parents. And the song at the end of the
film will make you cry. – Matt Galloway, RADIO HOST

I recently watched Biography: If binge watching television

Kenny Rogers (A&E). He was a
giant of the industry, and I admire
him very much. The documentary captures
his fabulous songs and the exceptional
work he did with such duet partners as
Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Lionel Richie
and others. – Gordon Lightfoot, MUSICIAN
were an Olympic sport
during social isolation, I’d
bring home the gold medal. Of the
many shows I’ve seen, one of my
favourites has been Raising Dion
(Netflix). It’s about a single mother
who must protect her son after she
discovers he has superpowers. I
assumed it was a show for kids,
but with all its twists and turns,
every member of the family
will find it highly entertaining.
– Perdita Felicien, ATHLETE

rd.ca 103
reader’s digest
CURIOSITIES
You’re From
Where?
The incredible-but-true
origins of Canada’s
strangest town names
BY Rosie Long Decter
illustration by kyle metcalf
104 july/august 2020
Youbou, B.C.
Its name is a mashup of the original
owners of an old mill, Yount and
Bouten. It’s also near the strangely
not-treeless Bald Mountain.
Dead Man’s Flats, Alta.
Some trace this town’s name back to a
murder at a Bow River dairy farm in
1904. Others say it comes from how
men hunting beaver in the area pre-
tended to be dead to avoid arrest.
Vulcan, Alta.
The name of this town, christened by a
Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor, was
supposedly inspired by the Roman God
of Fire. The town has also embraced
the Star Trek connection, with a replica
of the Starship Enterprise, a bust of
Leonard Nimoy and an annual Trekkie
convention called Vul-Con.
Climax, Sask.
Get your mind out of the gutter. This
village of 195 was named after a brand
of tobacco.
Love, Sask.
Although young people are known to
travel here just to get married, the
town’s name is said to have been taken
from Tom Love, the first train conduc-
tor to pass through.
Flin Flon, Man.
When naming this city, prospector
Thomas Creighton was inspired by a
dime-store sci-fi book, The Sunless
City, and its protagonist, Josiah Flint-
abbatey Flonatin. The statue of J.F.F.
at the entrance to the town is known
as Flinty.
Crotch Lake, Ont.
According to Corey Klatt, who works
for the township of North Frontenac,
this name refers not to a body part, but
to how the lake’s two narrows meet,
resembling the crotch of a stick.
Tiny, Ont.
Rather than a reference to its size, this
township’s name is said to pay homage
to a pet dog of Lady Sarah Maitland
(1792–1873), the wife of a lieutenant-
governor of Upper Canada. She named
two other townships after her other
pups, Tay and Flos.
Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Que.
Some believe that the latter part of the
Témiscouata valley town’s name comes
from the sound that newcomers would
make upon viewing its shining lake for
the first time.
Crapaud, P.E.I.
A popular stop on the Trans-Canada,
it’s named after the spring peeper frog,
renowned for its loud chirp (crapaud
is French for toad).
Meat Cove, N.S.
The name of this village, which is better
known for fish, is rumoured to come
from the fact that hunters once used
the area to dress animal carcasses.
Sober Island, N.S.
Some say that this remote island was
named by British soldiers in the 1700s,
who landed there with no liquor on
their ship. Today it’s known for its
namesake brewing company.
Peekaboo Corner, N.B.
A small community within the village of
Norton, it was named after a local house
that stood on the corner of the road and
blocked the view of passing drivers.
Cardigan, P.E.I.
Named after the Earl of Cardigan, a
British lord who eventually became
Prince of Wales. No word on the sweater
of choice for its residents.
Bacon Cove, N.L.
Some say the name comes from set-
tlers who bribed a pirate with pigs;
others say it was originally Beacon
Cove. Arguably the best explanation,
though, is the local legend about a ship
that lost a shipment of pigs in a storm.
They were rescued by residents, only
to be turned into breakfast.
Heart’s Desire, N.L.
What do you find between Heart’s
Delight and Heart’s Content? Heart’s
Desire! The three scenic towns are
huddled together around a heart-
shaped harbour.
rd.ca 105
reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS

(PIC-A-PIX: THREE WISHES) DIANE BAHER. MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE AT LEARNPICAPIX.COM; (MOVING DAY) DARREN RIGBY
Pic-a-Pix: Three Wishes
Moderately difficult Reveal
a hidden picture by shading
in groups of horizontally or 1 7 7
vertically adjacent cells
(“groups”). The numbers 4 2 5 5 1 10 1 5 5 6
represent how many cells are 1 1
in each of the corresponding 3 1
row or column’s groups. (For
example, a “3” next to a row 3 3 2
represents three horizontally 1 8
adjacent shaded cells in that 1 8
row.) There must be at least one 10
empty cell between each group.
The numbers read in the same 8
horizontal or vertical order as 5
the groups they represent. 1
There’s only one possible
picture; can you shade it in? 3

Moving Day
Easy The number on each box represents the physical weight of that box. Each
box can support no more than half of its own weight sitting on top of it, whether
that’s from one or two boxes. Each box with a red number is fragile and cannot
have another box on top of it. You have enough room in your moving truck for
three stacks of three boxes. How can you stack these ones to fit them in?

125 80 47 42 26 18 15 12 7

106 july/august 2020

 Dual Calculation
Difficult Use some of the numbers below to create an arithmetic expression equalling
22; then use all the remaining numbers to do it again. You may add, subtract, multiply
and/or divide, and you may use parentheses. You shouldn’t ever need to complete a
step of a calculation with a negative number or a fraction.

4 8 6 5 15 2
Rook, Bishop, Knight
Moderately difficult Trace a path from B C A
start to finish. The first move of the path is
a rook’s move (any distance horizontally C
or vertically); the second is a bishop’s
move (any distance on a 45-degree B
diagonal); and the third is a knight’s
D
(DUAL CALCULATION AND ROOK, BISHOP, KNIGHT) DARREN RIGBY; (FIRST IN) FRASER SIMPSON

move (an L-shape). You must then cycle

through those three types of moves
again, in the same order, until 10 moves
A
are made. No square can be the end point
for a move more than once. The three
knight’s moves are shown in blue, green
and red. The first and last move are given
A B
in black. Can you determine the path? First In
Moderately difficult Place the
START
letters A, B, C and D into this grid
1 so that each letter appears exactly
once in each row and column, with
one cell in each row and column
left blank. Each letter outside the
grid indicates the letter that must
appear first in its respective row or
column (reading inward from the
edge of the grid closest to the
10 letter and skipping any blank
FINISH cells). Can you complete the grid?

For answers, turn to PAGE 111

rd.ca 107
reader’s digest

11. In 2010, the last panel

TRIVIA of what long-running
comic strip saw the title
character kidnapped by
BY Paul Paquet a war criminal?

12. Who is the highest

1. What’s the only
Semitic language that’s
also an official European
Union language?
2. What actor has played
friends to Ford Prefect,
Gandalf, Sherlock Holmes
and the Black Panther?
3. During the Second
World War, double
agent Juan Pujol García
was nicknamed after
what Swede?
4. What novel did James
Patterson write about a
detective named Jamie
Patterson, who tries to
solve the murder of a
horror writer?
6. Not counting the grossing female actor of
earth, which is the only all time?
planet whose largest
moon is named after a 13. W and Z are worth a
female figure? lot in many versions of
Scrabble, but in which
7. Golfer Annika Sörens- language are they worth
tam hails from what only a single point each?
Nordic country?
14. Klaus Teuber was a
8. Whose unsolved 1913 dental technician until he
death prompted head- created which block-
lines such as “Murdered buster board game?
by Agents From Big Oil
Trusts,” because he’d
invented a more fuel-
efficient engine?
9. Who supplied the
music for the musical-
theatre version of the
film Waitress?

5. Sometimes called a 10. What African king-

“good luck sweet cookie” dom lists Coca-Cola 15. Historical pirates often
in China, what treat was concentrate among its buried their treasure.
likely invented in the U.S.? main exports? True or false?
ISTOCK.COM/FRANCISBLACK

Johansson. 13. Polish. 14. The Settlers of Catan. 15. False.

7. Sweden. 8. Rudolf Diesel. 9. Sara Bareilles. 10. eSwatini. 11. Little Orphan Annie. 12. Scarlett
5. The fortune cookie. 6. Uranus. The moon is named for the Shakespearean character Titania.
performance. 4. The Murder of Stephen King. Patterson ultimately decided not to publish it.
Answers: 1. Maltese. 2. Martin Freeman. 3. Greta Garbo, because he could give a convincing

108 july/august 2020

 WORD POWER

It’s a snap to tell a toque from a chesterfield,

but not all Canadianisms stretch from coast
to coast to coast. Master these regional 10. windrows—
terms and you’ll be sure to blend in while A: hedges planted to
you’re oot and aboot. shelter crops.
B: depressed mood.
C: snow left blocking a
BY Linda Besner driveway after a snow-
plow passes.

11. mamaqtuq—
1. bunny hug— C: tugboat sent to break A: delicious.
A: chocolate Easter egg. up logjams. B: town gossip.
B: fuzzy slippers. C: beautiful morning.
C: hooded sweatshirt. 6. scribbler—
A: notebook. 12. guichet—
2. miskeen— B: leaky boat engine. A: tacky.
A: petty thief. C: defensive hockey B: bank machine.
B: patchwork quilt. player. C: cotton undershirt.
C: pathetic.
7. huck— 13. nuisance grounds—
3. dep— A: eat quickly. A: garbage dump.
A: corner store. B: hitchhike. B: schoolyard.
B: Mason jar. C: throw. C: Legion branch.
C: certainly.
8. donnybrook— 14. ahlie—
4. skoden— A: brawl. A: skateboard trick.
A: snowmobile tracks. B: good-looking boy. B: am I right?
B: let’s go, then. C: swimming hole. C: go away!
C: family picnic.
9. skookum— 15. right good—
5. jambuster— A: in the sky. A: excellent.
A: jam-filled doughnut. B: strong or brave. B: poor quality.
B: kitchen party. C: grandmother. C: lucky thrift-store find.

rd.ca 109
reader’s digest
WORD POWER
ANSWERS
1. bunny hug—
C: hooded sweatshirt (Sas-
katchewan); as, A bunny
hug is cozy on a cold night.
2. miskeen—C: pathetic
(Ontario, from Arabic);
as, “Look at this miskeen
guy,” said Jer jokingly.
“He’s never been to Can-
ada’s Wonderland.”
3. dep—A: corner store
(Quebec, from French);
as, Ming asked his room-
mate to pick up some
milk at the dep.
4. skoden—B: let’s go,
then (multiple First
Nations); as, Often an
invitation to engage in a
fight, skoden has recently
been used in battles over
pipeline projects.
5. jambuster—A: jam-
filled doughnut (Mani-
toba and northwestern
Ontario); as, Having
grown up in Winnipeg,
the cashier knew what his
customer meant when
she ordered a jambuster.
110 july/august 2020
6. scribbler—A: note- 12. guichet—B: bank
book (mainly the Mari-
times); as, “Get out your
machine (Quebec, from
French); as, Hari stopped
scribblers and write your at a guichet to take out
names on the covers,” some cash.
instructed the teacher.
13. nuisance grounds—
7. huck—C: throw (West); A: garbage dump (West);
as, Alina called for her as, Property values plum-
friend to huck her the ball. meted when the munici-
pality established nui-
8. donnybrook— sance grounds nearby.
A: brawl (hockey com-
mentary); as, The Donny- 14. ahlie—B: am I right?
brook Fair in Dublin, (Ontario, from Jamaican
Ireland, was so rowdy patois); as, “There’s no
that any tussle became way our bus will arrive on
known as a donnybrook. time; ahlie?” said Luther,
glancing at his phone.
9. skookum—B: strong
or brave (West); as, 15. right good—
Derived from Chinook A: excellent (Atlantic); as,
Jargon, skookum appears “That was a right good
in many place names in meal!” declared Josée.
the Pacific Northwest.
10. windrows—C: snow CROSSWORD
left blocking a driveway ANSWERS
after a snowplow passes
(mainly the Prairies); as, FROM PAGE 112
Shovelling windrows was
I N M R E D
not Klara’s idea of a good
M A W E E R F R O
start to the day. P R I D E V I S I O N
I N N E T N U N S
11. mamaqtuq— S I G N O D E
A: delicious (North, H A S P B S U N S
L E I A L O T
Inuktitut); as, Nina added S P O T I N T R O
the #mamaqtuq hashtag T H E S P E C T R U M
to her post celebrating B E A I L E A S P
traditional foods. A L G O T A
 BRAINTEASERS
ANSWERS SUDOKU

FROM PAGE 106 BY Jeff Widderich

Pic-a-Pix: Three Wishes

1 7 7
4 2 5 5 1 10 1 5 5 6
8 9 1
1 1
3
3 3
1
2
1 5 4
1 8
1 8
10 6 3 9 7
8
5
1 6
3

5 8 4 6 3
Moving Day
7 12 18 7
15 26 42

47 80 125
4 7 3 5
Dual Calculation
5 9 6
(15 − 4) × 2 and 6 × 5 – 8.
7 2 1
Rook, Bishop, Knight
S 1 To Solve This Puzzle

5 7 3 Put a number from 1 to 9 in

2 8
each empty square so that: SOLUTION
6 3 4 5 9 1 2 8 7
9 10 )every horizontal row and 8 1 7 4 6 2 9 5 3
6 4
vertical column contains all 9 5 2 3 8 7 6 4 1
nine numbers (1-9) without 4 8 1 2 3 5 7 9 6
First In repeating any of them; 7 9 3 6 4 8 5 1 2
B D A C 5 2 6 1 7 9 4 3 8
B C D A
)each of the outlined 3 x 3
2 7 8 9 5 3 1 6 4
C A B D 3 4 5 7 1 6 8 2 9
A D C B boxes has all nine numbers, 1 6 9 8 2 4 3 7 5
D C A B none repeated.

rd.ca 111
reader’s digest

25 Garland of flowers
CROSSWORD 26
27
Tons and tons
Ladybug feature
29 Emcee’s opening
30 SiriusXM rock channel;
Different Wavelengths or full range, as of
visible colours
Instead of a letter, some of the squares in this crossword 32 Golden Girl Arthur
contain something else. Figure out what it is and feel the pride. 33 ___-du-Prince-Édouard
34 Egyptian cobra
BY Derek Bowman 35 “Let’s Stay Together”
singer
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 36 Cheer for the Bombers
37 La Traviata lead role
10 11 12
DOWN
13 14 15 1 Mischievous
2 Land of the lion Aslan
16 17 3 2008 Stanley Cup champs
4 Have a rendezvous
18 19 5 Crank (up)
6 Cocktail garnishes
20 21 22 23 24 7 Tuna variety
8 Cupid’s Greek counter-
25 26 part
9 Lemon, Cherry or Cheadle
27 28 29
14 Comfy room
15 Sex educator Johanson
30 31
19 ___-Wan (Star Wars role)
32 33 34 21 Wilbur, to Fern, in
Charlotte’s Web
35 36 37 22 Type of radiation
23 Impervious to corrosion
24 2012 Serena Ryder hit
25 UCLA part
ACROSS 13 Former name of OUTtv
26 Hill worker
1 How a Mountie is dressed 16 Goaltending
27 The Giving Tree author
on special occasions 17 The Sound of Music
Silverstein
4 Tim Roth’s role in chorus members
28 Colour similar to avocado
Reservoir Dogs 18 Protestor’s placard
29 Cool shade for hair dye
7 Like some old news- 19 Literary tribute
30 Still undecided, on a
paper clippings 20 “Rumour ___ it”
schedule
10 Gaping mouth 21 Network that aired a gay
31 “Strange Magic” band
11 Shakespeare’s “always” wedding on Arthur
12 Swing to and ___ 22 Quelques-___ (some) For answers, turn to PAGE 110

112 july/august 2020

Elliot Lake...
live well
Live in a retirement community
where you can have the active
lifestyle you want, affordably!
Apartments from $545/month
Townhomes from $800/month
Homes from $885/month
Book Your Discovery
Tour One Free Night
at the Hampton Inn Elliot Lake
and enjoy a tour of the city and
our properties.
(Second night $50.00 + taxes)
1.800.461.4663
retireelliotlake.com
 ORAL CARE

TOOTHPASTE made with

ingredients you can TRUST

© 2020 P&G