Reader S Digest

What's brewing in Utne Reader? Coffee in the current November/December issue; change in the next.The January/February 1995 issue of the Reader's Digest of the alternative press will feature a revamped design -- inside and out -- and an expanded list of sources to sample, according to editor Eric Utne."

Woodlawn student charged as an adult A Woodlawn High School student has been charged as an adult with assault in a stabbing this week near a public library, county police said. Earl Poe, 17, of the first block of Cedar Heights Court was charged with first- and second-degree assault in the stabbing, which occurred during an altercation about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday outside the Woodlawn Library, police said. Police arrested Poe at the scene and recovered a folding knife, according to court papers.

If puns were water, Shelby Friedman would be the Mississippi: steady, prodigious and a little twisted.Mr. Friedman, a longtime Dallas resident, has written more than 100 puns a week every week for 60 years. By a conservative guess, his lifetime of work amounts to more than 300,000 groaners.Sometimes they gush forth without effort, like a force of nature, waking Mr. Friedman from sleep, interrupting his conversation or halting him midpoint in a racquetball game. He can't stop the flow or even slow it down.

There are up to 1 million hairs on the top of the head. Each grows about .01 inch a day. -- Facts at Your Fingertips (Reader's Digest)

The elderly woman sat patiently in the waiting room of the Ellicott City auto repair shop as mechanic Steve Eakle finished changing the oil in her car. She picked up a back issue of Reader's Digest from the stack of old magazines on the table and began to read. Mr. Eakle appeared a few moments later, told her the car was done, and off she went.But the look on his youthful face was one of bemused consternation."Do you think I should say something?" he whispered to a friend. "She took the Reader's Digest."

FANS of the long-running television series "MASH" must feel a jolt of deja vu whenever Iran-contra lawbreaker and Virginia senatorial hopeful Oliver North makes one of his stump speeches attacking Reader's Digest as an organ of liberalism.(Mr. North has had it in for the the Digest -- which is almost as politically conservative as he is -- ever since the magazine ran an article a few years back citing sundry false statements of his.)"MASH" loyalists ought to recall a recurring character on the show, the paranoid military-intelligence officer known as Colonel Flagg, who in one episode accused conservative Maj. Frank Burns of being a communist sympathizer because he was reading the Digest.

There is "Shoeless Joe" and "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy" and I'm working on "If Wishes were Horses," that will make a trilogy. I'm working on a mystery novel, "Conflicting Statements," it's set in Palm Springs. I've been kicking it around for six years. Right now it's optioned for a movie. I started it with Holly Hunter in mind, but then she did "The Piano," and got really famous. I've got many more on the go - what I call my "South American Butterfly Winter"; I've got 300 pages of notes on that.

Ads vs. newsYour television critic, Michael Hill, criticized ABC for using advertising commercials during its coverage of the war against Iraq (Evening Sun, Jan. 17). Not only am I surprised by his criticism on the basis of my own observation (although I did not check the other commercial networks because I have only one set to watch), but also because he did not provide his readers with the ad lineage dropped by The Evening Sun so that it could expand its coverage of the war.Please inform your readers what your ad losses were as you provided your readers with enhanced coverage of the news.

Hermine Baron, 83, one of America's top-ranked female bridge players, died of cancer in Los Angeles on Sept. 27.For the past 22 years, Mrs. Baron of Los Angeles had more master points than any other female player, ending with 22,645 and the title of grand life master. From 1975 to 1983, she was ranked second among all players by the American Contract Bridge League, and was 10th when she died.In 1964 and 1970, she won the McKenney Trophy, awarded for winning the most points in a year. In 1964, she set a points record.

The field of home improvement is influenced so strongly by history, by personal preference and by available technology that no one ever has the last word.Virtually every month brings a new crop of home how-to books and manuals. What follows are brief reviews of some we've seen lately that we like. Each of them is sure to please someone and some of them should please just about everybody who has an interest in how houses work.The prime entry in the latter category is an update of an old friend, "The Reader's Digest New Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual."

When was the last time your child eagerly sat down to write a letter or excitedly ran to the mailbox hoping for mail? Chances are if your child hasn't written many letters, she won't be getting many in return, either. Now, with the "Letter Writer Starter Set," children can learn how they can have fun, keep in touch and be heard -- by letter.This book, for ages 7 to 11, is written in a format children can read and enjoy by themselves. The pages contain cartoon characters with bubble sayings guiding the budding writer with clever ideas and effective suggestions.

Hermine Baron, 83, one of America's top-ranked female bridge players, died of cancer in Los Angeles on Sept. 27.For the past 22 years, Mrs. Baron of Los Angeles had more master points than any other female player, ending with 22,645 and the title of grand life master. From 1975 to 1983, she was ranked second among all players by the American Contract Bridge League, and was 10th when she died.In 1964 and 1970, she won the McKenney Trophy, awarded for winning the most points in a year. In 1964, she set a points record.

North Avenue Day to feature merchants' sale, mortgage 0) adviceInner City Community Development Corp. and the Hilton-North Merchants Association are sponsoring North Avenue Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.A free housing seminar is scheduled at the Walbrook branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 3201 W. North Ave. Topics will include getting started in the home buying process, reverse equity mortgages and rehabilitation/repair loans. Lenders will be present.The West North Avenue merchants' sidewalk sale will take place in the 3100 block of West North Avenue.

Reader's Digest, the magazine of the middlebrow, and the Public Broadcasting Service, often considered the television programmer to the elite, announced yesterday that they were joining forces to produce, acquire and distribute new television programs throughout the world.With a $75 million investment from the Reader's Digest Association Inc. over five years, programs will be developed based on material from the company's magazines and books, as well as from the ideas of independent producers or public television stations.

There is "Shoeless Joe" and "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy" and I'm working on "If Wishes were Horses," that will make a trilogy. I'm working on a mystery novel, "Conflicting Statements," it's set in Palm Springs. I've been kicking it around for six years. Right now it's optioned for a movie. I started it with Holly Hunter in mind, but then she did "The Piano," and got really famous. I've got many more on the go - what I call my "South American Butterfly Winter"; I've got 300 pages of notes on that.

If you were to ask me how I came to set my toilet on fire, I would answer you in two simple words: Reader's Digest.I am referring specifically to the February 1995 issue of Reader's Digest, which was sent to me by alert reader Jeff Jerrell, who had spotted a startling article originally written for Health magazine by Mary Roach.The article is about germs, which are extremely tiny organisms -- many of them smaller than the artist formerly known as Prince -- that can be found in huge quantities virtually everywhere.

There are up to 1 million hairs on the top of the head. Each grows about .01 inch a day. -- Facts at Your Fingertips (Reader's Digest)