Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
CANADIANS
TRUST
JUNE 2018
Canada’s
TICK BOOM:
How You Can Stay Safe
PAGE 28
70 STRANGERS RESCUED
TWO BOYS FROM A RIPTIDE
PAGE 42
IS MEDICAL MARIJUANA
RIGHT FOR YOU?
PAGE 82
AARON WILLIAMS
get sucked out to sea off But when we’re in the car,
Florida’s Panhandle, dozens singing along to our favourite
of beachgoers must band song, everything else falls away.
together to save their lives. JOE POSNANSKI
DEREK BURNETT F R O M J O E P O S N A N S K I .CO M
P. | 90
P. | 38
Heart
78 Thank You So Much
for Caring
After the death of his wife,
a young widower writes an
open letter to her medical
team. P E T E R D E M A R CO
F R O M T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S
Health
82 The Cannabis
Companion Guide
Is medical marijuana right for
Memoir you? Find out which conditions
64 To Know Myself it helps—and where further
At 27, I was diagnosed with research is still needed.
multiple sclerosis and faced VA N E S SA M I L N E
Environment
74 Micro Management
Tiny pieces of our clothing are
JASON GORDON
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 3
Vol. 192 | No. 1,150
JUNE 2018
ART OF LIVING
12 Safety Measures
Community advocate
Sarah Blyth is curbing drug-
related deaths.
C H R I ST I N A PA L A S S I O
The RD Interview
16 Royal Watching
A Q&A with historian Carolyn
Harris. CO U R T N E Y S H E A
GET SMART!
Culture
18 RD Recommends 102 13 Things Lifeguards Wish
DA N I E L L E G R O E N You Knew
MICHELLE CROUCH
Health A D D I T I O N A L R E S E A R C H BY
22 Warts and All A N N A- K A I SA WA L K E R
How to get rid of these
unsightly skin growths. 106 Brainteasers
SA M A N T H A R I D E O U T
108 Trivia Quiz
Health
109 Word Power
26 What’s Wrong With Me?
SY D N E Y LO N E Y 111 Sudoku
READER FAVOURITES
4 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Editor’s Letter
Pest Control
THE FIRST TIME I SAW A TICK, I had no idea what I was looking at. Last
summer, while at our cottage north of Montreal, my husband noticed
an unusual bump on our dog’s leg. Round and shiny, the nub more
closely resembled plastic than it did a living creature. Then we spotted its legs,
which were tiny compared to its engorged body, and realized we were dealing
with a deer tick—one that had feasted on our dachshund, Lizzie.
In truth, I’d been anticipating this moment. As the owner of two dogs and
someone who spends a fair amount of time outdoors, I knew I would cross
paths with a tick eventually. We carefully removed the pest using tweezers and
put it in a zipped plastic bag, following a procedure
DOMINIQUE
I’d once read about. What I didn’t know was what
WITH HER DOGS
PEACHES (LEFT) should happen next.
AND LIZZIE
As ticks proliferate across the country, access
to information about these parasites is more
critical than ever. Our cover story, “Battling
the Tick Boom” (page 28), breaks down
the essentials—from identification and
removal to Lyme disease testing to the
best tactics for protecting yourself, your
family and your pets.
Do you have a story you’d like to share about
ticks? We’d love to hear from you by email (at
the address below) or on our Facebook page.
Let’s keep the conversation going.
ROGER A ZIZ
Send an email to
dominique@rd.ca
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 5
A HEALTHY, ROSY GLOW
LET YOUR SKIN
SHOW YOUR VITALITY
I N N O V A T I O N
NEOVADIOL
ROSE PLATINIUM
FORTIFYING AND REVITALIZING ROSY CREAM
CALCIUM + BEESWAX
VICHY MINERAL-RICH
THERMAL WATER
ROSE PERFUME
H Y P O A L L E R G E N I C • PA R A B E N - F R E E
T E S T E D U N D E R D E R M AT O L O G I C A L C O N T R O L
Published by the Reader’s Digest Magazines Canada Limited, Montreal, Canada
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Contributors: Roger Aziz, Sarah Barmak, Cassie
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8 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Contributors
SARAH BARMAK JONATHAN DYCK
(Writer, “he Bright (Illustrator, “Caught in
Side,” page 56) a Riptide!” page 42)
stories because our day-to-day lives increasingly big issue. I thought that
are usually pretty boring. When we Lyme disease was an obscure illness
read about a strange occurrence that only famous Canadian female
happening to other people, we singers got. After reading this story,
remember that the world is a place I’ll be sure to wear long pants and
full of wonder and possibility. And shirts when I go out for hikes, and
disruptive turkeys. check myself for bugs afterwards.
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 9
Letters
READERS COMMENT ON OUR RECENT ISSUES
NO LAUGHING MATTER
I just finished reading your Depart-
ment of Wit, “Keeping the Faith”
(April 2018), and was left with feelings
of disappointment. I didn’t like that
the writer mocked his culture and
religion in his responses to his young
MOMENT OF CLARITY son’s questions about faith. While
Thank you for Sydney Loney’s health some of the writer’s honesty is appre-
article “State of Confusion” (March ciated, the flippant exchange detailed
2018) and your corresponding edi- at the end of the story was not.
tor’s letter, “Decoding Delirium.” Holy HEATHER ALLINGTON,
moly, what a revelation. My mother- Bowmanville, Ont.
in-law has been in and out of the hos- Published letters are edited for length
pital a number of times during the and clarity.
WRITE We want to hear from you! Have something to say about an article you read in Reader’s
TO US! Digest? Send your letters to letters@rd.ca. Please include your full name and address.
Contribute Send us your funny jokes and anecdotes, and if we publish one in a print
KATIE CAREY
edition of Reader’s Digest, we’ll send you $50. To submit, visit rd.ca/joke.
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.
Introducing more sizes for outstanding protection.
S M L XL
Safety Measures
BY C H R I ST I N A PA L A S S I O
PHOTOGRAPH BY TANYA GOEHRING
12 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
“The opioid crisis is a
tragedy,” says Sarah Blyth,
founder of Vancouver’s
Overdose Prevention
Society. “It’s a good
feeling when you can save
lives in a dignified way.”
READER’S DIGEST
by the market or any agency, they sanctioned sites take some time to
established a pop-up overdose pre- establish—and the number of over-
vention site nearby. They put up a doses continues to balloon. While
tent, secured some Narcan, found making it easier for people to inject
a volunteer trained in administering drugs safely is controversial, Blyth
naloxone and started a GoFundMe says it’s a matter of public health.
page to raise money for supplies and “In order to really help people, we
honorariums for their volunteers. In need to change our opinions and
2017, the pop-up—now called the the way we’ve addressed the crisis.
Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) We’re not going to police our way
and supported by Vancouver Coastal out of this.”
Health—received more than 100,000 In December 2017, OPS moved
visits, saw more than into a building owned
300 overdoses and by B.C. Housing. The
logged zero deaths. Open seven days organization is open
Blyth knows that seven days a week and
doing the right thing
a week, the has between 300 and
sometimes means Overdose 500 visitors daily.
doing what many Prevention Blyth, now the exec-
consider to be wrong. Society sees utive director of OPS
From Nanaimo to
between 300 and and of the Downtown
Ottawa, nurses and Eastside Street Market,
harm-reduction work- 500 visitors daily. oversees 30 trained
ers have come to the volunteers, all mem-
same conclusion, as bers of the Downtown
the opioid crisis places them in the Eastside community.
difficult position of having to take Joy is a peer-support worker at OPS
illegal action to save lives. It was and a recovering opiate addict. “Me
Blyth who inspired nurse Leigh being able to relate with using nee-
Chapman and her fellow volunteers dles, and being able to relate with
to open a pop-up safe-injection site being homeless, it helps. I under-
in Toronto’s Moss Park neighbour- stand what they’re going through,”
hood in the summer of 2017. she says. Joy credits OPS with sup-
Several cities, including Kamloops, porting her to quit using. “Working
Edmonton, London, Toronto and here, I’m changing my life.”
Montreal, have approved supervised Helping others should never be
safe-injection sites in the past two optional, says Blyth. “Saving a life isn’t
years. But unlike the pop-up versions, something you don’t do if you can.”
14 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Life’s Like That
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 15
THE RD INTERVIEW
Royal Watching
BY CO U R T N E Y S H E A
ILLUSTRATION BY AIMÉE VAN DRIMMELEN
16 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
to speak with children and those who Are you a fan of The Crown?
are ill, Meghan has been hugging peo- I think it’s a very well crafted TV
ple and making human connections. series—but it’s certainly a blend of
fact and fiction. For example, there is
Pippa Middleton famously stole no evidence that Prince Philip had an
the show at William and Kate’s wed- affair, so those rumours are played up
ding. Any bets on who might upstage for a great deal of drama in the show.
Markle on her big day?
Ha! Well I think the public will be How do you think the Queen feels
interested to see George and Char- about having her private life pil-
lotte. William and Kate are generally fered for entertainment?
very protective of their children’s I don’t know if she watches the show.
privacy, so if the kids are in the wed- But it’s interesting that, in her most
ding party, that’s going to attract a recent Christmas address, she paid
lot of attention. tribute to Prince Philip and to their
marriage. She made a joke that when
A 2016 Ipsos Reid poll reported that she began her reign there was no such
about half of Canadians believe we thing as a platinum anniversary.
should cut our ties to the monarchy
when the Queen’s reign ends. Is there Back then the idea of a royal mar-
any reason not to? rying a divorcée was absolutely
I would say that when you look at the unthinkable. Is the relationship
political climate around the world between Prince Harry and the once-
right now, you can see the value in divorced Markle a sign of how much
having a level of government that is times have changed?
above party politics. I think so. People look at the monarchy
as a very traditional institution, but the
Is there any chance Charles could Queen has reigned over a period of
get skipped in the line of succession tremendous social change, including
in favour of his more popular son? attitudes towards divorce. Her uncle,
No chance. Charles would have to Edward VIII, had to abdicate to
abdicate and there is nothing to sug- marry Wallis Simpson, but in 2005
gest that is something he is consider- Prince Charles married a divorced
ing, or that Prince William is eager Camilla Parker Bowles. That’s helped
to become the king before his time. pave the way for Prince Harry.
Prince Harry has even alluded to the
fact that none of them really want Carolyn Harris’s Raising Royalty was
that role. published in 2017.
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 17
CULTURE
RD Recommends
BY DA N I E L L E G R O E N
1
OCEAN’S 8
Did we really need a remake of a 2001 remake of a 1960 Rat
Pack film? We sure did. This glittering, gender-flipped reboot swaps
in marquee actresses hatching criminal schemes in an array of killer
coats. Sandra Bullock is Debbie Ocean, a newly paroled ringleader
who gathers a team of bandits—played by Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling,
Sarah Paulson, Helena Bonham Carter, Awkwafina and Rihanna—to nab
$100 million worth of jewels off Anne Hathaway’s neck at the Met Gala. June 8.
DID YOU KNOW? Not content with his already-impressive cast, director
Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) scored cameos from Serena Williams,
Anna Wintour, James Corden, Kim Kardashian and Matt Damon.
18 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
2 WARLIGHT
Michael Ondaatje
Following the end of the Sec-
4 FLORIDA
Lauren Groff
Most of the stories in this bracing collection
ond World War, Nathaniel and began as a thought experiment about some-
Rachel’s parents take off for one the author loves. Protectiveness toward
Singapore, leaving the teens her sister transforms into a haunting tale
behind in London with a taci- about two abandoned girls on an island in
turn guardian known as The a storm; her grandmother-in-law’s work
Moth. Michael Ondaatje’s during the war morphs
latest novel unspools like a into a portrait of a woman
(WON’T YO U B E MY NEIGH BOR ? ) THE FRED ROGERS COMPANY; (O N CHESIL BEACH) E L E VATION PICTU RE S
3 WON’T YOU BE MY
NEIGHBOR?
If you believe decency to be 5 ON CHESIL BEACH
A pair of nervous young newly-
in painfully short supply these weds holed up on their honeymoon anchor
days, Won’t You Be My Neigh- this aching drama about sex and class
bor? comes as a welcome anti- in early 1960s England. Theatre director
dote. This behind-the-scenes Dominic Cooke stacks the deck for his film
documentary takes a tender debut, drawing on a subtle screenplay by
look at the sweet-natured Ian McEwan, a gifted cast led by Lady Bird’s
world created by children’s Saoirse Ronan, and the gorgeous, curving
television host Fred Rogers. shoreline of the Dorset coast. May 18.
Five decades after its premiere,
his show, filled with tremulous
tigers and imperious kings,
still offers clear-
eyed lessons
for curious
kids. June 8.
Points to Ponder
BY C H R I ST I N A PA L A S S I O
PHOTOS: (JAMIESON) INDSPIRE.CA. QUOTES: (SHOALTS) SEPT. 13, 2017; (EBERLE) DEC. 16, 2017; (JAMIESON) JAN. 12, 2018;
This is something that isn’t immedi- I think what’s different now is that
ately apparent from looking at an some men are thinking, “Yeah, I was
expedition map: you’re constantly kind of a jerk and now I’m thinking
confronted with important, stressful about that.” That’s important.
decisions and you don’t want to
make a wrong [move]. A c t r e s s a n d A i r Fo r c e c a p t a i n
LUCY DECOUTERE, in Chatelaine,
in response to #Metoo
E x p l o r e r ADAM SHOALTS, on his
4,000-kilometre human-powered solo trek across the
Arctic, in Canadian Geographic
So much of comedy is about bringing
out into the light the little dark cor-
I try to play [guitar] every day. It’s ners of shared human experiences.
something that takes me away from It happens to be a moment in time
Ne w Yo r k Is l a n d e r s r i g h t w i n g e r C o m e d i a n CHARLIE DEMERS,
JORDAN EBERLE, in the Toronto Star in The Georgia Straight
20 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
We take it for
(DOUCET) CBC RADIO’S IDEAS (DEC. 29, 2017); (THOMPSON) NOV. 15, 2017; (JANVIER) FEB. 9, 2017; (TORRENS) CANADIAN LIVING (NOV. 28, 2017).
PHOTOS: (BACHIR) DEA N TOM LINSON/CNW GROUP/OC AD UNI VERSI TY. QU OTE S: ( BACHIR) ENROUTE (JUNE 2, 2017); (DAVIS) JAN. 23, 2018;
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 21
HEALTH
22 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
a mild reaction and kick the immune See a doctor if a wart is painful, if
system into gear. it bleeds easily or if it changes colour
Until removal is complete, it’s best or appearance—you’ll want to make
to practise “wart etiquette” to avoid sure it isn’t skin cancer.
passing on your infection. Plantar If it is indeed a wart, then it’s
warts, which mostly “just a cosmetic nuis-
affect the soles of the ance,” says Dr. Colm
feet, are caused by viral At least O’Mahony, a member
65%
strains that thrive and of the European Acad-
spread in wet environ- emy of Dermatology
ments; therefore, wear and Venereology. “In
flip-flops or cover your extremely rare cases,
of warts disappear
warts with waterproof a genital wart can
without intervention
tape in locker rooms within two years.
become massive [many
and public pools, as centimetres wide] and
well as the shower. can become cancerous,
Don’t share personal items—socks, but that’s incredibly unlikely.”
towels—that come into contact with Feel free to get your lesions treated
warts. And resist picking at them, if they distress you; otherwise, you
which often helps to propagate the may choose to just get on with life,
underlying viruses. warts and all.
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 23
NEWS FROM THE
World of Medicine
BY SA M A N T H A R I D E O U T
24 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
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What’s Wrong
With Me?
BY SY D N E Y LO N E Y
ILLUSTRATION BY VICTOR WONG
THE PATIENT: Gavin, a 43-year-old He had bruising over his ribs and
Holstein cattle farmer abdomen, but no bones appeared to
THE SYMPTOMS: Compressed be broken, his blood pressure was
abdomen, vomiting normal and he was lucid enough to
THE DOCTOR: Dr. Stuart Whitelaw, answer questions. After 12 hours of
consultant surgeon, Dumfries and observation, the farmer was worried
Galloway Royal Infirmary, Scotland about his livestock and asked to go
home, but doctors convinced him to
! TEN YEARS AGO, on a frosty
December morning, Gavin was
remain overnight. The next morning,
he began vomiting large amounts of
attempting to deliver a breech calf greenish, small-bowel fluid. Doctors
in a ield on his small farm in south- ordered a second CT scan and dis-
west Scotland. he birth took hours covered a complete obstruction in
and when it was inally over, Gavin his small bowel that hadn’t been
collapsed on the ground—and the visible before.
exhausted cow collapsed on top of An exploratory abdominal opera-
him. Gavin’s cries for help were tion revealed that a loop of the bowel
eventually heard by a neighbouring was trapped by an adhesion, a band
farmer, who attached ropes to his of scar tissue that binds two other tis-
tractor to pull the animal away. sues together that are not normally
Gavin was conscious but in severe attached. Ninety per cent of these
pain. He was transported by heli- occur after abdominal surgery, says
copter to Dumfries inirmary, Dr. Stuart Whitelaw, but they can also
120 kilometres away. be the result of an injury. “It’s likely
26 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
in this case that the patient suffered a together and sent the specimen to
long-forgotten blow to his abdomen the lab. Gavin, meanwhile, made a
in childhood (perhaps falling from a quick recovery and within days was
tree or receiving a punch on the play- back on his farm, attending to the
ground) that led to the development new calf and its mother.
of an adhesion.” A week later, the pathology report
Had the cow not fallen on Gavin, revealed that Gavin had early-stage
the adhesion may never have caused bowel cancer, caused by a genetic
a problem, Whitelaw says. “But the mutation. Fortunately, it had been
cow compressed his abdomen and, caught early. “When removed at
bizarrely, forced the intestine through this stage, the prognosis is very good,
a gap caused by the adhesion.” It was with a 95 per cent five-year survival
a life-threatening prob- rate,” Whitelaw says.
lem. The small bowel Often patients with
would become stran- bowel cancer don’t
gulated, blood flow
While he was have any symptoms
would stop and the inspecting or, by the time they
integrity of the lining
Gavin’s organs, manifest, it’s too late
of the bowel would be because the tumour
compromised. This Dr. Whitelaw is more advanced. “If
could allow bacteria noticed a small the cow hadn’t fallen
into the bloodstream, on him, his diagnosis
leading to septic shock tumour. would have been
and multiple organ fail- delayed, the tumour
ure. That same result would have grown and
could occur if a perforated bowel he might have presented at a later
allows bacteria to leak into the stage when the prospect of a cure
nearby abdominal cavity. was less likely, or even impossible.”
Whitelaw performed an emer- A decade later, Gavin continues
gency operation to divide the adhe- to do well, and the cancer shows no
sion and relieve the obstruction, but sign of recurrence. And, thanks to his
while he was inspecting Gavin’s other diagnosis, his three children can have
organs, he noticed a small tumour on DNA testing to see if they also carry
the patient’s cecum (a pouch at the the cancer gene and require further
beginning of the large bowel). The screening, Whitelaw says. “In the end,
doctor removed the tumour by cut- the farmer saved the cow and the cow
ting out the right side of the large saved the farmer—and potentially his
bowel. He then joined the ends children and their children.”
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 27
COVER STORY
28 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
READER’S DIGEST
Blacklegged tick, a.k.a. deer tick American dog tick, a.k.a. wood tick
■black ■ rarely ■ pale
spot near transmits markings
mouth illness on shell
■ black
Very similar to the blacklegged tick Very similar to the American dog tick
is the western blacklegged tick, is the Rocky Mountain wood tick,
found in Western Canada. found in Western Canada.
30 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
RISING
TEMPERATURES,
RISING
POPULATIONS
Tick populations have been expanding THERE
for the past few decades, even infiltrat- COULD
BE TICKS
ing northern Saskatchewan, the city of HERE!
Yellowknife and larger urban centres
such as Toronto. Tick dragging in that
city’s Rouge Valley area in 2017 came TICK
up with 122 of the blacklegged variety,
63 of which tested positive for the bac-
TERRITORY
You’re likely to find ticks in deciduous
teria that cause Lyme disease. Climate forests where they can hide in moist
change has a lot to do with the surge, leaf litter and be protected from
says David Lieske, associate professor drying out in the hot sun. However,
at Mount Allison University in Sack- though there tend to be more ticks in
ville, N.B. Lieske co-authored a 2018 rural areas, populations can establish
themselves in city parks, in treed lots
study published in Ticks and Tick- and along trails—anywhere there’s
Borne Diseases about the prevalence vegetation and wildlife, says Rochon.
of blacklegged ticks in New Brunswick They’ll perch on blades of grass or
and found that mild winters and more low shrubs, where they can attach
precipitation led to a growing popula- to people or animals brushing past.
To find out if Lyme disease–
tion. While ticks might die during a
carrying ticks live near you, go to
cold, dry season, snow cover with an canada.ca/lymedisease and click
overlay of leaves provides the insula- on “Risks” to find problem areas
tion they need to survive and lay eggs. listed by province.
DIY TRACKING
A computer science student from the University of
Sherbrooke in Quebec is behind Detectick, an app A single
that lets users take a photo of a biting critter and tick can lay
then gives a percentage likelihood that it’s a tick.
Scott Weese, a professor at the Ontario Veterinary THOUSANDS OF
ISTOC K PHOTO
32 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
4 PLACES
TO CHECK
HOW TO TICK- YOURSELF
PROOF YOUR… FOR TICKS
Once indoors,
YARD strip down and
■ Mow your lawn frequently so ticks have fewer
places to hide. pay close attention
■ Rake. Ticks love to take shelter under dry leaves. to these spots:
■ Get rid of tall grasses or brush at the edge of your
lawn and replace them with a border of gravel or
1. Your armpits,
wood chips, which will keep ticks from travelling over. behind your knees
■ Put a fence around your vegetable garden to keep and in the groin
out deer (favourite hosts of blacklegged ticks). area. Ticks thrive in
KIDS warm, moist places
Children are particularly at risk for tick bites that are rich in
because of their daily outdoor playtime. blood vessels.
■ Protect them with tick checks and proper clothing.
■ Opt for play areas that are away from long 2. At the base of
grasses or brush. your ponytail and
■ When installing play structures, avoid the edge
even under your
of wooded areas and construct a gravel border.
belt, as ticks enjoy
DOGS being in tight, pres-
Canines can contract Lyme disease and bring ticks surized areas.
into the house that might bite other family mem-
bers. (Take comfort, cat lovers: felines rarely get 3. At your hairline
tick-borne diseases.) and at the back of
■ Check your pet for ticks if you’re in a Lyme hotspot.
Troye McPherson, president of the Canadian Veterin-
your neck.
ary Medical Association, has treated a Yorkshire 4. In small crevices,
terrier that contracted Lyme disease without ever such as between
leaving its yard.
■ Talk to your vet about getting a prescription for
your toes, in or
an oral medication for protecting against ticks, behind your ears
suggests McPherson. Two of her own dogs have and in your belly
contracted Lyme in the past, so the vet now has button.
ISTOCK P HOTO
✔ Do clean
ISTOCK P HOTO
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 35
READER’S DIGEST
GETTING A
DIAGNOSIS
If you have Lyme
symptoms and
have been bitten
by a tick or visited
an area where
Lyme carriers
live, your doctor THE TREATMENT
may diagnose When you’re diagnosed, a doctor will
you with the ill- prescribe the antibiotic doxycycline for
ness. There is a 10 to 21 days to kill off the bacteria. “It’s
blood test that a very effective treatment,” says Mary
can confirm a Southall, a public health nurse on the
Lyme infection, communicable disease team at KFL&A
but because it Public Health in Kingston. But, she says,
takes four to six if you continue to have symptoms after
weeks for evi- that, follow up with your doctor.
dence of the bac- If you’ve just been bitten by a tick in an
area where Lyme is endemic and believe
teria to show up the carrier has been attached for at least
in your blood, 24 to 36 hours, see your doctor even
physicians won’t before you show signs of illness. Your
wait if there are doctor may prescribe 200 milligrams of
other signs of doxycycline as a preventive measure.
the illness.
987
Number of cases of
Lyme disease reported
patients will recover fully. But if you miss the
initial signs, the disease can progress for
months after the initial bite and bring on symp-
toms such as headaches, weakness and fatigue.
When the illness remains untreated, the result-
in Canada in 2016,
ing inflammation can lead to extreme fatigue,
up from 144 in 2009.
arthritis and long-term neurological problems,
including palsy, says Southall.
36 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
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ISTOC KPHOTO
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 37
Jed the
basset hound,
photographed at
home in Toronto on
March 29, 2018.
HEART
How to
Speak
to My
Dog
A lesson in respecting
elderly canines—
and their owners
BY JA N E T M AC L E O D F R O M T H E G LO BE AN D MAI L
PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON GORDON
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 39
READER’S DIGEST
40 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
pace for our walks, going from saun- His bed is beside ours, and that’s where
ter to jet-speed at the sight of a pigeon. we want him.
While his clip has slowed these days, Initially, he chose to sleep between
he’s still pretty bouncy, incredibly cute us. We know this is bad behaviour, so
and easily the most popular member to encourage him to behave even more
of our family. badly, we put a bench at the end of the
Unfortunately, the place he holds in bed to help him up. A few years later
our hearts isn’t obvious to everyone. we added a second, lower bench to
“So,” continued the man in the park, make the climb even easier. But now
relentlessly, “he’s pretty old, huh?” he’s decided we’re crowding him and
“No, you’re pretty old!” is what I he sleeps in his own bed, located at
wanted to say. But I didn’t. I bit my the foot of our own.
tongue in the same way I do when The point is, we are a family and it’s
faced with similarly insensitive com- rude to ask people how long their fam-
ments. Things like, “Looks like his days ily members are going to live.
are numbered” or “Do you think you’re So I lie. When people say that my
going to have to carry him home?” dog looks really old, I opt for decep-
tion. Last week, I told someone that
TO BE FAIR, not everybody is so Jed was prematurely grey. I informed
inconsiderate. Some people, realizing another passerby that my dog was 27
they’re in the presence of an excep- in people years. A third nosy individ-
tional dog, will compliment his fine ual was advised that bassets have an
physique, his perky gait or his shiny exceptionally long life span. The truth
coat. His bark, I might add, is also is they don’t, but if I were to think
quite impressive. Then they will say about a life without my sweet friend I
how wonderfully he is doing “for an would start to cry.
old guy” and how we must be doing Recently, when yet another stranger
something right. said my dog looked old, I wanted to
Darn tootin’ we are! When we bought punch him in the head. Instead, I just
our current home in 2013, we did so nodded and said that basset hounds
specifically because it’s only one level. always look that way and they always
Bassets, for those who don’t know, are dawdle at their leisure. Then the man
shaped like giant hot dogs, and going asked how long Jed was going to live.
up and down stairs is hard on their “Forever!” I replied, as though the
spines. We would never allow Jed to answer was obvious. And we slowly
be separated from us by a staircase. walked away.
© 2018, JANET M AC LEOD. FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL (JANUARY 29, 2018), THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 41
DRAMA IN REAL LIFE
TT
K BURNE
BY D E R E
DY CK
JO NATH AN
TI ON BY
IL LU ST RA
42 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
READER’S DIGEST
T
HE STORY BEGINS back to shore and can barely graze the
on July 8, 2017, in sandy bottom with their feet.
Florida’s hard-work-
and-cold-beer Pan- AFTER A FEW MINUTES, it becomes
handle. Members of clear that they are all trapped in a rip
the Ursrey family, current. Rips move perpendicularly
eight in total, are to the shoreline and can quickly
enjoying an evening together at the exhaust swimmers who try to fight
beach. At around 7:30 p.m., as the sun them; the National Oceanic and
sinks lower, the two boys—Noah, 11, Atmospheric Administration reports
and Stephen, 8—take their boogie that 93 people drowned in these flows
boards and wade into the waves with- in 2017. Safety experts warn against
out the grown-ups noticing. When the fighting the pull and advise that any-
kids are about 65 metres from shore, one trapped in a rip should swim par-
they realize that the ocean has tugged allel to shore until finally exiting its
them out to sea. After trying hard and deadly belt—or float calmly to pre-
failing to paddle back in, they start wav- serve energy if exiting isn’t possible.
ing and screaming for help. But the The women try swimming, but no
lifeguards have clocked out for the eve- matter which way they move, they’re
ning. There’s a yellow flag flying, indi- still stuck.
cating caution, but most of the regu- Brittany, who has eight-year-old Ste-
lars were scarcely paying attention to phen, is petite and struggling to keep
the warning. her head above water. Panicking, she
The boys have been struggling for releases the boy and makes a frantic
several minutes when Brittany and push for safety. By now, some teen-
Tabatha Monroe, a married couple agers have heard the commotion. One
from Georgia, stroll by. They don’t of them, a boy who is tall enough to
see Stephen and Noah at first, but keep his feet on the ocean floor, dashes
they hear them. “If someone yells for into the water, grabs Brittany and
help, I’m going to try to help if I can,” hauls her back to shore.
Tabatha says. Meanwhile, Tabatha can feel herself
The two women leap into the ocean being pulled further out. She is tread-
and easily reach the brothers, who are ing water, already exhausted and begin-
still in water less than six feet deep. ning to despair now that she’s trying to
The women reassure the frightened save both boys alone. The waves keep
boys and grab their boogie boards— plunging her underwater as the two
then discover that they, too, are in boys bob next to her, holding their
trouble. They can’t make any progress boogie boards.
44 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Onshore, Brittany is hysterical. Shaun
Jernigan is heading back to his car but
stops. “What’s wrong?” he asks her.
“My wife is drowning!” Brittany says.
Shaun, a hulking house framer from
Georgia, looks out and sees the trio of
heads through the waves. He immedi-
ately strides into the water. A year ago,
Shaun had been caught in a rip cur-
rent in this very spot and narrowly
escaped drowning. The feeling of the
ocean lapping about his nose and ears
is familiar—uncomfortably so. Still, he
wades out as deep as he dares, up to
his chin.
Four metres still lie between him and
Tabatha and the boys. She’s screaming
for help, and while it’s painful to aban-
A family day at the beach turned
don them, he knows that if he contin-
terrifying for Stephen Ursrey (left),
ues, he’ll become another victim. He and his brother, Noah.
turns around.
“Please don’t leave me,” Tabatha sprints into the water, fighting the waves
pleads. “I’m fixing to die!” to get to her sons and the stranger who
“I’m not leaving,” Shaun answers. is trying to save them.
“I’ll be right back.” “I’m going to help you,” Roberta
says. She seizes the boys’ boards and
IT’S AROUND THIS TIME, about starts kicking for shore but quickly dis-
15 minutes into the rescue, that Roberta covers what others had before her. It is
Ursrey, the boys’ mother, returns from nearly impossible to make headway in
the bathroom and looks for her chil- any direction.
COURTESY ROBERTA URS REY
dren. She is shocked to see them float- By now, people on the beach have
ing with their boards much further out begun to notice the stranded group,
than they’re allowed to go. She hol- though the gravity of the situation isn’t
lers at them to come ashore, and they entirely clear. A few yards away, an
scream through tears that they’re stuck. Asian couple are treading water and
She can’t make out what they’re saying trying to inflate a child’s ring-shaped
but can tell that they’re upset, so she flotation device. They likely came out
flings her phone onto the sand and to help the boys, but when Roberta
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 45
READER’S DIGEST
Justin Hayward, surface nearer to the televised interview that the officers
shore. He’d been exploring the shal- thought it was too risky to let anyone
lows underwater, oblivious to what swim out to the boys.) Shaun ignores
was going on further out. He can see them and instead flags down a few
now that his aunt and cousins are in other beachgoers, and together they
trouble. Even though he broke his start to wade in.
hand playing football just a week To keep from losing their footing in
before, he swims hard for the boys. the current, they hold on to one
46 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
another, and that gives them an idea: Derek grabs Noah’s board from Jus-
why not form a human chain extend- tin, who has been trying desperately to
ing from the beach out to the swim- get his young cousin over to the chain,
mers? As long as the furthest link in part by plunging beneath the waves
stays connected to those whose feet to “walk” over the ocean floor while
are firmly planted in the sand, they’ll holding the boogie board over his head.
be safe.
Of course, that will require more
links—probably dozens of them. Shaun
calls to Derek and Jessica Simmons, “YOU JUST HEARD
a local married couple in their 20s, THE CHAIN, ‘PULL!
and they start rallying the folks who PULL!’ ALL THE
have been watching the drama with WAY BACK TO
passive concern. “Don’t just stand THE BEACH,” SAYS
there!” Derek yells. “There’s got to be DEREK SIMMONS.
some hope left for humanity in some
of you!”
Then the most astonishing thing “I was telling the boy, ‘Everything is
happens: one by one, link by link, total going to be all right. Just stay on your
strangers wade into the waves and board,’” Derek says. At one point, Noah
grasp one another by the wrists. falls off, and Justin grabs him by his
trunks and hauls him back up. “As
JESSICA SIMMONS IS an unusually soon as I got him to the end of the
strong swimmer for her small size. As chain, where Shaun was, it was like
her husband continues to recruit res- lightning. Shaun started passing him
cuers, she grabs two boogie boards back, and you just heard the chain:
and heads out past the still-forming ‘Pull! Pull!’ All the way back to the
line to see how she can help. When she beach. Everybody on the beach pulling
reaches the end of the chain, she sees them in.” It takes only a minute or so
that it’s still at least six metres shy of for the chain to ferry him to the beach.
the group of swimmers. A tall man at Jessica has been helping little Ste-
the end of the chain says to her, “Do phen make his way over to the chain,
you think you could get them close which is now some 70 volunteers
enough to where we could grab them?” strong, and when he reaches it, he, too,
“Yeah, I can do that,” Jessica says. is whisked ashore.
When she turns around, she sees her Next comes Roberta, who is so
husband swimming just behind her. “I exhausted that she blacks out just as
couldn’t leave you out here,” Derek says. Jessica helps her connect with the
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 47
READER’S DIGEST
to shore. In fact, she doesn’t realize spent a few days in the hospital and
they have been rescued as her body months recovering from what turned
continues to fail her. out to be a third heart attack.)
Justin struggles to float his grand-
mother along on a boogie board, but FORTY MINUTES INTO the rescue,
she keeps flopping off. Over and over, everyone is ashore except for Tabatha,
the waves hit them, she goes under, who flounders about six metres from
and Justin brings her back up, being the end of the chain, and the boys’ dad,
48 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Bryan. Tabatha is beyond exhausted, her the last few metres to the chain,
beyond despairing. which zips her back to the beach. In
“Hold on, baby girl,” Bryan tells her. the meantime, Bryan manages to find
“I got you.” Again and again he digs the his footing and wades in on his own
tips of his toes into the sand and tosses steam. Everyone, miraculously, has
her forward—and again and again, the made it.
sea undoes his feeble progress.
THE VAST MAJORITY of the rescuers
from that day remain anonymous: the
teen who helped Brittany ashore, the
THERE’S A GREAT lanky young man who swam Tabatha
SCRAMBLING IN THE in, the Asian couple. Each deserves to
SURF, AND THE be celebrated—but won’t be. This hum-
CHAIN FORMS AGAIN, bles the Ursreys almost beyond words.
ALIGNED TO “There were people there who didn’t
RESCUE TABATHA. know how to swim whatsoever, and
they were up to their necks in water,
holding on to other people,” says Bryan.
Shaun and the others in the human “It didn’t matter what colour you
chain see what’s happening, and the were, what age you were. People
shout goes out to move the rescue stopped what they were doing. They
operation down the beach, closer to got off their phones, tablets, whatever,
where Tabatha has drifted. There is a and helped my family out of the water,”
great scrambling in the surf, and a he says.
moment later the chain forms again, “Those people on that beach that
aligned to rescue Tabatha. day were angels on earth,” says Roberta.
A fresh swimmer splashes up to her. “Whether it’s the first person or the
“Come on—grab my arm,” he says. last person in that chain, they were
Tabatha reaches for him and he tugs our heroes.”
VANTAGE POINT
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 49
INSPIRATION
Master
Chef
How Jean Paré,
author of the
Company’s Coming
BY K R I ST Y WO U D ST R A
books, taught our
FROM THE WALRUS
country to cook
COURTESY OF GRAN T LOVIG; (P HOTO-I LLUSTRATION) GERRI T DE JONGE
SIX YEARS LATER, Gail Lovig still Just as Paré showed her daughter
remembers the afternoon her mom tricks for achieving perfect pastry that
taught her how to make pie crust. day, she helped a generation of Cana-
Lovig laid out the required ingredients dians learn how to cook and bake. She
in her kitchen in Fanny Bay, B.C., while launched Company’s Coming Publish-
her mother—who happens to be Jean ing Limited with her bestselling cook-
Paré, of Company’s Coming cookbook book 150 Delicious Squares in 1981 from
fame—perched on a stool nearby, a her home in Vermilion, Alta. By the time
glass of white wine in hand. When she Paré hung up her apron 30 years later,
was ready, Lovig looked at her mother she’d won numerous awards, authored
and said, “Okay, tell me what to do.” and self-published more than 200
Paré had always made pies for get- books (which have collectively sold
togethers, so Lovig had never felt the more than 30 million copies) and estab-
need to make her own. But as Paré got lished herself as one of the most suc-
older, her daughter wanted to carry on cessful cookbook authors in the world.
the tradition. “It’s food, it’s connection One of Paré’s great insights was see-
to your family,” reflects Lovig, now 60. ing the potential in “a book about bars
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 51
READER’S DIGEST
and squares,” says fellow Canadian- best. You often put your name on it,
cookbook author Elizabeth Baird. that’s how proud you were.”
“She had an eye for what people really Judy Schultz, the Edmonton Journal’s
wanted, and she did a good job in giv- food writer for 26 years, also wrote the
ing it to them.” Paré’s books looked biography Jean Paré: An Appetite for
and felt like heartwarming instruction Life. In it, Schultz describes Paré’s vora-
manuals, with knee-slapping puns cious appetite for reading and collect-
and colourful photos of comfort food ing any and all recipe books, and her
scattered throughout. “particular fondness for community
During her reign, Paré—who turned cookbooks…anything written by those
90 last December—became an archiv- homemaking women she considered
ist of Canadian cooking traditions, to be the real cooks in North America,
preserving and interpreting recipes and indeed everywhere else she trav-
she collected. But even as she became elled in the world.”
a Canadian tradition herself, she never The Company’s Coming titles were a
abandoned one of her most treasured vital addition to the Canadian culinary
sources of inspiration: the community canon, says Kathryn Harvey, head of
cookbook. “She wasn’t trying to be a archival and special collections at the
fancy-pants,” says Baird. “She was just University of Guelph’s library, where
being honest in the way she was.” Paré donated 6,700 recipe books from
her personal library in 2009. “When you
IN THE FIRST HALF of the 20th century, think of published cookbooks, you tend
most of our country’s home cooks to think they are more aspirational, that
didn’t own many cookbooks. (Paré they don’t really tell you what a com-
only had two when she first married in munity or society ate,” she says. “Com-
1946.) But they didn’t lack recipes. pany’s Coming was an empire, yet it
They relied on ones clipped from mag- had the feel of community cookbooks.”
azines, handwritten by loved ones and Paré’s books also evoke her own
pulled from the community cookbooks practicality, down to the original
that have been curated across North series’s telltale spiral bindings, which
America since the late 1800s. allow the books to stay open as cooks
“These local cookbooks were often measure, stir and pour. Having raised
about fundraising for your church or four kids largely on her own, Lovig
the war effort, and what they ended up says, Paré understood that sometimes
being was this amazing collection of it was necessary to prepare good food,
recipes,” says Toronto-based culinary fast. Why worry about making a sauce
historian Elizabeth Driver. “You’d only from scratch if a can of creamed soup
give a recipe that you thought was your worked in a pinch? And who needed
52 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
to peel and mince fresh garlic for a skill level, to succeed. A photo of her
weekday dinner when powdered was calm, reassuring face appeared on the
ready to go in the cupboard? back of her books, as though she was
Each of her themed titles, from Any- saying, “You’ve got this. I’m here with
time Casseroles to Most Loved Pies to you.” Readers loved her for it, sending
Adding Vegetables to Everyday Meals, her thousands of letters to thank her
offers simple recipes made with ingred- for simplifying their lives. She kept
ients that could be found even in every single piece of correspondence
rural areas. As the brand grew and and wrote each person back, by hand.
Paré moved her test kitchen and office When Paré received the Order of
to Edmonton, she still insisted on tast- Canada in 2004, she was perplexed.
ing every dish herself. “Why would they give me this?” she
“There’s a reason why [Company’s asked her daughter. But to Lovig the
Coming] did so well,” says recipe answer was clear: her mother made
developer Annabelle Waugh, who has cooking accessible for readers who
contributed to Canadian Living pub- might otherwise be intimidated.
lications. “When you put out 200 cook- Paré has applied that same humility
books, it’s because you’ve built up an and practicality to planning for her
incredible trust relationship with your funeral, telling her children to keep the
reader, and I think that speaks more service simple, no longer than 20 min-
to her style than anything.” utes. When the family discussed where
to hold it, in Vermilion or Edmonton,
AS OPPOSED TO GLOSSY books with Lovig stressed the importance of choos-
complicated recipes and hard-to-find ing a location big enough to accommo-
ingredients, or even today’s more pol- date everyone—just the Company’s
ished guides to home cookery (think Coming staff and their spouses will
Rachael Ray or Delia Smith), Paré’s amount to a couple hundred people.
guides look like the community recipe “She looked at me in disbelief,” Lovig
collections that inspired her. She says laughing. “Like she can’t imagine
wanted her readers, no matter their anyone wanting to even come.”
© 2017, KRISTY WOUDSTRA. FROM THE WALRUS (NOVEMBER 13, 2017), THEWALRUS.CA
FINANCIAL REPORT
The only exercise I’ve done this month is running out of money.
@COLLEGESTUDENT
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 53
As Kids See It
WHILE TAKING MY SON for a walk work! I have a list of things I want
around the park, he told me I had to you to buy me with the money
carry him. When I asked why, he said, you’re making.”
“My feet are bored.” women.com KAYLA REYES, h u f f i n g t o n p o s t . c o m
54 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
TODDLER: (Getting ready to jump off
the bed.)
AND ONE FOR THE KIDS
WIFE (to me): Do something!
ME: (Takes phone out to record it.) Q: How did the lagoon greet
WIFE: Do something else! his sibling?
@IWEARAONESIE A: “Oasis!” @IanDown1996
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 55
LIFE LESSON
The
Bright
Side BY SA R A H B A R M A K ILLUSTRATION BY WENTING LI
56 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
READER’S DIGEST
58 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
global warming was causing certain at the Toronto International Film Fes-
species—including her favourite, tival. There, he witnessed his charges
polar bears—to go extinct. “To see finding meaning in helping others,
your own child in tears because of bad and ended up doing so himself. When
news about the environment is like he taught one elderly volunteer how to
being stabbed in the chest with a dull use the Internet and set up her first
knife,” says Boyd. He told her that while email account, she later came to the
that was true, some species, such as office proudly showing off pictures of
sea otters, had been brought back her grandchildren that had been sent
from the brink of extinction by con- to her. “I found value in realizing I
servation efforts. could be helpful,” he says. “It didn’t
From there, he began what he calls need to be big. Even the small things
“a real journey of hope,” seeking simi- could be powerful.”
larly inspiring stories that included Seeking more ways to improve his
improvements outside his field—from world, McKinnon joined one of the
the rise in literacy worldwide to the working committees involved in the
decreasing global maternal mortality Green Line, a Toronto-based commu-
rate. The unheralded boom in green nity outreach initiative that aims to
energy affected him the most. “I abso- better use green urban spaces. As part
lutely think we’re going to make it,” he of that effort, he became the enthusi-
says. “I think we’re in the early stages astic organizer of an annual Novem-
of turning the ship around.” ber 1st pumpkin parade, at which kids
While news organizations tend to compete to see who carved the best
lead with the bad, balance can be jack-o’-lantern and local businesses
found if you look for it. “The great hand out prizes. “Families come out
thing about optimism is it’s not some- and people meet and talk to each other,”
thing you’re born with or without,” he says. “The conversations they have
says Boyd. “It can be cultivated.” are often about how we can make our
neighbourhood better.”
Be the change These days, McKinnon even has a
One easy way to escape the negative more optimistic opinion of the politi-
news feedback loop is to volunteer in cians he once distrusted. “People in
your community. Doing good, even on power are just like us,” he says. “There’s
a small scale, can dramatically trans- a capacity inside of everyone to be
form your outlook. good and make a difference, to look
Now in his 30s, McKinnon says his around you and say, ‘The world is not
own about-face began about 13 years the way that it should be. I can be a part
ago when he was managing volunteers of that change.’”
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 59
FAMILY
Driving
With My
Daughter
Parenting a teen can be trying.
But when we’re in the car,
singing along to our favourite
song, everything else falls away.
BY J O E P O S N A N S K I F R O M JOEPOSNANSKI.COM
60 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 61
READER’S DIGEST
WE THOUGHT we were ready. this moment not to ask her about school
I’m a sports writer for a living and or homework or friends. I think she’s
I’ve heard many elite athletes say that pleased, too, not to be talking about
in their first professional game, every- any of that. The air is cool and fresh,
thing moves so impossibly fast that and the windows are cracked. “Video
there’s no way to prepare for the speed Killed the Radio Star” is playing. “I like
and fury and violence of it all. this song,” she says. I tell her that years
We just thought we were ready. ago, I made a list with my friends of our
We weren’t ready at all. favourite 100 songs, and this was on it.
“Would it still be now?” she asks.
SHE GETS INTO THE CAR. It’s night- She’s in a curious mood. She used to
time, and I’m picking her up from a be like that all the time. “Tell me a story
school activity, and she is happy. She of when you were a boy,” she’d say when
used to always be happy—or at least a she was little. She doesn’t make that
lot of the time. Now it’s a 50-50 prop- request anymore; for a teen, curiosity
osition at best. Right away, she shows is a sign of vulnerability, a too-eager
me a picture she wants to post on Ins- admission that they need to know some-
tagram of herself with a friend. She thing. I remember feeling that way.
asks if it’s okay. I tell her it’s okay. I don’t Sometimes, when I offer advice or
know if it’s okay; I’m trying hard to keep instruction, she yells back, “I don’t need
up with the rules. But more importantly, your help!” And I remember saying
she is happy. I start the drive home. that, too. She shouts, “You don’t under-
A few blocks from the school, we get stand!” but adds, “It doesn’t matter.
stuck at a red light because of the inde- I’m going to fail anyway.” I remember
cision of the car in front of us. I growl thinking that most of all.
at this car. She laughs and mimics me.
I suddenly remember one time when SHE HAS LITTLE interest in recalling
she was a baby and we took her to a the past. For her, the clock only moves
spring-training baseball game in Flor- forward, and that’s where she wants to
(P REVI OUS S PREA D) THE VOORHES
ida. It was unseasonably cold, and we look—there’s so much ahead for her.
had her bundled up in a blanket. Every In a year, she’ll be in high school. In
now and again from the blanket there two years, she’ll be driving. In three,
would emerge a loud “Rahhhhrrrrrrr,” she’ll start looking at colleges. Forward.
and people in the rows in front of us Always forward.
would look back to see who—or what— Meanwhile, I look back. I am rocking
was making the sound. her, her tiny head resting on my shoul-
The light turns green. We talk about der, and I’m singing “Here Comes the
nothing important, and it’s pleasing for Sun,” trying to get her to fall asleep. I’m
62 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
walking with her through the gift shop She still is. She sings along to every
at Harry Potter World as she decides word. I do too.
between a stuffed owl and a Gryffindor
bag. I’m helping her with her math You may feel alone when you’re
homework when the problems were falling asleep
still easy enough for me to figure out And every time tears roll down
the answers in my head. I’m watching your cheeks
The Princess Bride with her for the first But I know your heart belongs to
time, and I hear her say in a delighted someone you’ve yet to meet
voice, “Have fun storming the castle!” Someday. You will. Be loved.
“Hey, Dad,” she asks, bringing me
back. “Can I have your phone? Can I She looks over and smiles. I still
play some music?” expect to see braces, but they’re gone
“Sure,” I say, handing it over. She now; her teeth are straight. She leans
punches a few buttons, the song begins closer and says, “Don’t you love this
and immediately I know what it is. song, Daddy?”
I hear her say “Daddy” and I’m sent
I once knew a girl backwards again, to when she was
In the years of my youth seven and racing over to me at the air-
With eyes like the summer port as I returned from a work trip,
All beauty and truth shouting my name and hugging me,
In the morning I fled not letting go.
Left a note and it read She’s 14, a turbulent age. Tomorrow,
Someday. You will. Be loved. she may look right through me. But
now, in the coolness of this evening,
I introduced her to it a year ago. she smiles at me and holds my hand,
“What kind of music would I like?” she and we sing along with our favourite
had asked. “Why don’t we try some song. We are off-key. But we are off-
Death Cab for Cutie?” She was smitten. key together.
BLANK CANVAS
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 63
MEMOIR
To
Know
Myself BY M E R E D I T H W H I T E FRO M THE WALRUS
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAY TRUONG
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 65
READER’S DIGEST
A
gist told me that this year’s MRI
was “not too bad,” whereas last
year’s was “rather concerning.”
“If you have another attack,” he
said, “call our office immediately.
In a case like yours, I’ll want to see
you right away and put you on
something stronger.”
Then he paused and added, as a I pay my rent. When I see my friends
kindly afterthought, “But of course, this Thursday.
hopefully that doesn’t happen.” Then one day, I couldn’t see.
I got the feeling he thought it would
happen one day. In a case like mine, I SHOULD CLARIFY: I couldn’t see
whatever that means. properly. The centre of my vision was
Four years ago, things were a lot sort of missing, and whenever I looked
less uncertain. I had extracted myself straight at something, it would dissolve.
from a Ph.D. program in classics that This wasn’t new to me; it seemed like
was feeling increasingly untenable and the aura I typically experience before
moved from Cincinnati, where I’d been a migraine. Usually, I’d take an Advil
studying, back to Toronto. and resign myself to 30 minutes of
I made just enough peace with the being slightly spacey before the aura
fact that I would not be spending the would lift and the migraine would
rest of my life studying Greek litera- arrive. Only the aura didn’t lift, and
ture that I could finally sleep at night the migraine never arrived.
without panicked second-guessing. I’d After two days, I was frustrated but
started a job and found an apartment still sanguine about this curious devel-
with a friend from high school. I had opment. A couple more days and I
all these things, a whole edifice of was panicked, wondering what was
definitiveness, around me. No more happening. I saw my family doctor,
starting thoughts with “if”: “if I pass who referred me to an ophthalmolo-
these exams,” “if I complete my dis- gist, who ruled out glaucoma and
sertation.” I’d settled it—enough for referred me to a neurologist. This
me, at least. My life felt solid, full of appointment was months away; after
statements. When I go to work. When about two weeks, my vision slowly
66 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
returned to normal, and I eventually cord: it shields the wire inside from
stopped worrying. damage and thus also protects the
By the time I saw the neurologist, I current that the wire carries. Spots of
was studiously blasé, wondering out damaged myelin can allow the elec-
loud if I should have cancelled the trical pulses that run through our
appointment. He wasn’t too concerned, nerves to become scrambled, resulting
either, and thought that it was a “com- in loss of motor skills, tingling, trem-
plicated migraine,” which is to say, a ors, vision problems and loss of sensa-
migraine that didn’t work properly. tion in limbs. The spots where demy-
“But there’s a tiny chance,” he contin- elination happens become lesions.
ued, “that you’ve had a stroke, so I’ll Multiple sclerosis is a brain covered in
schedule an MRI to make sure we can these little scars.
rule that out.” In one type of the disease, relapsing-
Then he added, “Of course, if any- remitting multiple sclerosis, a sufferer
thing else happens, give my office experiences attacks, or flare-ups, when
a call.” demyelinating activity in the brain
Nothing else happened. One night, causes a sudden neurological symp-
three months later, I slid into an MRI tom to manifest—such as, say, being
machine and lay as still as I could, a unable to see properly for two weeks.
little fascinated, a little bored, a little When the attack subsides, the symp-
anxious. To give myself something to toms will also subside, though lesions
think about, I recited a William Butler will be left behind and the damage may
Yeats poem that came to mind: “I have not be completely reversible. Over
drunk ale from the Country of the time, a person with MS can accumu-
Young / And weep because I know all late small disabilities that build toward
things now ...” In it, the speaker has major ones, such as impaired mobility
gained prophetic vision but is miser- and limited vision.
able because he learns he will never Jean-Martin Charcot, a 19th-century
be with the woman he loves. Know- French neurologist, first identified
ledge of what is to come, Yeats sug- the disease in 1868, though the lesions
gests, will not spare you from the neces- on the brain and spinal cord caused
sity of experience. by demyelination had been observed
in the decades prior. When Charcot
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IS a neurode- created his set of diagnostic criteria,
generative disease where the myelin lesions could only be observed through
sheath, a fatty insulating layer on one’s dissection, and he relied on the out-
neurons, is damaged. Think of myelin ward manifestations of MS for a diag-
like the rubber casing on an electrical nosis. But now, medical technology
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 67
READER’S DIGEST
allows us to peer into the recesses of our waiting, it seemed the moment of diag-
bodies that have never been opened to nosis passed by almost without notice.
the light. On MRIs of the brain, lesions “If I get diagnosed” bled seamlessly
show up as little spots of white. And into “when I got diagnosed.”
as much as it is peering into the dark
recesses, it is also peering into the IT TURNS OUT THAT learning one has
future, because it turns out that not a chronic disease does not chart a clear
every lesion necessarily causes a neuro- path to the future; it only highlights the
logical symptom—they may simply risks in a way that is both useful and
foretell a likelihood. useless. I take medication to reduce the
rate of demyelination, an act that low-
ers the risk of an attack while bringing
its own set of attendant complications,
MY DIAGNOSIS from hair thinning to cardiac failure.
HAS HAD THE EFFECT But I cannot know with certainty what
OF REMINDING is coming next any more than I could
ME JUST HOW three years ago, or yesterday.
MYSTERIOUS OUR There are still days—like when the
BODIES CAN BE. neurologist looks at my most recent
scans and reminds me once again to
call the clinic if anything happens—
In my case, the good and expected when the ifs and whens start to blur in
news was that my first MRI came back my head and catastrophic thinking
with no sign of stroke; the bad and causes me to retreat to what I do best
unexpected news was that my brain with my troublesome brain: look up the
was covered in demyelinated patches. etymologies of words. I observe that, in
“Something lit up,” as the neurologist Greek, “diagnosis” means “distinguish-
told me. My sparkling brain. ing, discernment; medical diagnosis.”
Seventeen months later, after obser- But it also means, in legal writing, “res-
vation and two more MRIs, I heard the olution, decision”—which sounds like
physician at the MS clinic say, with the a level of certainty that I suspect many
awkwardness with which one delivers people with medical diagnoses wish
bad news, “At this point, we consider they could achieve.
the diagnosis to have been made” while The “-gnosis” part of “diagnosis”
flipping through MRI images of my comes from a Greek root, “-gno,” which
brain, covered in pale dots. I was now means “to know.” If you’ve read a bit
one of the estimated 100,000 Canadi- of Plato, you might have come across
ans with MS. After more than a year of gnothi seauton, “know thyself,” the
68 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
maxim written at the temple where know, none of this care to safeguard
ancient Greeks visited the Oracle of my future would be possible.
Delphi to learn about the future. The vision in my right eye never fully
If I really knew myself—physically, returned. With both eyes open, I don’t
rather than the way that Socrates notice this, but if I squint or wink or
meant it—perhaps I would know what cover over my left eye, I am reminded
the future has in store for me. Instead, that I carry this small neurological scar
my diagnosis has had the effect of and that one day I might have more.
reminding me just how mysterious I’ve wondered, struggling through a
our bodies can be. For months, I was bout of debilitating fatigue, if the fog in
obsessed by the fact that there were my brain and the weight in my limbs
things happening in me that I couldn’t might never lift and if this would mean
sense even if I wanted to. The scope of I have to give up my ambition to do, to
my life shrunk down to this diagnosis; see, to write, to accomplish anything.
nothing else was relevant. I try to look straight at the future, but
In the face of knowledge, what to it dissolves, in my flawed vision, into a
do? Despite my fears a few years ago, continuing mystery with a slight pos-
my life has not been permanently sibility, now, of bad things. A life can
unsettled: I have a more interesting feel so small. But there is a contin-
job; I have my own apartment; the sky gency plan, phone numbers of the
didn’t fall. I manage through periods clinic to call if I need to. I take a deep
of fatigue caused by the disease—a breath. I remind myself that there are
whole-body tiredness unlike anything many things beyond myself that are
I had experienced before—but still, I worth investigating in the meantime.
wake up every morning and take a There are so many activities worth
pale blue pill that, through its own doing with a belief in their certainty.
unseen magic, slows down the rate of When I go to work. When I see my
demyelination and mostly keeps the friends tonight. When I finish this essay.
symptoms of MS at bay. If I didn’t When, when, when.
© 2018, MEREDITH WHITE. FROM THE WALRUS (FEBRUARY 22, 2018), THEWALRUS.CA
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 69
After a lifetime of rejection,
a plain Timbit speaks out
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 71
READER’S DIGEST
life—no one wants to eat me. I don’t wasteful to throw me out and
want to be sleeping on a wire rack bravely chooses to eat me. But
for my whole life, but day after day actually, a large part of my day is
I’m ignored in favour of Timbits that devoted to my music. I’m really into
are apparently worth consuming. bluegrass; I have a custom banjo.
It’s discouraging.
That’s a start. Do you think you
Does anything bring you comfort can reinvent yourself in the eyes
in those moments? of the public?
Not really. I occasionally feel hope- Probably not. The kindest thing any-
ful. At the end of the night, when the one’s ever going to say about me is,
store is nearly closed, sometimes a “I guess I’ll eat it.”
customer will request a box of two
dozen Timbits. And of course, my What about those who claim you’re
plain brethren and I are all that’s left. their favourite?
We’ll be in the process of getting To be honest, I don’t exactly want to
packed up before the customer real- be associated with the people who
izes what they’re getting and says, choose me. You know they’re all
“Oh, no. No thanks. I’ll just eat a wearing Crocs in the winter and
napkin instead.” searching with Yahoo instead of
Google. They’re weirdos. And prob-
Does anyone have it worse than you? ably the last people who would get
Sour Cream Plain Donut, for sure. chosen for any sports team—
Eating the whole thing is a commit-
ment most aren’t willing to under- Go on.
take. That guy has no shot at any sort Sorry, I suddenly realized I’m reject-
of professional satisfaction. ing my fans just like they’re … old-
fashioned plain Timbits. God. What
I see. Moving on, now is your a bitter thought. I clearly have some
chance to rewrite your narrative. things I need to work through.
Tell us something surprising or
unexpected that not many people Do you have anything else to add?
would know. Just a question: would you be inter-
Everyone thinks I just spend my ested in consuming me?
time rolling around hoping some
“hero” will decide it would be Absolutely not.
FROM “I DIDN’T ASK TO BE MADE: AN OLD-FASHIONED PLAIN TIMBIT SPEAKS OUT,” BY CASSIE BARRADAS, CBC COMEDY
(JANUARY 24, 2018), CBC.CA/COMEDY
72 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Laughter
THE BEST MEDICINE
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 73
ENVIRONMENT
MICRO MANAGEMENT
BY T I N A K N E Z E V I C FR O M THE WALRUS
ILLUSTRATION BY DREW SHANNON
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 75
READER’S DIGEST
ships around 600 filters each year—a cubic metre of water sampled off Brit-
household product that may also be ish Columbia’s coast. We are figura-
a solution to a nearly invisible global tively drowning in these little threads.
environmental concern. Depending on their size, microplas-
tics can be ingested by fish and even
MICROPLASTICS ARE the hidden zooplankton, and lacerate or block
scourge of our waterways. These par- intestines, leading to starvation, injury
ticles measure less than five millimetres or death. They can leach chemicals
and are dangerous precisely because into an animal’s tissue. (Even gutting
they’re small and ubiquitous. So far, a fish won’t remove the toxins in the
global attention has focused on two of filets on our plates.)
the three sources of microplastics: Jollimore’s Lint LUV-R could be a
macroplastics (from plastic bags or key weapon of defence. After an ecolo-
containers that have degraded into gist in California first documented the
fragments) and microbeads (plastic pollutant as a global problem in 2011,
exfoliators in toothpastes, body washes several researchers (and eventually
and face scrubs). But scientists are Ross’s team) became interested in test-
learning that the third kind, microfi- ing Jollimore’s filter. One test is show-
bres—microscopic plastic threads that ing that its second-generation model
shed from our clothing—are potentially can catch over 80 per cent of fibres.
the most abundant of the three.
Municipal wastewater-treatment WHEN THE DANGERS of microfibres
plants can capture some microfibres, first became publicly known, polar
but most facilities aren’t capable of fleece seemed to be the principal cul-
stopping their flow into our waterways prit. The cozy material, created by engi-
each time liquid from our washing neers at a textile mill in Massachusetts
machines leaves the drain. And while who wove polyester fibres into a dense
natural materials also shed, synthetics fabric, came to market in the early
have scientists particularly worried. 1980s in partnership with the Ameri-
Peter Ross, vice-president of research can outdoor-gear company Patagonia.
at the conservation association Ocean Fleece shot to popularity as a
Wise, based in Vancouver, has been replacement for wool: it was soft and
researching microplastics since 2001 lightweight, and it provided excellent
and is leading a Canadian study on insulation. It was also billed as eco-
microfibres. In 2014, his team pub- friendly, especially once it began to be
lished research that found as many as manufactured from recycled products.
9,200 microplastic particles—of which The problem, though, was that it shed.
about 75 per cent were fibres—in each As accusations against fleece began to
76 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
mount, Patagonia commissioned a well-designed and tailor-made man-
2016 study and found that each time agement strategy for end-of-life plas-
a single fleece garment gets laun- tics, humans are conducting an uncon-
dered, up to two grams of microfibres trolled experiment on a global scale.”
are released.
We know now that microfibres don’t THIS JULY, THE SALE of toiletries con-
end with fleece. Many companies use taining microbeads will be banned.
synthetics, such as polyester, nylon (The selling of natural health products
and acrylic, to make anything from and non-prescription drugs contain-
leggings to button-up shirts. ing microbeads will be prohibited next
Mountain Equipment Co-op, keen year.) But regulating microfibres, a by-
to produce clothing with a low envi- product rather than an additive, will
ronmental impact, provided Ross be more difficult.
with 45 of the 111 textile samples he Even consumer choice can only go so
is running through his test washing far. It’s much easier to swap out harmful
machines. After specialized filters col- face wash than to find a T-shirt that
lect the effluent, Ross’s team spends doesn’t shed, and few rules dictate how
hours peering through microscopes, clothes can be manufactured or laun-
trying to understand which materials dered. In the same way that many prov-
shed most—information that could incial fire codes require that dryer lint
inform how MEC engineers its textiles. traps be cleaned regularly, researchers
The company’s samples are largely hope that mandatory washing machine
the synthetic performance gear it’s filters will one day be the norm—that
known for, but MEC has also given Ross a global threat may be considered as
materials made from natural fibres, serious as a personal one.
to test how much they shed relative to Jollimore is still using his original
synthetic textiles. Cotton, wool and silk prototype filter, which he only needs
are often treated with chemicals—dyes, to empty every few weeks. He is wait-
softeners, stain-release agents—that ing for research, rather than legisla-
change how they break down. tion, to roll in, and he is ready to grow
Researchers say that washing our his business as microfibres become
clothes less frequently and buying better known. “The silver lining of the
fewer, built-to-last items—which shed cloud was for me to come up with an
less—are the best ways to keep micro- idea,” he says. “This solution that I’d
fibres out of our waters. But as one come up with can maybe help solve a
recent study has warned, “Without a world pollution problem.”
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 77
HEART
THANK YOU
SO MUCH FOR
Caring BY P E T E R D E M A R CO FR O M T H E N E W YO R K TIMES
78 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
The author
and his wife,
Laura, hiking
in Scotland.
READER’S DIGEST
Every single one of you treated Laura yourselves invisible? How many times
with such professionalism, kindness did you help me set up the recliner
and dignity as she lay unconscious. as close as possible to her bedside,
When she needed shots, you apolo- crawling into the mess of wires and
gized that it was going to hurt a little, tubes in order to swing her forward
whether or not she could hear. When just a few feet?
you listened to her heart and lungs How many times did you check on
through your stethoscopes and her me to see whether I needed anything,
gown began to slip, you pulled it up to from a bite to eat to a drink, from fresh
respectfully cover her. You spread a clothes to a hot shower, or to find out
blanket not only when her body tem- whether I needed a better explanation
perature needed regulating but also of a medical procedure or just some-
when the room was just a little cold and one to talk to?
you thought she’d sleep more comfort- How many times did you hug me
ably that way. and console me when I fell to pieces,
You cared so greatly for her parents, or ask about Laura’s life and the person
helping them climb into the room’s she was, taking the time to look at her
awkward recliner, fetching them water photos or read the things I’d written
almost by the hour and answering every about her on Facebook? How many
one of their medical questions with times did you deliver bad news with (P REVI OUS PAGE) COURTESY P ETER D E MARCO
80 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
from friends to co-workers to college room for me to crawl in with her one
pals to family members. It was an out- last time. I asked if they could give us
pouring of love that included opera one hour without a single interrup-
singing, guitar playing and dancing, as tion, and they nodded, closing the
well as new revelations to me about curtains and the doors and shutting
just how deeply my wife had touched off the lights.
people. It was the last great night of I nestled my body against hers. She
our marriage together, for both of us, looked so beautiful, and I told her so,
and it wouldn’t have happened with- stroking her hair and face. Pulling
out your support. her gown down slightly, I kissed her
There is another moment—actually, breasts and laid my head on her chest,
a single hour—that I will never forget. feeling it rise and fall with each breath,
On the final day, as we waited for her heartbeat in my ear. It was our last
Laura’s organ-donor surgery, all I tender moment as husband and wife,
wanted was to be alone with her. But and it was more natural and pure and
family and friends kept coming to say comforting than anything I’d ever felt.
their goodbyes, and the clock ticked And then I fell asleep.
away. By about 4 p.m., finally, every- I will remember that last hour
one had gone, and I was emotionally together for the rest of my life. It was
and physically exhausted, in need of a a gift beyond gifts, and I have Donna
nap. So I asked Laura’s nurses, Donna and Jen to thank for it.
and Jen, if they could help me set up Really, I have all of you to thank for it.
the recliner, which was so uncomfort- With my eternal gratitude and love,
able but all I had, next to her again. Peter DeMarco
They had a better idea.
They asked me to leave the room Laura Levis was a patient in the inten-
for a moment, and when I returned, sive care unit at CHA Cambridge Hos-
they had shifted Laura to the right pital in Cambridge, Mass. She died in
side of her bed, leaving just enough 2016, at the age of 34.
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES (OCTOBER 6, 2016), © 2016 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, NYTIMES.COM
A GRAND ENTRANCE
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 81
HEALTH
The
Guide
Is medical marijuana right
for you? Find out which
conditions it helps—and where
further research is still needed.
BY VA NESSA M ILNE
ILLUSTRATION BY RAYMOND BIESINGER
82 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
READER’S DIGEST
84 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
scientist at the University of Toronto
faculty of medicine and co-chair of
Project ECHO Ontario, which helps
primary care providers choose the best
GREY AREA
treatments for chronic pain. Although
MAYBES
For many disorders, there’s not
Furlan notes that we still need larger
enough information to conclude
studies and ones that look at a wider whether marijuana is beneficial,
range of conditions, she says it’s rea- mainly because there haven’t
sonable for people to turn to prescrip- been enough high-quality, ran-
tion cannabis for pain, especially if domized clinical trials—the kind
other treatments aren’t working. required before a pharmaceut-
ical drug is allowed into the
Scientists are still unsure exactly marketplace for use.
how marijuana might work to combat According to Fiona Clement,
pain. Cannabis affects the endocan- an associate professor at the
nabinoid system—receptors in the University of Calgary, the lack of
brain that are connected to appetite, research is primarily due to the
fact that medical marijuana has
pain, mood and memory—but we
only been allowed for use since
don’t know what those receptors do. 2001 and has been subject to a
However, in addition to interacting more stringent approval process
with the physical aspect of pain, it from Health Canada in order to
seems that marijuana may ease its psy- study it. “And there’s also an
issue of funding,” she says. “His-
chological side, as well.
torically, this has been an illegal
“Pain is the alarm system in our body, industry that’s not in a position
so it activates the emotional part of the to support research.”
brain,” explains Furlan. “It makes you One interesting area of debate
feel like you cannot wait, that you have is anxiety. We know that people
to stop everything you’re doing and with anxiety disorders are more
likely to use marijuana, but it’s
fix it.” For chronic pain, she says, that unclear whether the plant helps
reaction isn’t useful, because there’s control their anxiety or contrib-
nothing to fix. Patients tell her that can- utes to its development.
nabis helps dull those strong emotions. “People report that they take
it to relax, so it’s natural to con-
clude that cannabis might help
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
with anxiety,” says Ziva Cooper,
Canada has one of the highest rates of an associate professor at Colum-
MS in the world, with about 100,000 of bia University. However, we are
us living with the condition. Canna- still awaiting proper clinical tri-
binoids seem to help sufferers with als to prove it.
one of the disease’s core symptoms,
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 85
READER’S DIGEST
86 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
health interventions—concluded that is, with many patients reporting less
people undergoing chemotherapy who daytime fatigue.
took cannabinoids were three times Although researchers are unsure why
less likely to experience nausea and it has this benefit, some hypothesize
five times less likely to have that turn that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
into vomiting than those who had been in marijuana—the compound that
given a placebo. In fact, those positive makes you feel high—acts as a sedative.
findings mean that, for some patients,
medical marijuana could be just as EPILEPSY
effective as the traditional anti-nausea Marijuana’s ability to stop seizures
drugs currently prescribed. became famous in part thanks to a
The Cochrane Collaboration did 2013 CNN documentary, Weed, featur-
warn, however, that patients reported ing a child—Charlotte Figi—who had
more side effects from cannabis-based hundreds of seizures a week, which
medications than with conventional robbed her of the ability to walk, talk
ones, including feeling high, dizzy or and eat. When Figi was five, her par-
sedated. Shelita Dattani, director of ents persuaded doctors to prescribe
practice development and knowledge her cannabis oil, and the frequency of
translation for the Canadian Pharma- Figi’s seizures dropped to two to three
cists Association, says that’s why it’s times a month.
not doctors’ first choice for nausea. Those kinds of “profound case
“It’s adjunctive therapy,” she says. “It reports” inspired more rigorous
would be used for patients who have research on the effects of cannabin-
not responded to the multitude of trad- oids, especially in children, says Fiona
itional options out there.” Clement, an associate professor at the
University of Calgary. A recent study
INSOMNIA on cannabinoid use for children with
People frequently turn to marijuana to treatment-resistant epilepsy condi-
help with sleep problems, and there is tions reported the frequency of seiz-
promising evidence that cannabinoid- ures dropping by upwards of 20 per
based medications can work for them. cent—and sometimes down to zero.
So far, most of the research has
looked at marijuana’s effectiveness Three Areas Where the
when it comes to improving sleep dis-
turbed by medical issues like sleep
Evidence Is Weak
apnea, fibromyalgia or MS. Cannabis CANCER
seems to improve both how much Stories have long swirled on the Inter-
sleep people get and how restorative it net that marijuana cures cancer; some
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 87
READER’S DIGEST
unscrupulous doctors have even built a lot to learn about how medical mari-
their practices around this idea. Can- juana could affect our mental abilities.
nabinoids have been shown to kill
cancer cells in the laboratory, but GLAUCOMA
that’s a long way from curing cancer The belief that marijuana helps treat
in real life—in other studies, research- glaucoma started in the 1970s, when
ers found that cannabis also harms studies showed that it lowered pres-
crucial blood vessels, weakens the sure in the eyes—one of the condi-
immune system or even encourages tion’s causes, which can lead to vision
some cancer cells to grow. The evi- loss. However, follow-up studies found
dence of its effectiveness in people that marijuana only maintained this
with cancer is mostly anecdotes about result for a few hours, so sufferers
patients making miraculous recover- would have to use the drug up to eight
ies, which could be coincidental. times a day for it to be beneficial.
So far, there have only been a few very Cannabis also reduces blood flow to
small clinical trials in this area. One the optic nerve, which can damage it
found a positive effect with adding can- and cancel out any positive effects of
nabis to standard chemotherapy—but lowered pressure. Newer prescription
was observed in a sample of only nine medications, on the other hand, work
people with aggressive brain tumours. for much longer without those issues,
“I’m not a believer,” says Clement. so doctors recommend them over med-
“Cannabis doesn’t cure cancer.” ical marijuana.
88 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
@ Work
CAREER HACK FOR CODERS:
Arrange your first job in Spain. That
way you’ll be Señor Developer from
day one.
@JAREK000000
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 89
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Firefighter
Dan Dykens in
August 2014.
90 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
By 2014, Aaron Williams had
been fighting wildfires in B.C. for
nine summers. But he’d never seen
a season quite like this one.
FR O M C H AS I N G S MOK E
READER’S DIGEST
road running parallel to ours. Above uncontained blaze. But we’ve already
that, trees burn. They flare up in groups checked it and know it’s a dead end.
of two or three, the taller balsams He says to wait there.
being the most impressive to watch. Ten minutes later, Dan arrives in the
Sheets of flame unfurl from their truck with two other crew members.
branches, sending black smoke into He blows past the junction where Brad
the sky to join the mother-ship cloud and I sit waiting. Seeing us as he drives
of grey hanging permanently in the air by, Dan locks up the brakes, skids on
above us. We stare at the plumes of the loose gravel and puts the truck in
smoke and keep walking, frequently reverse. I can see from the slope of his
92 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
shoulders, the jut of his neck, that he’s 2014, six days before official fall, way
enjoying the drama of his entrance. past its actual start in northern B.C.
The chase is back on. Our season should be over.
We find our escape fire on the next Still, here we are, trying to contain
road up from where Brad and I had the biggest fire the province has seen
been walking. The spot is in an area in 30 years.
that was recently logged, and the fire is
active, churning through whatever lit- MAY 2014.
ters the forest floor. It anchors itself to We’re cutting a “fuel free,” a three-
decaying stumps and root systems or metre-wide break in the timber some-
flares up in the richer deposits of brush times used in firefighting. Once a fuel
left behind by logging. The flames are free is cut and the wood has been
taller than we are, but there are places cleared off (we call this “swamping”),
where they’re less active, and from we’ll dig “a hand guard” down the
those areas we dig away at the edge of middle. A hand guard is a trench about
the fire, pulling it in on itself as if dab- 30 centimetres wide and five centi-
bing the edge of a wound. metres deep. With the right bird’s-eye
A helicopter buckets another spot view, a completed fuel free and hand
nearby, coming in and out of focus and guard should look like a highway
earshot, disappearing into the smoke through a forest—a swath of cleared
to refill with water at a nearby lake. trees with a path right down the centre.
The group of us, five in total, works in In theory, a fuel free and hand guard
silence on different sections of the should be enough of a break in fuel to
escape. There’s laboured breathing and slow or stop a large fire.
the clink of tools hitting rock. The whole process, from felling trees
Our bodies and clothes are filthy, to bucking them up to clearing the
our hands blackened and calloused. debris to digging a hand guard, is an
The smoke cloud is starting to descend insane amount of effort. And we’re
toward the ground. It’s September 16, leaving the worst of that work—the
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READER’S DIGEST
swamping and guard digging—for the “I don’t know,” I said. “We probably
rookies to do during their training week. do maintenance on our oxygen tanks.”
What’s more ridiculous than the I didn’t know that oxygen tanks were
labour, though, is that we’re cutting in no way part of the forest firefigh-
down perfectly healthy trees to teach ter’s equipment. Using an oxygen tank
our recruits the value of work for work’s when fighting a forest fire would be
sake. But this is what makes us better. like using a football to play basketball.
It’s my ninth season. I have two arts With no oxygen tanks needing main-
degrees and no hard skills. I’m 28 and tenance, what did we do in our down-
I’m still on the Telkwa Rangers unit time? We have lots of it—we usually
crew. The last two seasons I’ve left my only work on fires for about half the
home in Halifax and my girlfriend, summer. When we’re not firefighting,
Sue, to come back to firefighting. I met we do “project work,” which ranges
Sue in B.C. between my second and from cutting firewood to brushing forest
third seasons, and since then we’ve service roads to laying bricks.
spent most summers apart. It wasn’t The first of this year’s project work
so bad in the beginning, but with Sue is burning brush piles near the Telkwa
now permanently working in Halifax, Fire Attack Base. This is called fuel
it’s getting old fast. management, an ongoing project.
Every summer we cut down dead trees
WHEN I INTERVIEWED to be a fire- and limb low-hanging branches on
fighter in March of 2006, I didn’t know green trees. Afterward, we pile them
anything about the job. I came from up in one spot and, when the condi-
Prince Rupert, B.C., in a rainforest so tions are right, burn the piles. This is
AARON WILLIAMS
wet it could repel napalm. My lack of to stop “fuel loading”—that is, the
knowledge was evident throughout the accumulation of too much burnable
interview and was most obvious when stuff on the forest floor.
the interviewer asked, “What do you The size of the project is beyond
think we do in our downtime?” comprehension, and as far as I know,
94 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
Top: Dinner on makeshift benches during the early days
of the Chelaslie River fire. Bottom: Dry conditions and
big fires made “burning off ” a common tactic in 2014.
Kara is about to lay down another swatch of fire.
READER’S DIGEST
fuel management hasn’t been proven to and my eyes are raw. The tree I’m
actually stop fires. More than a decade leaning on moves in the wind, and I
into it, we can still see our fire base from can feel the roots under my feet lifting
where we’ve been picking up sticks. me up and down a little, like I’m stan-
At lunchtime, I sit with Kara. There ding on a dock hit by a boat’s wake.
are bonfires burning all around us.
We’re seated on decaying logs, bits of THE HOTTEST MONTH of the year
broken glass from teenagers’ old bush has arrived and we haven’t made one
parties glinting in the sun. extra dollar yet.
Kara is a second-year who grew up Because July is also the halfway
in Smithers, B.C. She’s in her mid-20s point of the season for many crew
and has just finished university. Her members, it’s a natural time to com-
mom is from Papua New Guinea and pare stats. One deployment is about
her dad is from Germany—an unusual average at this point, two is good. To
combination in her blindingly white the best of my knowledge, three have
hometown. She’s at ease in the testos- occurred only once in the history of
terone-heavy environment of the unit the Rangers, in 1998. Zero fire days by
crew (there are usually three or four July 1 has happened before, but not for
women on the Rangers’ crew of 20). at least 10 years.
That afternoon, the wind is strong Crews in other parts of the province
and the blue smoke is thick among the aren’t doing anything, either, a com-
young pine trees. We’re in the heat forting thought in the petty realm of
constantly, chucking green rounds of inter-crew jealousies. There’s money at
wood onto the piles, rounds weighed stake, after all. On average, a unit crew-
down with water and sap. Each pile member can expect to make about
hisses with the sound of water being $5,000 in a two-week deployment.
squeezed out of wood. Near the end of With 30 unit crews spread across the
the day, I stop and lean on a tree. My province, though, there are bound to
arms are burnt, my nose is running be discrepancies. One crew that always
96 | 06 • 2018 | rd.ca
seems to kill it is the Fort St. John it until he sees a blue wisp of smoke out
Rhinos. Fire season comes early in his cab window later in the day.
northeastern B.C., peaking around the It’s all liable to happen now.
summer solstice, when the near 24
hours of daylight dries out the forest. BACK IN MAY of 2006, the Rangers
The Rhinos are also in oil country, so were called to a fire near Vanderhoof,
most fires are close to industry activity. B.C. The snow had been gone for only
July is the beginning of the end of a couple of weeks, but a warm spell
the fire season for the northern half of meant everything dead from the pre-
the province, but the southern half— vious fall was cured and ready to burn.
Prince George and lower—is just start- On our way to this fire, we were held
ing up. Areas like the Okanagan and up by a section of road that had mys-
the Kootenays tend to start burning at teriously turned into a grey slurry, only
this time. If it’s a hot year, every crew passable in four-wheel drive with the
from the north, including the Rhinos, pedal to the floor.
will migrate south. At first we thought it was just spring
For now, we’re still making base melt. But then we realized what we
wages—$1,200 every two weeks. It’s were seeing was a consequence of the
not heatstroke hot, but it is definitely mountain pine beetle infestation. For
warming up, and we’re at that point millennia, these beetles kept forests in
when fires will burn even if it seems check, killing off older trees and lea-
like they shouldn’t. ving their dry husks to nurture the soil
Lightning will pass over a lonely or burn up in rejuvenating wildfires.
mountain in an evening squall and But in the mid-’90s an infestation of
leave embers to smoulder overnight, the beetles grew so big it eventually
waiting to be truly born in the sun’s killed off forests covering a fifth of the
heat the next day. A spark from a bull- province’s land mass.
dozer blade will shoot into the finest One reason beetle populations got
of lichen and the operator won’t know so out of hand was climate change;
rd.ca | 06 • 2018 | 97
READER’S DIGEST
weren’t enough living trees to sop up flank of the fire. When the barge reaches
spring snowmelt. the opposite shore, its ramp drops like
After a few years, beetle-killed trees a drawbridge and we drive off into a
(TOP) AARON WILLIAMS; (BOTTOM) PETER SMIT
shed their needles. There are billions of remote wilderness, seeking out the
these ghost pines in the interior of B.C., edge of a massive inferno.
desert-dry standing sticks of firewood. We try to get our bearings on where
This was the state of the forest in the the fire ends, but every time we gain a
Ootsa Lake area when, on July 8, 2014, new vantage point there’s a new hori-
at 6:23 p.m., Nancy Dogleon, one of zon of smoky edge.
only a few people still employed as a The only clear message we get is
fire lookout in B.C., made a call to the how undermanned this fire is. Its
Northwest Fire Centre. Lightning had 50,000-hectare (and growing) size is
started a fire in a remote area. For split into two halves. To the east, unit
several days, the Ministry of Forests, crews are working from a fire camp.
Lands, Natural Resource Operations On the western half, we’ve joined a few
and Rural Development left it alone, contract firefighters and two managers
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READER’S DIGEST
from the ministry. In short, we have back to the trucks, as there’s nothing
two-dozen people with which to moni- useful we can do.
tor 250 square kilometres of fire. Our That evening, we sit around the fire
presence here will have as much impact in the gathering smoky dark, enjoying
as getting rid of a single car would on enormous servings of steak. Yesterday
global warming. we were so clean we looked like actors
cast as firefighters. But after one half-
WE’VE SET UP CAMP at an aban- assed day of work we resemble the iron
doned log-sorting site at the edge of grill that dinner was cooked on.
Ootsa Lake. At five a.m. I wake up and
poke my head out of the tent. The lake THE FIRE ACTIVITY we saw from a
is calm and dark purple in the pre- distance yesterday ended up challen-
dawn light. It’s cold, and I decide to ging the stretch of land we were hosing.
stay in my sleeping bag until a flurry of The next morning we discover that an
alarm clocks goes off at six. In the escape has burned into debris from an
confines of the tent, I put on as many old logging operation.
clothes as are available before wrig- Partway through the day, help arrives
gling out the door. Once outside, I in the form of an old excavator jostling
hurry to put on more clothes. I eat cold down the cat guard. In the cab is a tall
breakfast cereal with the bowl in my man well into his 60s. He’s sitting down
lap, alternately warming each hand but still a presence. When I reach up
over boiling dishwater. There’s no cere- to shake his hand, he grabs it like a
mony in this meal, no coffee, no fire bear swiping at a fish. I press back, but
inviting a few minutes of staring before my bony fingers barely register against
we get ready. his. He introduces himself as Carl. I
Our best option for beating the ask him what he does when he’s not
cold is to get to work. We set up hose working fires.
on a long cat guard—a wide strip of “Well, I’m tired, not retired,” he says.
exposed dirt left by a bulldozer in an He tells me he owns a ranch just off
attempt to stop fires—built before we the François Lake ferry dock, where he
arrived. In the distance, the fire is lives with “the wife.”
threshing huge tracts of forest with Carl owns a bunch of equipment, and
algorithmic efficiency. The dry condi- during fire season he contracts himself
tions and the fire’s aggressive behav- and his machinery out to the ministry.
iour at this hour are good indicators His jeans are worn thin, as is his denim
that this workday will be cut short. shirt. The chest hair poking out from
We stand around on the guard, baking his shirt looks like it could plane wood.
in the hot sun. Later, we’re pulled I want to know more about his life.
TIME MANAGEMENT
13 Things
Lifeguards
Wish You Knew
BY M I C H E L L E C R O U C H
AD D ITION AL R ES EAR C H BY A N N A- K A I SA WA LK E R
ILLUSTRATION BY CLAYTON HANMER
letter intended for your neighbour, postcards to their loved ones. If that
and sometimes you accidentally get seems too mundane, Vanuatu Post
drone parts belonging to the U.S. has a mailbox next to an active vol-
government. That’s what one man cano. And you thought your inbox
learned when a mysterious package was about to explode!
3 *
Brainteasers
Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles and mind stretchers,
then check your answers on page 111.
o o x o
o
FOUR-BIDDEN
(Moderately difficult) o o x
Place an X or an O in each empty
o x x
(FOUR-BIDDEN) FRAS ER SI MPS ON; (THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF I T) MARCE L DANE SI
cell of this grid so that there are
no four consecutive Xs or Os
appearing horizontally, verti-
x x o
cally or diagonally. There’s only o o o o
one solution. Can you find it?
o o o x
o x o
“Who is this?”
The strange response: “It’s one of your
female relatives. Your mother’s mother
is my father’s mother-in-law.” Even
assuming that this information is true,
it doesn’t help Carmela pinpoint an
individual, since there are two relation-
ships it could describe. What are they?
3 6 2 6 5=3
MAKE IT WORK (Difficult)
Arrange the whole numbers from 1 to 9 in a three-by-three grid so that all
of the following conditions are satisfied:
1. Paul Doumer and Marie François 8. Although he won the Nobel Peace
Sadi Carnot were the only presidents Prize in 1993, who remained on the
of which country to be assassinated USA’s terrorist watch list until 2008?
while in office?
9. The inventor Thomas Edison
2. What fictional character was based helped to make William Kemmler the
on Vlad Tepes, a real medieval prince? first person executed in what manner?
3. In 2007, immunologists suggested 10. Which country did Queen
that which organ is actually an emer- Wilhelmina lead through the
gency reserve of gut bacteria? First and Second World Wars?
4. Which British prime minister often 11. Who is the only person appearing
derided opponents within her own on post-colonial Indian bank notes?
party by calling them “wets”?
12. Martin Winterkorn resigned as
5. Originating in Algeria and CEO of what car company after
Tunisia, the deglet nour is a it was caught fudging diesel-
popular variety of what fruit? emission readings in 2015?
6. On which day of the week 13. Which Nirvana tune
do Muslims come together was named the most iconic
for a prayer called Jumu’ah? song of all time by research-
ers from Goldsmiths, Uni-
7. A byte has 256 possible
15. Which classically versity of London?
values. Therefore, Inter-
defined type of female
national Programmer’s singing voice has the lowest 14. What 1994 prison
Day is on the 256th day drama depicts an
CC CASABLANC A RECORDS
13. “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” 14. The Shawshank Redemption. 15. Contralto.
Mandela. 9. The electric chair. 10. The Netherlands. 11. Gandhi. 12. Volkswagen.
3. The appendix. 4. Margaret Thatcher. 5. The date. 6. Friday. 7. September. 8. Nelson
ANSWERS: 1. France. Doumer was killed in 1932 and Carnot in 1894. 2. Count Dracula.
Answers
1. hence—[A] from this time; as, 9. cap-a-pie—[A] from head to foot;
The new documentary is set to be as, When he arrived home from the
released five months hence. hunt, Edgar was dressed cap-a-pie
in camouflage.
2. singly—[C] separately; as, Tourists
wandered the heritage site singly and 10. alfresco—[A] taking place outside;
in groups. as, Eloise and Harry dined alfresco
and watched the Tuscan sunset.
3. betimes—[C] early; as, Paolo was
up betimes and enjoyed a leisurely 11. slantwise—[C] at an angle; as,
walk to work. Helga opened the blinds and the
evening light spilled slantwise into
her study.
4. widdershins—[A] counterclock-
wise; as, The amusement-park ride
turned clockwise, then widdershins 12. erstwhile—[A] formerly; as,
with equal speed. There were erstwhile seven towns
dotting the now-abandoned island.
7. notwithstanding—[B] in spite
of this; as, Though some members 15. forsooth—[A] in truth; as,
opposed it, the council followed the Dawkins was barely fit, forsooth,
plan notwithstanding. to lead anyone into war.
VOCABULARY RATINGS
8. aloft—[B] up in the air; as, Follow-
7–10: fair
ing the team’s victory, the coach was 11–12: good
held aloft by his players. 13–15: excellent
FOUR-BIDDEN
o o o x o x x o
o x x x o o o x
x o o o x x x o 7 8
x
o
o
x
o
x
x
x
x
o
x
x
o
o
x
o
3 1
o
o
o
x
o
o
x
o
o
o
o
x
o
x
x
x
5 7 1 4 3
x o o x x x o o
3 9 6 8 7
THE LONG AND 9 2 7 3
THE SHORT OF IT
A = Jane.
B = Jasmine.
4 5 1 3 9
C = Jacqueline.
D = Jin. 9 8 1 6 7
E = Juanita.
FAMILY RELATIONS
1 5
SISTER OR
FIRST COUSIN.
6 2
ARITHME-PICK
3×6÷2+6÷5=3 TO SOLVE THIS PUZZLE…
You have to put a number from
MAKE IT WORK
1 to 9 in each square so that:
(S UDOKU) SUDOKUP UZZLER.COM
any of them;
3 1 5 7 4 2 6 8 9
7 9 4
2 4 7 8 6 9 3 1 5
■ each of the 3 x 3 boxes 9 2 3 4 8 1 7 5 6
WE SEEM TO BE SO HARD
SET IN WHAT WE CALL OUR
PRINCIPLES, WHICH ARE NOT
SO MUCH OUR PRINCIPLES BUT
OUR PREJUDICES. LET’S TRY
TO GET BEYOND THAT. A L E X T R E B E K