What percentage of the population in Sardinia live to see their 100th birthday?


See more about Island of the Ancients in Encounters.

Word Puzzles

These language-related puzzles come from Reader’s Digest’s Giant Puzzle Book, a bumper edition chock-a-block with crosswords, trivia and number know-how




Think laterally to find the missing number
PORTUGAL = 51
EGYPT = 31
CANADA = 39
ETHIOPIA = 53
AMERICA = 46
ENGLAND = ?

Find the odd word out.
Dotterel
Pomfret
Phalarope
Guacharo
Lorikeet

Can you solve this riddle?
I live above a star, but I’m useful here on earth.
I have eleven ­neighbours, each one of ­different worth.
I am visited in ­sequence, first, last or in between.
PQRS are my initials–now tell me what I mean.

Take our word for it

Yule is now just another word that signifies Christmas, but what is its origin?

Reader’s Digest’s Origins of Words and Phrases, our book that tells the intriguing tales behind many colourful catchphrases, reveals that the word Yule comes from the Old Norse word jól, signifying a pagan festival at the winter ­solstice that lasted for twelve days and was celebrated in late ­December or early January. When the Germanic and ­Scandinavian pagans adopted Christianity, they simply changed the nature of the festival.

‘The original yule log was a large log traditionally burnt on the hearth on Christmas Eve, nowadays replaced by a log-shaped chocolate cake.’

This month’s giveaway

When real life and fiction intersect.

Here at Reader’s Digest we compile a Canadian version of our real-life reading series, Encounters. This month our Canadian edition features the extraordinary story, Bayou of Pigs, by Stewart Bell, about a group of Canadian and American mercenaries who band together to stage a coup on the tiny island of ­Dominica in the Caribbean. Funnily enough, the coup was partially inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s novel, The Dogs of War. This in turn was based on Forsyth’s real-life experiences as a journalist covering the Biafran War between Biafra and ­Nigeria in 1967.