Health Tips Line

Have you ever wondered what it’s really like to attend a fancy royal dinner? We certainly have. Yes, it always looks gorgeous in pictures, but we’ve always suspected it would be very prim, very proper and—let’s be honest—a little stuffy. Well, it seems we were very wrong! Nobody has spilled the beans (yet) on what dinner parties with King Charles are like, but the ones hosted by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II , were apparently pretty spirited. One of the likely reasons? According to those working closest to her, the queen had a very clever (and surprisingly unroyal!) way to keep the conversation going at the table, with many guests revealing more than they’d probably intended to. So how did the queen get her guests talking so openly? We’ll give you a hint: It’s a trick many of us are probably pretty familiar with too. Read on to see if you guessed right. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more roya...

My friend is Gen Z, and she loves voice notes. She sends them to me the way other people send “lol”—reflexively, constantly and without apparent concern for the consequences. I, on the other hand, have the soul of a 1940s telegram operator. I want my communication tidy, typed and editable. So naturally, we’re locked into a weird technological stalemate. Here’s how it plays out: She records a voice note and sends it. I use my messaging app to transcribe it into text, which I then read. Then I compose my reply by voice-dictating it into my phone but sending it as a text, because I like being able to fix my words before they launch into the world. She receives my text and has her phone read it to her out loud. So we’re basically having a full conversation entirely in each other’s preferred formats, like some kind of digital United Nations negotiation. The only thing that would make this dumber is if one of us introduced a third language, perhaps M...

Quick question: Did you pick up a new hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic? Many of us, stuck inside or venturing out sparingly with those in our chosen pod, were desperate to find something to fill our time. We were trying things we thought impossible the year before ( hello, knitting ), just to do anything except read a book or stare off into the middle distance. Well, that era may be behind us, but the hobbies stayed—including one that took off faster than your mask when you walked through the front door. But according to a new report from the Trust for Public Land (TPL), one hobby in particular might be coming back down to earth after what can only be described as a meteoric rise. You might scoff once you learn what it is, since it’s still wildly popular. But numbers are numbers, and ahead, I’ll take you through the latest TPL report as well as data from other research and polling. Read on to see which hobby may have already reached peak saturation. Get  Reader...

I love being outside in the warm months—with one small caveat. While I genuinely appreciate each species’ role in the beautiful dance of ecosystem balance , I admit that I’ve grown to hate mosquitoes and ticks. It isn’t that I don’t think they should exist—after all, even mosquitoes pollinate certain plants. But every year seems worse than the last in terms of tick and mosquito-borne outbreaks and illness, and I am sick of it. I want to enjoy a camping trip with my family without the stress of thinking about mosquitoes and West Nile. I want to hike with my dogs without worrying about Lyme disease, which is carried by infected blacklegged (deer) ticks. That’s not too much to ask, right? The thing is, there’s a simple solution to warding off ticks and mosquitoes, and it’s basically been hiding in plain sight since 1973. Or maybe it hasn’t been hiding, but I certainly didn’t know it could be this easy. I talked to Mississi...

There are some public figures we just never stop thinking about, and Princess Diana is definitely one of them. Nearly three decades after her death, people are still fascinated by who she was behind the headlines and royal drama. That’s why a newly announced auction is already getting a ton of attention. A collection of never-before-seen photos and personal correspondence is about to go up for sale, offering a rare glimpse into Diana’s life long before she became the Princess of Wales. The timing feels especially timely too. July 1 would have marked Diana’s 65th birthday, while July 29 marks the anniversary of her 1981 wedding to Prince Charles . And now, right in between those dates, a collection from one of her childhood friends is giving royal fans a chance to see the teenage Diana few people ever knew. So what, exactly, is in the collection, and what do these newly revealed photos tell us about the woman who would become one of the most famous people in the world?...

Brace yourselves. It’s been three decades since Woody, Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys lit up the screen in the original Toy Story . Wait— Toy Story is 30? Yep, and the fifth outing of this hilarious and incredibly sweet series of movies will hit theaters on June 19 . Ostensibly about a room full of toys that come to life when people aren’t looking, the Toy Story franchise is a beautiful, touching tribute to childhood, filled with joy, heartbreak, worry and loss. I first saw Toy Story in 1995 like everybody else who wasn’t at a Pearl Jam concert or a screening of Clueless . (I told you, it was a long time ago.) If, like me, you’re having trouble remembering the ’90s, the movie or any of the subsequent sequels (and decades), it’s pretty clear we’re all going to need a recap. Ahead, I’ll take you through the original Toy Story and all three direct sequels—plus give you a bonus sneak peek of the newest one—just in...