Contributors to Reader's Digest

Nicholas Hune-Brown

Writer, Toronto

“Fight of His Life”

Hune-Brown is a National Magazine Award w inning writer whose work has been published in Toronto Life, The Walrus, Hazlitt and The Guardian. He's also the senior editor at The Local, a magazine focused on long-form stories about health and social issues in Toronto. Read his story about a COVID-19 patient's incredible fight for survival on page 114.

Jarred Briggs

Artist, Plaster Rock, N.B.

“Beware Winter Rays”

Briggs's favorite part about being an artist is coming up with clever conceptual drawings—he lives for the moment when all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together. When he's not drawing, Briggs loves reading science-fiction novels, being outdoors and spending time with his three dogs. Take a look at his latest work on page 18.

Megan Murphy

Writer, Peterborough, Ont.

“Home for the Holidays”

Murphy's love affairs with writing began at a young age with nightly words “Dear diary”. Also an actor, Murphy co-created a show this year called The Verandah Society, in which she and a musician friend Anna Walker travel to people's homes and share music and stories. Read her humorous tale of a childhood Christmas ceremony on page 26.

British beer and pubs are famous around the world. Things are changing, however. Is this the end of a great British tradition?

For thousands of years, a very important building in any British village has been the pub. In fact, until a place has a pub, it is not really considered a community worthy of a name. Traditionally, the pub is at the heart of any village or town, since it is where people gather to socialize and exchange news. It is an institution at the heart of British society. After all, the word “pub” is actually short for “public house”.

As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites that tourists visit. Many British pubs have names referring to monarchs, such as The King's Head or The Queen Victoria, but of course this doesn't mean they are only for kings and queens. Pubs have always welcomed people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub boss can always find a warm place for customers by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.

That's how it used to be, but there are worrying signs that things are beginning to change. Economic downturns, governmental austerity measures and cultural changes are causing many pubs to go out of business. People do not have a lot of spare money to spend on beer. On top of that, in 2007 smoking was banned in all public indoor spaces, including pubs, which may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs since then. This decline is happening despite the fact that pubs are now allowed by law to stay open after 11p.m..

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to diversify to attract new customers. And with various “save the pub” campaigns, there are signs that people are gathering around pubs to support this great British institution with pride.

Jagger Gordon was standing in line at the grocery store in late March when it hit him: this was only the beginning. The 50-year- old chef and founder of Toronto's Feed It Forward, one of the country's most popular food bank programs, saw that COVID-19 would have an even bigger impact on communities that depend on his services. “People were fighting over water," he says, “and I just thought, okay, this is going to be bad.”

Gordon is like a modern-day Robin Hood, only instead of robbing from the rich, his food bank rescues food that would otherwise be thrown away. He started Feed It Forward six years ago, hoping to relieve hunger by reducing the approximately 11 million tons of food that Canadians annually let go to waste. The food he rescues is still suitable to be eaten but may not meet the picture-perfect standards of consumers. “This is perfectly good!” he says. “Maybe a pepper has a slight mark, or it's not breast meat or whatever the desired cut is, but you can still make something that tastes amazing.” Operating out of three main kitchens with some 2,200 volunteers, the organization was, until recently, feeding approximately 3,000 people every day. Since COVID, it's closer to 5,000.

Feed It Forward runs a pay-what-you-can restaurant and grocery store filled entirely with hand-me-downs from Whole Foods. Thirty-two Toronto-area restaurants and food supply companies— Sysco, for example— also help out. On 200 acres in Whitby, Ont., Feed It Forward grows produce and hosts grow-your -own-food lessons for individuals and families. If the pandemic （大流行病） hadn't cancelled in-person classes, this fall would have meant continuing Soup Bar, a program that provides free hot meals to students with food insecurity at Humber College. People have an idea of what a person who is hungry looks like, says Gordon, but it's so much more common than we realize.

As the year came to an end, Feed It Forward was stockpiling food. In previous years, the organization hosted Christmas dinners—community celebrations with live music and, of course, plenty of good food. The year 2020 was different—less gathering and more special deliveries. So maybe Gordon is less like Robin Hood and more like Santa Claus. “There is need out there, and we can meet it,” he says. “That's my duty.”

A new international study published in PLOS Biology suggests that the popularity of tigers, lions, polar bears and others may actually contribute to their downfall. The researchers used a combination of online investigations, school questionnaires, z00 websites and cartoon films to identify the 10 most beloved animals. The top three were tigers, lions and elephants.

“I was surprised to see that although these 10 animals are the most beloved, a major danger faced by nearly all of them is direct killing by humans, especially from hunting,” said William Ripple, a distinguished professor of forest ecology at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study.“This killing by humans seems sadly ironic （讽刺的）to me, as these are some of our most beloved wild animals.”

Many of these animals are so frequently described in pop culture and marketing materials that they may form an inaccurate “virtual population” that is doing better in the media than in nature, noted lead author Franck Courchamp of the University of Paris. The researchers found, for example, that the average French citizen will see more virtual lions through photos, cartoons, logos and brands in one month than wild lions left in West Africa.

“Unknowingly, companies using giraffes or polar bears for marketing purposes may be actively contributing to the false belief that these animals are not at risk of dying out, and therefore not in need of conservation,” Courchamp said. He suggested in the paper that companies using images of endangered animals for marketing purposes provide information to promote their conservation, and perhaps part of their profits for protection of the animals.

Nearly half of the toy animals sold in the United States on Amazon were one of the 10 beloved animals, while in France some 800,000 “Sophie the giraffe” baby toys were sold last year—more than eight times the number of giraffes living in Africa.

“The appearance of these beloved animals in stores, in movies, on television, and on a variety of products seems to be tricking the public into believing they are doing okay,” Ripple said. “If we don't work together to save these animals, that may soon be the only way anyone will see them.”