Reader's Digest lets me down. Best of America issue is a tease.

The July issue of Reader's Digest is the Best of America issue.  A sparkler and Kelly Clarkson are on the cover.  This is reason enough to buy a copy (media consultants are confident that southern pyromaniacs is the demographic that'll save print journalism).  But turn past the ads for pasta sauce and antidepressants, and you'll find some hard hitting reporting by a journalist who's heard of the Pulitzer Prize.

"50 Secrets Your Dentist Won't Tell You."  After reading a sensational title like that, I knew that those wryly DDS ("Drilling in the Dark Specialist") and DMD ("Drilling, More Drilling") must be up to no good.  But it's actually Reader's Digest that's up to no good. 

I was expecting the list of 50 secrets that Dr. S--- won't tell me to include revelations like "I'm having an affair with my secretary" and "I sold your wisdom teeth on ebay."  Instead, the so-called secrets were all perfectly nice quotations from good folks lamenting high insurance rates, giving free advice, or telling us that (unlike early childhood education) flossing actually matters. All great stuff.

So shame on you, Readers Digest!  Tell those fat cats in the ivory tower of the Digest's underground lair that their titles are misleading.  Pragmatic dental advice and habits are neither sensational nor American.  

 

Addendum.

Before publishing this post, I finished an article that redeems the Best of America issue: Quick Study: Pirates! Boy did it take me back to my little league days! Nana would often make an apple pie for us kids.  Mom brought us lemonade (...the family recipe was the best!)  And grandpa was a pirate.