Status Updates From Reader's Digest Condensed B...

Enjoying Sphinx, it’s nice that the lead is a female Egyptologist. Lots of references to smoking but it’s the 1920’s.

Conway nodded. He, too, felt uneasy in the isolation of the computer room, in the heart of the empty building. At the door he looked back, puzzled. Open the door, Greiner-
He saw that Geeiner's face had turned pale. I already keyed the exit code, Greiner said slowly. It doesn't work. He's changed the code that opens the doors.
The door is jammed-he must have done that earlier. I should've guessed!

Prochaska? The man who froze to death . . . he was the one. He got off too easy, Eddie said bitterly. You know what I had planned for him? I was going to doctor his credit, ruin him, make him see what it was like to beg for a can of gas. But would you believe it? He didn't have any credit. That stupid old man always paid cash for everything! I had to find something he couldn't pay cash for- like utilities.

People think they don't leave any traces of themselves, but they do-wherever they do.This country is a maze of record systems. On the state level, there are driving records, criminal records, labor records, tax files. This state has a centralized student information system, & so do many others.
When you move up to FED, there are 100's of data banks. The US Office of Educate has a migrant student record system.

Kenny Nance's check was $50 short. Grinning, he carried the check into James Conway's office. Okay, he said, I know we've got budget problems, but why start with me?
The expression on Conway's face stopped him. It isn't only you, Kenny. It's every city employee on the city payroll.

That makes this incident different from all the others, Egan observed. Arson means he was there, at the school, lighting a match. It's a different kind of crime.

There was a small explosion, followed almost instantaneously by a fiery blast as the saturated pile of debris burst into flames. The flare-up gave the fire a strong start before enough heat reached the detector on the ceiling to trigger the alarm.
With a custodian living in a mobile home just beyond the football field, the school board had voted against the extra expense of a direct connection to the fire department

The brake marks on the slick payment told the story. It was confirmed by Jack Hurley. The driver of the Saab, he said, had tried to brake at the last minute, but he was traveling at 50 mph on the icy street. The traffic light, Jack Hurley repeated over & over, had not changed when it was supposed to.

The registrar had confirmed Ames's report that there had been a computer error. Instead of acceptances being mailed only to students who had been approved, every single applicant had been accepted-far more than could actually be registered.

Twice in the 1-last week the paper line has acted up. It;s programmed to turn out wrapping paper & it comes up with tissue. We're drowning in tissue paper we don't need.

Bud? will you listen to me? This is crazy. I've never had a drunk driving charge in my life!
Oh, come off it, Taylor said disgustedly. It's on the record.
But it is not true! Lambert was on his feet, his voice shaking with emotion. Bud, you know me. Have you ever seen me really loaded? There's been some kind of mix-up, a mistake.
Bud this is my life we're taking about. Those court dates. I can prove I was never up

it was 10 miles to the northern tip of the lake & too far, I thought, for him to travel twice a day.
Gotta a bicycle, he said, nodding his head as to indicate that the matter was entirely settled.
It was. For a fee of 3 $ per diem, He would ride over & be a chore boy, guide & general facotum. I didn't need him, but I rather suspected he needed us;

In the cold hallway she shivered involuntary & remembered the news item she had been listening to when the commotion broke out-a terrible story about a man who had been found frozen to death in his own house on the outskirts of Holloster. The power company, it seemed, had mistakenly cut off his heat.

He hobbled into the kitchen, favoring his left hip, the one with the metal socket. That operation had not been entirely successful, leaving him in permanent pain.
He felt a touch of cold. A storm is coming. Hell of a time to threaten cutting off a man's power, he thought, even someone who hadn't paid his bill. Art Prochaska prided himself on paying his debts, Except for the mortgage on the house he tried to by cash

Wolves often gorge at a kill, then return to regurgitate for the benefit of the stay-at-homes.
Later, when the land was frozen & fresh vegetables were no longer available. I made a point twice a week of cutting down a small spruce. The bark was peeled & the cambium layer scraped off; the pulpy material, rich in vitamin C, I ingested raw as medicine again scurvy.

wolf & dog will mate & breed, & dog & coyote will do likewise, but wolf & coyote will not do so in the wild.

It is a curious fact that of all the animals. only men & apes waste time looking back when they are escaping.
Immersion in water a degree or two above freezing will kill a mammal (man included) in 3 to 5 minutes.

Roughly speaking, there are 3 distinct breeds: the Alaskan malamute, the Eskimo husky, & the Siberian husky. Malamutes & Eskimo dogs are big, weighing between 80 to 90 pounds. The Siberian dogs are smaller, varying between 45 to 60 pounds. All 3 breeds have the stamina, keen intellect, & super senses of the wolf coupled with the muscular body of the larger domestic dogs. A good sled dog can pull twice its own weight

You think you can fool me? You hate to leave without a bunch of these leftovers I got.
I got a surprise for you, greedy gut. Your're not getting a single handout. I'm going to eat it all, every last bite, if it takes a month.

It's hard sharecropping. Like running in a squirrel cage. Each year you go into debt to keep your family alive, & while you're working the whole next year to pay back, it happens all over again. We're different. We pay rent out of what we make, & if we can't, we move on. We have some hope in our lives. Folks like the Haneys can't leave. It's like a prison, & you itch to take revenge.