Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
A 91-year-old widow in New York had a funny way of saving her money.
She stashed it in a zipper pocket in the arms of her old sofa. She felt it would be safe there.
And so it was, until one day when she was having some health problems and her family gave away the couch to a Salvation Army thrift shop.
In most restaurants in Canada and the U.S., after a meal the customer leaves the server a “tip.”
The tip is a bit more money, usually about 15 to 20 per cent of the cost of the meal, that goes directly to the server.
Students in New York City are not allowed to take cellphones to school.
But students in one neighbourhood have come up with a solution that keeps their phones nearby and also benefits local businesses.
The CBC announced last week that it plans to cut 657 jobs over the next two years.
The CBC (Radio-Canada in Quebec) had to drastically cut the amount of money it can spend (its budget). Because it had to cut more than $130 million, it had to let go of many people’s jobs because it would not be able to afford to pay their salaries.
Many companies train young people through an “internship.”
An unpaid internship is when someone (usually a student) learns a job by working at a company, but doesn’t get paid. Instead of money, they get training and experience.
Two popular Canadian magazines have been told by the government that they must stop offering unpaid internships.
A husband and wife struck gold last month… in their backyard.
The man and woman were walking their dog on their property in California when the woman noticed a strange looking, rusty can in the ground.
They started digging, and eventually uncovered eight metal cans. The cans were full of gold coins–1,427 of them.
It turns out that the coins are very valuable. In fact, they’re worth more than $10-million.
If you hit the jackpot in a lottery, what would you do?
Last May Tom Crist, from Calgary, Alberta, was on the golf course with some friends when he got a phone call from the Western Canada Lottery organization.
They told him he had the winning ticket, and he’d won a lot of money.
He’d won $40 million.
Crist ended the call and he went right back to playing golf.
He didn’t tell anyone what had happened. He put it out of his mind.
A café in France has found a way to encourage politeness.
The more polite you are, the less you have to pay for your coffee.
A cup of coffee at La Petite Syrah cafe costs a whopping €7 (seven Euros, or more than $10).
However, you can bring the price down if you’re nice to the server.
If you say please when you order (or s’il vous plait in French) the price comes down to €4,25 (about $6.18).
And if you say hello as well (“bonjour, un café, s’il vous plait”) the price comes down to a much more reasonable €1,40 (just over $2).
Lots of people buy books and products from Amazon, an online seller.
They order and pay over the Internet and the books are shipped through the mail or a delivery service like FedEx.
One day, people could get their Amazon deliveries from an “unmanned aerial vehicle” — a tiny flying vehicle that looks like a toy helicopter.
And instead of waiting days to get the parcel, it could be at the buyer’s home in half an hour or less.
The company is working on a fleet of tiny vehicles they call “Prime Air.”
The vehicles are also known as “octocopters.”
How much would you pay for a book? $15? $20?
How about more than $14-million?
That’s what businessman David Rubenstein paid for one on Tuesday.
It’s the most expensive book ever purchased in an auction.
It is believed to be the first book ever printed in what is now the United States of America.
It’s called the Whole Book of Psalmes, or the Bay Psalm Book for short.
