Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, January 29, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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calcareous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ParticlesA particle is a word that does not have semantic meaning on its own, but instead relies on the word it is paired with to have meaning. What are the only two things that a particle is used to create? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 AntichessAlso known as suicide chess or loser's chess, antichess is a variation on the traditional game, but one in which the objective is to get all of one's own pieces captured. Participants are compelled to capture an opponent's pieces whenever the opportunity arises, while earnestly attempting to maneuver their own pieces into hopelessly vulnerable positions. There is no check or checkmate. A player wins by losing all of their pieces, including the king. How can a stalemate be resolved? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US President George W. Bush Introduces the "Axis of Evil" (2002)During his 2002 State of the Union Address, US President George W. Bush described the countries of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an "Axis of Evil" for their alleged support of terrorism. Since then, the phrase has spawned many imitations, including the Eritrean-coined "Axis of Belligerence," the South American "Axis of Good," and the "Axis of Diesel" proposed by The Economist magazine. What word did Bush speechwriter David Frum originally use instead of "evil"? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 James Jamerson (1936)Jamerson learned to play bass guitar in high school in Detroit, Michigan, in the 1950s and thereafter found work as a studio musician for Motown Records. He went on to perform on hundreds of songs by artists like Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, and The Supremes, but his work was largely uncredited, and he died in relative obscurity at the age of 47. Today, however, he is regarded as one of the most influential bassists in modern history. One of his fingers even had its own nickname. What was it? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.Herman Melville (1819-1891) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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yankee dime— A kiss. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Thomas Paine Day (2024)Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was a propagandist and humanitarian whose influential pamphlet, Common Sense, is credited with persuading the American colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain. On January 29, Paine's birthday, he is honored by members of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association in New Rochelle, New York. They lay a wreath at his monument in the Thomas Paine Memorial Museum, which houses some of his letters and personal effects. The cottage in which Paine lived is only a short walk away. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rejectdiscard - First meant "throw out or reject a card from a hand." More... eighty-six - "Reject, discard"—may be rhyming slang for "nix." More... quash - From Latin quatere, "shake," it generally means "reject as invalid, especially by legal procedure," or "put an end to; suppress." More... reprove - To reject or express disapproval of something. More... | |