Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, February 3, 2025)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
yammer
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
AppositivesAn appositive is a noun that serves to describe or rename another noun (or pronoun) that appears directly before it in a sentence. When an appositive is made up of a noun phrase, what is it called? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Mourning SicknessDisparaged by critics as the new opiate of the masses, "mourning sickness" is the relatively recent phenomenon of collective public grieving for murder victims and celebrities who have died. Princess Diana's death in 1997 prompted one of the most widespread examples of this in the UK, where makeshift memorials quickly became gathering places for public displays of mourning. The advent of the Internet provided the public with a new forum in which to share their grief. Who was Anna Svidersky? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Contested Kentucky Governor Dies of Gunshot Wounds (1900)At the time he was shot on the grounds of Kentucky's state capitol, William Goebel was not a well-liked man—nor had he technically won the heavily contested 1899 Kentucky gubernatorial election. However, he lived just long enough to be declared governor and sworn into office, making him the only state governor in US history to have been assassinated. The identity of his assassin remains a mystery. Several years before his murder, Goebel shot a political foe in the head. What prompted their duel? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Antonio José de Sucre (1795)One of the most respected leaders of the Latin American wars for independence, Sucre was a close friend and chief lieutenant of Simón Bolívar. He was an able military leader, yet he was known for his kindness to those he defeated. Against his will, he became president of the newly created state of Bolivia and soon resigned. He later returned to service to help repel a Peruvian invasion. At the age of 35, he was waylaid in a mountainous region and killed. He was buried not in Bolivia, but where? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 I am almost frighted out of my seven senses.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
you shouldn't have— A message of thanks for a (usually unexpected) gift. Can be used sincerely or sarcastically. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Fiesta of San Blas (2025)San Blas (Saint Blaise) is the patron saint of Paraguay, and his feast day, February 3, is observed throughout the country. Asunción and other large cities host religious processions, and the smaller villages often have bullfights on this day. Flowers, ribbons, and paper money (attached to the tail) adorn the bull. Because this event is a humorous commentary on bullfighting, rather than a real bullfight, the goal is not to kill the bull. Instead, bullfighters try to grab hold of the bull and remove the money from its tail without getting hurt. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: leavingdrawing room - A shortening of withdrawing room, the room to which the ladies withdrew, leaving the men to smoking and drinking. More... egression - The action of going out or leaving a place. More... bequeath - Etymologically, what you bequeath is what you "say" you will leave someone in your will—but the original sense "say, utter" died out, leaving the legal sense. More... exclaustration - Being expelled from or leaving a religious retreat; it is also the return to secular life by someone who has been released from their religious vows. More... | |