Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, September 7, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cloistered
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Comparative AdjectivesWhen using comparative adjectives, the two nouns that are being compared can both appear in the sentence. This is the case if there is any chance of the listener or reader being confused by what you're talking about. When we need to mention both nouns, what structure do we follow? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Milk SicknessMilk sickness afflicts individuals who ingest dairy products or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot, a plant with a poisonous cluster of small white flowers. It is characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain. Although rare today, such poisoning killed thousands in the early 19th century, including Abraham Lincoln's mother. A doctor first described it in 1809, but its exact cause remained elusive. According to legend, how was its cause discovered? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Miss America Pageant Held in Atlantic City, New Jersey (1921)The Miss America Pageant, now an American institution, began in 1921 as an attempt by Atlantic City businessmen to keep tourists in town after Labor Day. The weeklong event features the 50 state pageant winners and includes evening gown, swimsuit, and talent competitions. Its winner receives a $50,000 scholarship and spends the next year traveling and making lucrative personal appearances. What unusual skills have contestants demonstrated in the talent competition over the years? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Laura Ashley (1925)Ashley was a British fashion designer and manufacturer. After serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service during World War II, she founded a company with her husband to produce silkscreened placemats, scarves, and tea towels. Her romantic and old-fashioned look carried over into women's clothing, home furnishings, children's wear, fabrics, wall coverings, and decorative accessories. What inspired Ashley to start printing Victorian-style fabric in 1953? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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let it slip— To accidentally or inadvertently reveal a given secret or important piece of information. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Pafos Aphrodite Festival Cyprus (2024)The Pafos Aphrodite Festival Cyprus is held each year at the medieval Castle Square in Pafos, Cyprus. Cyprus is an island nation whose cultural heritage dates back more than 9,000 years, taking in Greek temples, Roman art, and artifacts from numerous other periods. The festival was established by various organizations in the Pafos district in the hope of establishing and promoting the locality as a center of high-profile cultural events. Each year, the performance is subtitled in English and Greek. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tree trunkpirogue - A canoe made from a tree trunk. More... tree ring - Any of the concentric rings of the cross-section of a tree trunk, representing a year's growth, or the layer of wood produced by a year's growth in a woody plant; also called annual ring. More... block - Derives from Middle Dutch blok, "tree trunk." More... snag - Literally first meant a stump on a tree trunk or a piece of timber underwater that obstructed navigation. More... | |