Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, October 16, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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politic
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Pronouns as the SubjectPronouns stand in for a person or thing we are speaking about or referring to; they are used to avoid repetition in speech or writing. When the personal pronouns in the subjective case act as substitutes for the subject of the clause or sentence, what are they known as? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 FenghuangCommonly known in the West as the Chinese phoenix, the fenghuang is a mythical Chinese bird fabled to reign over all other birds. Though there was initially a distinction between the male feng and female huang, today the two are often combined into a single feminine entity that pairs with the masculine Chinese dragon to symbolize the yin-yang principle with respect to marital harmony. Ancient texts describe the fenghuang as having the physical traits of several different animals. What are they? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Marie Antoinette Guillotined (1793)The daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Marie Antoinette was the queen of France and wife of King Louis XVI. Her devotion to Austria, reputation for extravagance, and connection to scandals made her unpopular and helped to provoke the French Revolution. After the storming of the Tuileries palace, she and Louis were accused of treason. The king was executed, and Marie was tried, found guilty, and guillotined. Did she really say "Let them eat cake"? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 William Orville Douglas (1898)Douglas, a US Supreme Court justice and author, practiced and taught law early in his career, before becoming a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1936. As SEC chairman, he engineered the reorganization of US stock exchanges, instituted measures aimed at protecting small investors, and began government regulation of the sale of securities. In 1939, the president appointed him to the Supreme Court. For what controversial act did Congress attempt to impeach Douglas? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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filled to the brim— Completely full; teeming; having no room to spare. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Europalia (2024)Since its founding in 1969, the European arts festival known as Europalia has presented a comprehensive survey of the diverse cultural and artistic aspects of a specific country. The first several festivals were devoted to European cultures, but in 1989 the decision was made to devote the festival to a major culture from outside Europe. Most of the festival events take place in Brussels, which include art, photography, and craft exhibitions; theater, dance, and orchestral performances; literary and scientific colloquia; and film retrospectives. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: whirlturbine - Came from Latin turbo, "whirl, whirling thing." More... twirl - May be a blend of twist and whirl. More... warble - Has the underlying notion of "whirling around"; for sounds, it took on the meaning "whirl of notes; trill." More... whorl - A variant of whirl, it first meant "small flywheel." More... | |