Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, June 2, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using En Dashes to Indicate a Range of ValuesThe most common use of the en dash is to connect two numbers, dates, or times to indicate a range that spans these figures. When it is used in this way, we can think of the en dash as representing what words? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Late 16th-Century European FashionsFrom 1550 to 1600, European fashions became increasingly opulent. Garments were embellished with slashed and puffed fabric and gemstones. Ruffs grew from a narrow frill at the neck to a broad "cartwheel" style requiring wire support. Women dressed in bodices with narrower sleeves and fuller skirts, with supportive farthingales underneath. Men sported linen shirts with ruffs, doublets, jerkins, hose, and stockings. Platform shoes, called chopines, also originated at this time. How tall were they? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US President Grover Cleveland Gets Married in the White House (1886)Though President Cleveland entered the White House a notorious bachelor—having allegedly fathered a child out of wedlock—he did not remain single for long. Having become the executor of his deceased law partner's estate a decade earlier, Cleveland had supervised the upbringing of his partner's daughter, Frances. She visited him in the White House in 1885, and the two were married in the Blue Room a year later, making him the only president to be married there. He was how many years her senior? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Johnny Weissmuller (1904)Weissmuller was a five-time Olympic gold medalist with 67 world records in swimming when, in 1932, he turned in his swimsuit for a loincloth and became Tarzan, the Ape Man. He starred in 12 Tarzan films and created the memorable "Tarzan yell" before being replaced by a younger actor in 1948. He then went on to star in a series of Jungle Jim movies adapted from comic books. Afterward, he ran his own swimming pool company. His face appears in the collage on the cover of what iconic record album? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong.Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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mixed signal— A signal, message, or communication that has, or is interpreted as having, multiple, ambiguous, or contradictory meanings. (Often plural.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Elmo's Day (2025)The day known as St. Elmo's Day is actually St. Erasmus's Day, in honor of a third-century Italian bishop who is thought to have suffered martyrdom around the year 304. Erasmus was a patron saint of sailors and was especially popular in the 13th century. Sometimes at sea on stormy nights, sailors will see a pale, brushlike spray of electricity at the top of the mast. In the Middle Ages, they believed that these fires were the souls of the departed, rising to glory through the intercession of St. Elmo. Such an electrical display is still referred to as "St. Elmo's Fire." More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: mineralsdouse, dowse - Douse first meant "knock, punch, strike" and now means "to extinguish or wet thoroughly"; dowse means to look for water or minerals with a divining rod. More... hard water - That which contains large amounts of minerals. More... mica - Any of a group of minerals that occur in small glittering plates or scales in other rocks. More... micronutrient - One of the vitamins and minerals needed only in small amounts for normal body function. More... | |