Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, June 26, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
abdication
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Using Conjunctive AdverbsWhen we join two independent clauses with a conjunctive adverb, we can use a period and keep them as two discrete sentences. If we choose to separate the two clauses with a period, though, what must we remember to do to the conjunctive adverb? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Electric ViolinThe traditional violin, predominantly played in orchestras and chamber music, was developed in Italy in the early 16th century. The electric violin arrived 400 years later, first appearing in the jazz music of the 1920s in the US. Many electric violins have a solid body designed to minimize feedback and are made with built-in pickups for amplification, while others are acoustic instruments that have been converted with electric components. Who are some of the musicians who use electric violins? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Is Published (1948)Published by the The New Yorker the same month it was written, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" instantly became one of the most controversial stories ever run by the esteemed magazine. Hundreds of outraged readers cancelled their subscriptions or wrote letters expressing their confusion and anger over the story's meaning. Now considered a classic, the chilling story matter-of-factly describes an annual lottery in a bucolic American town in which one person is selected for what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (1866)An enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, Carnarvon was an English aristocrat who funded several excavations in Egypt. After pursuits in Thebes, he joined forces with English Egyptologist Howard Carter to search for Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In 1922, the two opened the young Pharaoh's crypt, discovering treasures unsurpassed in the history of archaeology. Carnarvon's death a year after the discovery became linked to the legendary "Mummy's Curse." What really killed him? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Well, I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
odds and sods— An assortment of small, miscellaneous items, especially those that are not especially important or valuable. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Madagascar Independence Day (2025)This national holiday commemorates Madagascar's independence from France on this day in 1960. Republic Day is another public holiday in Madagascar, held on December 30, the day the new constitution went into effect. The country became a republic in 1975. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: recipeGerman chocolate - Refers to Baker's German Sweet Chocolate, German being an employee of Baker who developed the sweet chocolate in the recipe. More... receipt - Its first meaning was "a drug made according to a recipe" or a "recipe" for making food. More... recipe - As a verb, it was once used at the beginning of medical prescriptions and it first (in Latin) meant "take"—we are familiar with its use by physicians in the abbreviation R or Rx. More... tollhouse cookie - Named after the Toll House in Whitman, Massachusetts, the source of the recipe. More... | |