Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, June 27, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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roustabout
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Prepositional Phrases as AdverbsWhen a prepositional phrase modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb, it is considered to have the function of an adverb within the sentence. What are these phrases called? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 CapitalismCapitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor. It stresses freedom of individual economic enterprise but does not presuppose a specific form of social or political organization. Government action has been and is required to curb its abuses, which have ranged from slavery to monopoly cartels and financial fraud. What is the "invisible hand"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 "BTK" Serial Killer Dennis Rader Pleads Guilty to 10 Murders (2005)Rader was a city employee, married father of two, Boy Scout leader, and an active churchgoer—and a serial killer. From 1974 to 1991, he killed 10 people in and around Wichita, Kansas. In 2004, after years of silence, he resumed taunting police and local media with letters describing the murders. In February 2005, police used information on a floppy disk he had sent them to locate and arrest him. He pled guilty that June. Five days after his arrest, he was fired from his job—for what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Lafcadio Hearn (1850)Born in Greece and educated in Ireland, Hearn immigrated to the US at age 19 and lived in poverty for a time until he found employment as a journalist. He was a colorful but morbidly discontented man, admired for his highly polished tales of the macabre. In 1890, a magazine sent him to Japan, where he married a Japanese woman, took a Japanese name, and became a citizen. His subsequent books offered the West its first thoughtful view of Japanese culture. What partial disability did he have? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.Kate Chopin (1851-1904) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be caught off (one's) guard— To be taken by surprise; to be caught when one is vulnerable, careless, or inattentive. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tajikistan Day of National Unity (2025)On June 27, 1997, a treaty was signed between Islamic rebels and the Russian-backed Tajikistan government, bringing to an end a five-year-long civil war. The day is remembered as the Day of National Unity. On the Day of National Unity in 2007, the Tajik parliament passed a law granting amnesty to all rebels who had fought against the government, provided they had not committed murder, rape, human or drug trafficking, or terrorism. Some 2,000 prison inmates were released under the new law. The 2007 commemoration also marked the opening of 11 new buildings in the city of Dushanbe. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: withdrawanchorite - Its meaning of "hermit" derived from Greek ana-, "back," and chorein, "to withdraw." More... cease, cede - Cease and cede come from Latin cedere, "go away, withdraw." More... retire - From French retirer, from re-, "back" and tirer, "throw," its first sense was "withdraw to a place of safety or seclusion." More... take for the kitchen - To withdraw from a conversation or to remain silent. More... | |