Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, June 7, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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emollient
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Uncountable Nouns and PronounsJust as uncountable nouns cannot take the indefinite articles "a" or "an" because there is not "one" of them, it is equally incorrect to use third-person plural pronouns with them. Why? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Big BenBig Ben is the nickname of the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster in London. Famous for its accuracy, the clock rings in the new year in England. Originally, only the Great Bell—the largest bell in the tower—was called "Big Ben," but eventually, the moniker was applied to the clock itself and then to the entire tower. In 2012, the iconic British landmark was officially renamed Elizabeth Tower, in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. Who is generally accepted as the real-life "Ben"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Supreme Court Decides Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)In 1961, Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, opened a birth control clinic for women in deliberate defiance of an 1879 law outlawing the use or distribution of contraceptives. She was arrested and fined. Her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court, which stated in a landmark 1965 decision that married couples had a right to "marital privacy," which included the right to use birth control. When was the same right extended to unwed individuals? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 George Szell (1897)Szell was a Hungarian-born conductor and pianist who immigrated to the US during WWII. Having already conducted many European orchestras, he soon became the principal conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1946, he took over the Cleveland Orchestra and, by means of his famously dictatorial approach, built it into one of the most respected ensembles in the world, famed for its precision. Nearly 20 years after Szell's death, who complained that he still got credit when the orchestra did well? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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money laundering— The criminal act or practice of processing large amounts of money obtained through illegitimate or illegal means, often in small increments through banks or other legitimate businesses, so as to conceal its source or origins. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Holland Festival (2025)Holland (the Netherlands) decided in 1947 to have a single festival focused on three major cities—Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague—that would cover a wide range of artistic and cultural activities and at the same time draw top international artists to the Netherlands. Nowadays the festival is centered in Amsterdam in June with nearly 150 programs. The festival offers not only performances of orchestral and choral works but opera, ballet, contemporary music, dance, theater, and film as well. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tossfungo - A baseball drill in which a batter tosses a ball in the air and hits it as it descends, probably from Scottish fung, "to pitch, toss, fling." More... jactitating, jactitation, jactation - If you toss and turn at night, you are jactitating; jactitation or jactation is restless tossing or twitching. More... saute - A form of French sauter, it means "to leap or cause to toss." More... walk - First meant "roll," "toss," or "move about; go"—from Old English wealcan, "to roll." More... | |