Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 31, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
sufferable
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
"Could" and Rhetorical Questions"Could" is sometimes used informally in sarcastic or rhetorical questions that highlight a behavior someone finds irritating, unacceptable, or inappropriate. In these situations, "could" is often (but not always) used with what as a main verb? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Brazen BullThe brazen bull is a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece by Perillos, a brass-founder, for Phalaris, the cruel tyrant of Agrigentum, Sicily, who ruled from about 570 to 554 BCE. Perillos cast a hollow brass bull that had a door on its side, allowing the condemned to be placed inside it. A fire lit beneath the bull would roast the victim alive. The device was designed so that the victim’s screams would sound like the bellowing of a bull. Who, ironically, was its first victim? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Copyright Act of 1790 Signed into US Law (1790)After the US Constitution was ratified in 1788, one of the first issues that the fledgling government faced was the lack of a copyright law. Without it, Congress would be swamped with individual petitions for protection from piracy. Modeled on Britain's Statute of Anne, the Copyright Act of 1790 was soon signed into law by President Washington. Instituted to encourage learning by securing US authors the sole rights to their work for 14-year periods, it drew what complaint from Charles Dickens? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443)Beaufort was an English noblewoman, wife of Edmund Tudor, and the mother of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor Dynasty. She gave birth to Henry at 13, shortly after being widowed, and developed a close bond with her only child. Renowned for her philanthropy, she endowed professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cambridge and with the help of her confessor, John Fisher, founded Christ's College and St. John's College, Cambridge. She later acted as regent for Henry VIII. How many times did she marry? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
miss the mark— To be slightly or somewhat mistaken, incorrect, or inaccurate. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Feast of the Visitation (2019)On this day Christian churches in the West commemorate the Virgin Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth. After learning that she was to be the mother of Jesus, Mary went into the mountains of Judea to see her cousin, the wife of Zechariah, who had conceived a son to be known as John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth's baby "leaped in her womb" (1:41) at the sound of Mary's voice. It was at this moment, according to the belief of some Roman Catholics, that John the Baptist was cleansed from original sin and filled with heavenly grace. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: messaddled, muddled - Addled refers to mental confusion; muddled is anything confused or in a mess. More... dog's breakfast, dog's dinner - Meaning a mess or muddle, a dog's breakfast or dog's dinner originally may have referred to a cooking mishap with results fit only for a dog's consumption. More... higgledy-piggledy - Probably formed from pig and the animal's suggestions of mess and disorder. More... kettle of fish - Meaning "mess, muddle," the phrase is from "a pretty kettle of fish," a corruption of "kiddle of fish," in which a kiddle is a basket set in the opening of a weir for catching fish. More... | |