Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, January 14, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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arc-boutant
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ConjunctionsConjunctions are used to express relationships between things in a sentence, link different clauses together, and to combine sentences. There are four main types of conjunctions—what are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Japanese SakeSake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice. Although there are multiple theories about how it was developed, the first sakes were likely made from rice, millet, chestnuts, and acorns that people chewed and spit into a tub. The enzymes from the saliva converted the starches to sugars, resulting in a sweet mixture that was combined with freshly cooked grain and allowed to ferment. What does drinking sake from another's cup signify in Japanese culture? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 San Francisco's Human Be-In Launches "Summer of Love" (1967)In 1967, the burgeoning counterculture movement took center stage in San Francisco as a number of figures who would become its icons gathered for a "happening" in Golden Gate Park. Announced as a "Human Be-In" in the San Francisco Oracle newspaper, the event featured speakers Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, as well as performances by The Grateful Dead, among many others. Attended by tens of thousands of people, the event helped to launch 1967's "Summer of Love," which was what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Berthe Morisot (1841)Morisot was a French impressionist painter best known for her loose brushwork and the sensitivity she brought to her female subjects. She studied with many gifted painters, including Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and was highly influenced by Édouard Manet, whose brother she later married. She exhibited regularly with the Impressionists, and although none of her exhibits proved commercially successful, she outsold Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. What are some of her best known paintings? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration ... and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his purpose—as, in fact, not good enough for his insistent emotion. From laughter and tears the descent is easy to sniveling and giggles.Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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the toast of (the town)— Someone who is especially well-liked, regarded, or admired in a certain place. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Pongal (2017)A colorful four-day harvest celebration in southern India, Pongal honors the sun, the earth, and the cow. The first day is for cleaning everything in the house. On the second day, freshly harvested rice and jaggery (palm sugar) are put to boil in new pots, and people cry out, "Pongal!" ("It boils.") On the third day, village cows and oxen are bathed, decorated with garlands of bells, beads, and leaves, and worshipped. On the fourth day, bundles containing money are tied to the sharpened horns of bulls. Young men who are brave enough try to snatch the money from the bulls' horns. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: triviafactlet - A piece of trivia. More... inconsequentia - Trifling facts or trivia. More... nugae - Trifles or trivia. More... trivia - Derives from Latin tri, "three" and via, "ways." In Roman times, at the intersection of any three streets were kiosks where information was posted for travelers, but which was totally ignored by the citizens—a possible source of its modern meaning; trivia is actually plural and should take "these" instead of "this" (etc.). More... | |