Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, November 30, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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gibe
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Colons with DialogueThe colon is used in written dialogue between two or more people, most often in transcripts of plays or legal testimony in a courtroom. We place the colon immediately after the name of the speaker, and the dialogue that follows is written without what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Thousand-Yard StareThe phrases "thousand-yard stare" and "two-thousand-yard stare" were first used to describe the unfocused, dazed gaze of the battle-weary soldier. Because such a look is characteristic of posttraumatic stress disorder, it is not limited to combat veterans. The thousand-yard stare can be displayed by anyone coping with the stress of trauma by dissociating from it rather than consciously acknowledging it. During World War II, what artist captured the thousand-yard stare for Life magazine? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Meteorite Strikes Ann Elizabeth Hodges (1954)Thousands of people are struck by lightning every year, but in 1954, Ann Hodges of Sylacauga, Alabama, became the first person in modern history to be hit by a meteorite. Hodges was napping on her couch when she was rudely awakened by a grapefruit-sized meteorite crashing through her roof, bouncing off her radio, and striking her on the hip. The incident left her badly bruised. Who prevailed in the dispute between Hodges and her landlord over ownership of the meteorite? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Joan Ganz Cooney (1929)Cooney worked as a newspaper reporter and television publicist before becoming a producer for a public television station in New York City. There, she developed the concepts for children's programming that led to the incorporation of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) in 1968. Through innovative programs like Sesame Street and 3, 2, 1 Contact, CTW transformed children's television and learning. What Emmy award-winning adult educational program did she help produce? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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meatball surgery— Battlefield surgery that is performed hastily so as to quickly stabilize a patient and prevent their imminent death. Popularized (and possibly coined) by H. Richard Hornberger in his semi-autobiographical novel M*A*S*H, which focused on doctors serving in a fictional mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War. Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Eton Wall Game (2021)Every year on St. Andrew's Day, England's prestigious Eton College holds the famous Eton Wall Game, a variety of rugby that has its own highly technical rules and is different from all other forms of the game. The object of the game is to win goals by maneuvering the ball into the opposing team's "calx," designated by a chalk line on a garden wall at one end of the field and by a mark on a tree at the other. The game is made up of many scrimmages along the brick wall that marks off the college athletic field for which the game is named, and goals are almost never scored. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: midnightbeauty sleep - First defined as sleep taken before midnight, regarded as the most refreshing portion. More... mesonoxian - Means "of or related to midnight." More... quarternight - Halfway between sundown and midnight. More... small hours - Midnight or 1 a.m. to dawn, when the numbered hours are "small." More... | |