Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, February 10, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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contrarious
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Ending a Sentence with a PrepositionNearly every grammar guide agrees that it is acceptable and often more correct to end a sentence with a dangling preposition than to rewrite the sentence specifically to avoid it. Why? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 GrimoiresA grimoire is an instruction manual for performing magic. Such books have been written by members of various cultures throughout history, and copies of prominent, ancient grimoires are still in circulation. Frequently, grimoires are attributed to earlier or more notable authors than likely wrote them. Famous grimoires include the Key of Solomon, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, and the fictional Necronomicon, which was created as a plot device by what horror author? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The St. Scholastica Day Riot (1355)Oxford is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, but its history is not without blemish. In 1355, some students got into an argument with a local tavern keeper over the quality of his alcohol. This escalated into a physical altercation that then snowballed into an all-out riot between the university's students and townspeople. When the dust settled days later, 63 students and a number of townspeople were dead. Which side paid reparations to the other for the next 470 years? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dominique Pire (1910)Pire was a Belgian Dominican friar who devoted himself to helping the poor and to promoting peace. Witnessing the horrors of World War II, he became active in the anti-German resistance. After the war, he devoted himself to caring for the refugees, writing a book about the issue, founding aid organizations, and building villages to house displaced persons. He was rewarded for his humanitarian efforts with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. What "university" did he found thereafter? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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plastic grin— A forced, artificial smile; a smile someone wears despite having no feelings of happiness or joy. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (2022)This feast is a commemoration in Malta of the shipwreck of St. Paul on the island in 60 CE, an event told about in the New Testament. When storms drove the ship aground, Paul was welcomed by the "barbarous people" (meaning they were not Greco-Romans). According to legend, he got their attention when a snake bit him on the hand but did him no harm, and he then healed people of diseases. Paul is the patron saint of Malta and snakebite victims. The day is a public holiday, and is observed with family gatherings and religious ceremonies and processions. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: shopchippy - A shop that sells fish and chips can be called a chippy. More... odditorium - A shop for oddities or oddments (broken parts or parts of once-complete sets). More... shop, store - At first, shop designated a small retail establishment and store was applied only to a large establishment; now the differences are blurred. More... stationer - A bookseller who had a regular "station" or shop at a university, unlike most booksellers, who were itinerant vendors. More... | |