Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, April 13, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
raffish
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
IntensifiersIntensifiers are adverbs or adverbials that modify adjectives and other adverbs to increase their strength, power, or intensity. What are some examples of intensifiers? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The DaguerreotypeThe daguerreotype, an early form of photograph, was invented by Louis Daguerre in the early 19th c. He collaborated with J. Nicéphore Niepce, who created the first permanent photograph, but completed the design alone following his partner's sudden death. A daguerreotype, produced on a silver-plated copper sheet, produces a mirror image photograph of the exposed scene. Daguerre's process made portrait photography possible for the first time. How did the French government describe the invention? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 George Frideric Handel's Oratorio Messiah Debuts (1742)Composed by Handel, the great master of baroque music, Messiah is one of the most popular choral works in the Western world. Its immense popularity has resulted in the erroneous conception of Handel as primarily a church composer. In truth, the contemplative, English-language oratorio stands apart from the rest of his 32 oratorios, which are dramatically conceived. How did it become tradition for audiences to stand during the performance of Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Alfred Mosher Butts (1899)In the 1930s, Butts, an unemployed architect, invented a game called Lexiko, in which players drew lettered tiles from a pool and then attempted to form words. After unsuccessful attempts to sell the game to board-game makers, Butts sold the rights to entrepreneur James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments and renamed the game Scrabble. More than 150 million sets have been sold in multiple languages since. How did Butts determine how many tiles of each letter should be included in the game? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Accursed be he that first invented war.Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
catch heat— To be the target of someone's anger. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 French Quarter Festival (2018)The French Quarter Festival celebrates Louisiana's distinctive musical and culinary traditions. Held in New Orleans, the festival features performances by local and other Louisiana musicians as well as those foreign musicians influenced by Louisiana's musical traditions. Scores of bands perform at various sites throughout the French Quarter (also called the Vieux Carré). Sixty local restaurants operate food booths on the festival grounds, offering spectators the best in Louisiana cooking. In recent years, close to 300,000 people have attended this three-day event. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: impliedsubaudition - The act of understanding something that is implied but not overtly expressed; the act of reading between the lines or otherwise understanding a message that is implicit. More... tacenda, tacit - Tacenda are things not to be mentioned or made public—things better left unsaid; tacit means "unspoken, silent" or "implied, inferred." More... | |