Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, February 10, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
uncultured
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
PronounsPronouns are words that are used in place of nouns in a sentence. The noun being replaced is known as the antecedent of the pronoun. Pronouns can be the subject of a sentence or clause, the object of a verb, or they can follow linking verbs to rename or re-identify the subject, which is known as what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Alan Magee's Death-Defying Free FallAlan Magee was an American airman who amazingly survived a 22,000-ft (6,700-m) fall from his damaged B-17 bomber during World War II. In 1943, Magee was on a daylight bombing run over France when German fighters shot off a section of his plane's right wing, causing the aircraft to enter a deadly spin. His parachute had been damaged and rendered useless, yet the wounded airman had no choice but to leap from the plane. He fell over four miles before what broke his fall? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Opens on Broadway (1949)Considered Miller's masterpiece, Death of a Salesman won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award for Best Play, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play award in its first year. An unconventional tragedy, it tells the story of the last day of the life of Willy Loman, a failed salesman betrayed by his own hollow values. The play follows Loman's stream of consciousness. As he talks to people from his past, those from his present wonder if he is unraveling. What is the play's final line? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Leontyne Price (1927)When she was a young girl in Mississippi, Price was given a toy piano by her parents. Her passion for music was further inflamed by a Marian Anderson performance she saw as a child. She later enrolled in Juilliard and, with her remarkable vocal range and power, went on to become one of the Metropolitan Opera's most popular stars and the first internationally recognized African-American opera singer. What unusual fee did the soprano reportedly request for a 1981 appearance with Luciano Pavarotti? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 In any really good subject, one has only to probe deep enough to come to tears.Edith Wharton (1862-1937) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
(someone) (just) doesn't know when to quit— Someone would be better off not doing something or acting a certain way because it is or may become destructive, counterproductive, futile, or undesirable. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (2021)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 | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: servantslivery - A company's distinctive color scheme or emblem on vehicles is called the livery; livery first referred to the dispensing of clothes, food, or provisions to servants. More... gardyloo - A warning cry derived from French gare de l'eau, "beware of the water"—referring to the water and slops that were once thrown by servants from higher stories of a building onto the street. More... servants' quarters - In Victorian days, they were usually referred to as below stairs; above stairs was the realm of the family. More... family - First referred to the servants of a household and then to both the servants and the descendants of a common ancestor. It comes from Latin familia, "household; household servants," which came from another Latin term, famulus, "servant." It was not until 1667 that the term was used specifically for parents and their children. More... | |