Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, February 16, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adverbs of DegreeAdverbs of degree are used to indicate the intensity, degree, or extent of the verb, adjective, or adverb they are modifying. What are grading adverbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Fatal HilarityPeople can and do die of laughter. The 3rd century BCE philosopher Chrysippus, for example, is said to have laughed himself to death while watching the antics of a drunken donkey. In 1410, Martin I of Aragon succumbed to a combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughter. More recently, a UK man died of heart failure after laughing for 25 minutes at a TV show featuring a Scotsman in a kilt battling a vicious black pudding. What other historical figures have died from laughter? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Burning of the USS Philadelphia (1804)The USS Philadelphia was a 36-gun frigate that ran aground in October 1803 while blockading the coast of Tripoli. After some consideration, the Americans decided that the ship was too powerful a weapon to remain in enemy hands and sent a party of soldiers to recapture the ship and burn it. In carrying out "the most bold and daring act of the age," the assaulting party used what ruse to sail up to the ship without arousing the suspicion of its Tripolitan guards? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hugo Marie de Vries (1848)De Vries was a Dutch botanist whose theory of biological mutation and rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity made possible the active investigation and universal acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution. He held that new species are formed chiefly through mutations—sudden, unpredictable, inheritable changes in an individual organism. Teaching at the University of Amsterdam, he introduced the experimental study of evolution. What important evolution-related term did he introduce to science? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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gut factor— The subjective, emotional element or dimension that influences a decision. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Washington's Birthday Celebration (Laredo, Texas) (2020)This celebration in honor of George Washington has been held since 1898 by Laredo, Texas, and its sister city on the other side of the Mexican border, Nuevo Laredo. The two Laredos (los dos Laredos in Spanish) are linked by history and by three bridges across the Rio Grande. Both cities also celebrate Mexico's Independence Day in September. Washington's birthday events include dances, fireworks, mariachi music, a fun run, a jalapeño-eating contest, and parades with lavishly decorated floats. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tidebillow - The swell on the ocean produced by the wind, or on a river or estuary by the tide or wind. More... slack water, slack tide - Before any turn of the tide, there is a time of slack water or slack tide. More... happy as a clam - Originally happy-as-a-clam-at-full-tide; it may refer to the fact that when the tide is full, nobody is digging clams. More... tidy - Comes from tide, which in Old English meant "time period"; its original meaning was "timely, opportune." More... | |