Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, March 5, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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stolid
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Parenthetical Fragments CorrectlyBecause parenthetical elements are grammatically independent of the sentence they appear in, we must be sure that they do not include information that is necessary to complete the meaning of the overall sentence. How can we easily check this? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 St. Elmo's FireSt. Elmo’s fire is a weather phenomenon that causes luminous plasma to appear at the ends of tall, pointed objects such as spires, airplane wings, and ships' masts when the atmosphere is electrically charged. It is sometimes accompanied by a hissing sound. Named for St. Erasmus, the patron saint of sailors, the glowing display has been known to mariners since ancient times and has been interpreted as an omen, usually for good. What were some notable historical appearances of the phenomenon? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech (1946)The phrase "Iron Curtain" refers to the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the USSR after WWII to seal itself and its dependent eastern European allies off from contact with the West. Churchill's use of the phrase in a 1946 speech at a US college, though initially perceived as antagonistic, popularized the term. The Iron Curtain largely ceased to exist in 1990, when the communists of eastern Europe finally abandoned one-party rule. What are some earlier uses of the phrase? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Gerardus Mercator (1512)Mercator was a Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer who perfected the first map using the Mercator projection, the translation of the spherical earth to a two-dimensional flat plane. In it, parallels and meridians are rendered as straight lines spaced to produce an accurate ratio of latitude to longitude at any point. It permits mariners to steer a course over long distances without continually adjusting compass readings. What map-related term was coined by Mercator? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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let me tell you— Used to emphasize a statement. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tlacaxipehualiztli (Festival of Xipe Totec) (2024)Among the Aztec Indians of Mexico, Xipe Totec was a god of war. The observance of his festival took place in March according to the Gregorian calendar. Xipe Totec was often referred to as "Our Lord the Flayed One" (or, "the Flayer"), and images of him show the god wearing a human skin. The Festival was an occasion for Aztec warriors to mimic the god. They killed their prisoners of war and removed their skins from their bodies. They would then wear these skins for the entire 20-day month and hold mock battles, after which they would discard the now-rotting skins into caves or bury them. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plasterdrywall, plasterboard - Drywall is a building material made of a sheet of plaster covered with heavy paper on both sides; it is also called plasterboard. More... gypsum - From Semitic, a relative or ancestor of Arabic jibs and Hebrew gephes, "plaster." More... plaster of Paris - So called because it is prepared from the gypsum of Paris, France. More... trullization - Laying on plaster with a trowel. More... | |