Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, February 17, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
petrous
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Present TenseThe present tense is mostly used to identify the action of a verb as taking place in the present time. What is the present perfect tense, and why is it so named? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Bricks of TeaDried, compressed blocks of tea leaves have been used in Asia as a source of food, component of beverages, and form of currency for centuries. In Ancient China, tea was often mixed with binding agents—including flour, blood, and manure—to increase its durability, thus fortifying the tea brick against the physical demands of its use as currency. Siberian nomads preferred tea-brick currency over metal coins and continued to use the edible money until what period? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 The Armory Show Opens in New York City (1913)The Armory Show was an international exhibition of modern art held in 1913 at the 69th-regiment armory in New York City. Representing a range of avant-garde movements in Europe, the show was one of the most important art exhibitions ever held in the US. The Armory Show aroused the curiosity of the public and helped to change the direction of American painting. What painting at the exhibition was singled out by hostile critics as emblematic of the so-called insanity and degeneracy of modern art? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Thomas John Watson, Sr. (1874)After rising from clerk to sales executive in the National Cash Register Co., Watson became president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., which made scales, time clocks, and tabulators that sorted information using punched cards—all forerunners of mainframe computers. Watson renamed the company International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) in 1924 and became its chairman in 1949, widening IBM's line to include electronic computers. What one-word motto did Watson promote at IBM? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
horse and rabbit stew— A situation comprised of both crude or unpleasant things as well as those which are pleasing or beneficial, usually with the former in greater proportion to the latter. Used especially in reference to economics or business. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Fornacalia (2024)The Fornacalia, or Feast of Ovens, was designed to benefit the ovens (fornices) that parched grain and was held to placate the goddess Fornix, who presided over them. It lasted a week, during which each household made an offering of far, flour of the oldest kind of Italian wheat, served in the form of cakes. According to Ovid, those who were uncertain which curia, or tribal divisions of Rome, they belonged to ended up observing this festival on February 17 instead of on the proper day. At this time a general offering of cakes was made by the whole community. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: modecomportment, deportment - Deportment adds the sense of action or activity to a mode of conduct or behavior; comportment, "behavior or bearing," does not have this. More... dictionary - Based on Latin dictio(n-), "mode of expression" or "word," then dictionarius, "a repertory of words or phrases." More... diet - Comes from Greek diaita, "a way of life, mode of living." More... mode - Originally a tune or air and later a scheme of sounds. More... | |