Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, February 29, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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shoestring
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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"It" as a Dummy PronounJust like the dummy pronoun "there," "it" is also used as a pronoun without an antecedent in sentences. "It" is commonly used as a dummy pronoun in discussions of what three topics? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 OrgoneIn the late 1930s, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich publicized his theory of universal life energy, a force he called orgone energy. He claimed that orgone fills all space, has a blue hue, and can be accumulated and used to restore psychological well-being. Most experts believe his hypotheses to be pseudoscience, and his books on the subject were burned following a court decision intended to prevent health-fraud. What renowned scientist agreed to participate in Reich's experiments? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First African American wins Academy Award (1940)Hattie McDaniel was an African-American singer-songwriter, comedienne, stage actress, radio performer, and television star. She appeared in over 300 films and is best known for her role as Mammy in the iconic 1939 film Gone with the Wind, a performance that earned her the first Academy Award ever presented to an African American. McDaniel's Oscar was later lost. What are some theories about what became of it? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dinah Shore (1916)Shore was an American singer, actress, and TV personality who enjoyed widespread popularity during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 50s. She was the first singer of the era to achieve success as a solo artist, producing over 80 hit songs, including "Baby It's Cold Outside," before beginning a four-decade career in television. Shore was a hit with TV audiences as well and went on to earn nine Emmys, a Peabody Award, and a Golden Globe. How did Shore, born Frances Rose, earn the stage name Dinah? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have (someone's) number on it— To be considered the agent or instrument of one's fate, especially leading to death. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Leap Year Day (2024)The Earth actually takes longer than 365 days to complete its trip around the Sun—five hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds longer, to be precise. To accommodate this discrepancy, an extra day is added to the Gregorian calendar at the end of February every four years. The year in which this occurs is called Leap Year, probably because the English courts did not always recognize February 29, and the date was often "leaped over" in the records. There was an old tradition that women could propose marriage to men during Leap Year. The men had to pay a forfeit if they refused. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: huntingpark - Originally a legal term for land held by royal grant for the keeping of game animals for royals to hunt. More... sealer, sealing - A sealer is a seal hunter and seal hunting is called sealing. More... half-cocked - Comes from hunting; a gun at half cock is in the safety position—so it came to mean "incompletely prepared." More... tryst - Comes from Scottish as a variant of an old word, trist, "an appointed place or station in hunting," and now means a "secret meeting of lovers." More... | |