Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, October 9, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Gerunds as Objects of VerbsGerunds very frequently function as the direct objects of "true" verbs. What type of verb is very likely to take a gerund as an object? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Mafeking Cadet CorpsDuring South Africa's Second Boer War, British Colonel Robert Baden-Powell was charged with defending the town of Mafeking in a 217-day siege that began in 1899. Baden-Powell, who would go on to create the Boy Scout movement eight years later, utilized a team of local boys as volunteers to support the troops, assist in hospitals, and act as lookouts. Led by young Warner Goodyear, the uniformed cadets delivered messages on their bicycles amid incoming shells. Were any of them killed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Phantom of the Opera Premieres in London (1986)Based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1986. In 2010, it celebrated its 10,000th performance at the same venue. It opened in New York in 1988, and went on to become the longest-running musical on Broadway. It is also the most financially successful entertainment project of all time, having earned billions of dollars. What is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Ruth Ellis (1926)Ellis has the notorious distinction of being the last woman executed in the UK. In 1955, a jury took just 14 minutes to convict her of murdering her lover, racecar driver David Blakely. The two had had a volatile relationship, and Ellis had previously suffered a miscarriage as a result of a punch to the stomach from Blakely, but this mattered little after she admitted openly in court that she had shot him with the intention of killing him. In what film does Ellis have an uncredited cameo? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have the better of (someone or something)— To have or gain superiority, mastery, or an advantage over someone or something; to have control over someone or something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Denis's Day (2023)Also known as St. Dionysius, St. Denis is the patron saint of France. According to legend, Pope Clement sent him to what is now France to establish the Church there, during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251), but the pagans who greeted him did not treat him well. The most widely repeated legend is that they beheaded him on Martyr's Hill—the place now known as Montmartre in Paris—but he miraculously picked up his head and carried it for two miles before expiring at the site where the Church of St. Denis was later built. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plumdrupe - A fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone (e.g. almonds, cherries, plums, olives), it comes from Latin drupa, "overripe olive," from Greek druppa, "olive." More... plum, prune - Plum and prune are ultimately the same word, coming from Greek proumnon. More... plum job - Relates to the 1600s British term "plum" for 1,000 pounds, meaning a serious amount of money. More... plum pudding - So named because it was originally made with plums—the word was retained to denote "raisin," which became the main ingredient. More... | |