Daily Content Archive

(as of Thursday, August 5, 2021)
Word of the Day

raconteur

Definition:(noun) One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit.
Synonyms:anecdotist
Usage: Dave is quite the raconteur and will no doubt keep my guests entertained throughout the evening.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Slash vs. Backslash

The slash must not be confused with a backslash ( \ ), which is used in computer programming but not in written English. When a distinction between the two needs to be made, what is the slash sometimes called? More...
Article of the Day

Free Speech Zone

Free speech zones are, in the US, fenced-in areas set aside in public places for activists to exercise their right to free speech. Though the zones give protesters space to voice their opinions, critics claim that the cages in fact censor dissenters by delineating where they must be when expressing themselves. Free speech zones were widely used during Vietnam-era protests and are still used at various political events. For whom did one California airport install free speech zones in the 1990s? More...
This Day in History

Cowra Breakout: One of the Biggest Escapes in History (1944)

During World War II, Japanese prisoners of war at a camp near Cowra, Australia, orchestrated one of the largest prison escapes of the war. Armed only with makeshift weapons, hundreds of Japanese prisoners stormed the machine gun posts and overwhelmed the guards. Some prisoners, rather than escaping, attempted or committed suicide, or were killed by fellow soldiers. The breakout resulted in the deaths of four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese prisoners. How many managed to escape? More...
Today's Birthday

Joseph Merrick, "The Elephant Man" (1862)

Known as "The Elephant Man," Merrick was an Englishman who suffered from a severely disfiguring disease, mistakenly thought to have been elephantiasis, that caused growths all over his skin and bone surfaces and made it difficult for him to walk and speak. He escaped from a workhouse at 21 to join a freak show, where he was discovered by a physician who later admitted him to London Hospital. He was cared for there until his death at age 27. What rare syndrome likely caused his deformities? More...
Quotation of the Day
The truth is, we each of us have an inborn conviction that the whole world, with everybody and everything in it, was created as a sort of necessary appendage to ourselves. Our fellow men and women were made to admire us and to minister to our various requirements.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)

Idiom of the Day

gun it

To accelerate or increase speed suddenly or rapidly; to travel or move very quickly. Usually said while traveling in an automobile. More...
Today's Holiday

Hanagasa Odori Matsuri (2023)

One of the largest festivals in the Tohoku region of Japan, Hanagasa Odori Matsuri is held in Yamagata on August 5-7. Thousands of dancers holding hanagasa, which are hats made out of bamboo or rush and decorated with flowers, dance through the city while spectators cheer them on. The rhythmic pulse of the hanagasa songs keeps the dancers moving together as they march down the city streets yelling "Yassho! Makasho!" and twirling their hats to the left, right, up, and down. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: houses

ginnel - A long narrow passage between houses. More...

row house - Part of an unbroken line or series of houses. More...

domal - Means of or pertaining to a house or houses. More...

vicinal, vicinity - Vicinal, from Latin vicus, "group of houses," means "of or pertaining to a neighborhood"—hence, vicinity. More...

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