Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, May 15, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cistron
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Evaluative Adverbs that Indicate AttitudeThere are several types of evaluative adverbs, which can be classified according to their function. We can use evaluative adverbs to make our attitude about something clear. "Frankly" is an evaluative adverb that we can use in this way. What are others? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Black DeathThe Black Death was a form of bubonic plague that was pandemic throughout Europe, the Middle East, and much of Asia in the 14th century. Thought to have been caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, it killed between one-third and half of Europe's population and at least 75 million people worldwide. Recently, it has been argued that the Black Death was not caused by bubonic plague, at all, but by what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Supreme Court Declares Standard Oil an "Unreasonable" Monopoly (1911)By 1880, through elimination of competitors, mergers, and railroad rebates, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled the refining of up to 95 percent of all oil produced in the US. In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved, but it continued to operate. Exposed in Ida Tarbell's History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, it was broken up in 1911 after a lengthy antitrust suit by the US government. What current oil companies have ties to the former Standard Oil? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 L. Frank Baum (1856)Baum was an American author of more than 70 children's books who is best known for penning The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He moved from New York to South Dakota in 1888. When his newspaper there failed, he moved to Illinois and found work as a journalist. His first children's book, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), was followed by Father Goose: His Book, an immediate bestseller. In 2006, Baum's descendants apologized for editorials in which he called for the extermination of whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is greater than the stars - that moving procession of human energy; greater than the palpitating earth and the things growing thereon.Kate Chopin (1851-1904) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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get in the last word— To express the final point or opinion in an argument or discussion, especially in a way that decisively or conclusively ends it. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Dymphna's Day (2024)According to legend, St. Dymphna fled with her priest to Geel, Belgium to escape her pagan father's demand for an incestuous marriage. St. Dymphna came to be known as the patron saint of the insane, and for centuries mental patients were brought to the site of her relics in Geel. Today there is a large, well-equipped sanatorium for the mentally ill in Geel. On May 15 special church services are held and a religious procession moves through the streets carrying a stone from St. Dymphna's alleged tomb—a relic that at one time was applied to patients as part of their therapy. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sitstrimmer - One who sits on the fence or remains neutral about political issues. More... insessor - One who sits in or on/upon something. More... nest - From Indo-European nizdos, literally "(place where the bird) sits down." More... soot - Etymologically, something that "sits" on something else—like film settling on a surface. More... | |