Daily Content Archive

(as of Friday, November 27, 2020)
Word of the Day

hard-bitten

Definition:(adjective) Tough and callous by virtue of experience.
Synonyms:hard-boiled, pugnacious
Usage: He graduated from college a naïve idealist, but just a few years of chasing down stories had turned him into a cynical, hard-bitten journalist.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Direct Speech

Direct speech refers to the direct quotation of something that someone else said. It is sometimes known as "quoted speech." Because the quotation happened in the past, we put the reporting verb into what tense? More...
Article of the Day

Sati

Sati is an Indian funerary practice in which a widow immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Though its stated purpose is to purge the sins of the couple and ensure their reunion in the afterlife, the practice has been encouraged by the low status of widowhood. Practiced since the 4th century BCE, sati became widespread in India in the 17th and 18th centuries, and not all instances were voluntary. Today, it occurs rarely, and mostly in remote areas. When was the practice outlawed? More...
This Day in History

Harvey Milk and George Moscone Are Assassinated (1978)

After gaining a following as a leader of San Francisco's gay community, Milk was elected to the city's Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in US history. In 1978, he and Moscone, the city's mayor, were shot and killed in City Hall by Dan White, a former city supervisor. White's conviction on the less serious charge of voluntary manslaughter sparked riots in the city. What now infamous defense did White's attorneys present at his murder trial? More...
Today's Birthday

Chaim Weizmann (1874)

A Russian-born chemist, Weizmann became a British subject in 1910, developed a process for creating a synthetic acetone to be used in the manufacture of explosives in 1912, and was director of the British admiralty laboratories for much of WWI. An active Zionist, Weizmann helped negotiate the 1917 Balfour Declaration pronouncing British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. When the republic of Israel was eventually founded, he was elected its first president. What is the Weizmann organism? More...
Quotation of the Day
Poverty doesn't bring unhappiness; it brings degradation.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Idiom of the Day

let's not and say (that) we did

A sarcastic expression indicating that one would really rather not do what has been proposed. More...
Today's Holiday

Black Friday (United States) (2020)

Black Friday usually refers either to the infamous Wall Street Panic of September 24, 1869, when Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market, or to September 19, 1873, when stock failures caused the Panic of 1873. But shoppers and retailers in the United States also refer to the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday because it marks the beginning of the Christmas commercial season and is traditionally a frenetic day of shopping. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: shank

stummel - A pipe's bowl and shank. More...

shank - Each half of a pair of scissors; also the stem of a wine glass. More...

shank - Once meant "the remainder, the rest," as in "shank of the evening." More...

scare - The shank of a golf club can be called the scare. More...

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