Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 7, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Conjunctive Adverbs and PunctuationWhen we join two independent clauses with a conjunctive adverb, they are traditionally separated with a semicolon. It is also acceptable to use a period and keep them as two discrete sentences. Either way, the conjunctive adverb typically begins the second clause and is followed by what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 FutsalAn indoor version of the sport known as soccer or—to those in many parts of the world—football, futsal is a fast-paced game that emphasizes improvisation, creativity, and technique. Credited with helping some of the world's best soccer players develop their skills, futsal is played by two five-person teams and employs a smaller, less bouncy ball than traditional soccer. Its courts, unlike those of other forms of indoor soccer, are bordered by lines rather than walls. How did futsal get its name? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 United States Embassy Bombings (1998)On August 7, 1998, hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the US embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention and resulted in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list. The bombings took place on the eighth anniversary of what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Emil Nolde (1867)Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. Fervently religious, he often painted supernatural imagery, such as demonic heads and mystic appearances. Impressed by the art he saw on a 1913 expedition to the East Indies, he began to paint brooding landscapes and colorful flowers. As a printmaker, he was noted for his crudely cut, stark black-and-white woodcuts. Though he was an early advocate of the Nazi party, the party condemned his art and forbade him to paint. What did he do instead? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe: evil spreads as necessarily as disease.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be put in (one's) place— To be humbled or have one's dignity lowered (by someone); to be made aware that one is not as important, respected, influential, etc., as one thinks. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Purple Heart Day (2019)Purple Heart Day is observed in the United States and commemorates the establishment in 1782 of the Badge of Military Merit, an award created by George Washington to honor soldiers for their distinguished action in battle. On August 7 throughout the country, local chapters of the Military Order of the Purple Heart sponsor services to remember and honor medal recipients from their communities. These ceremonies often feature prayers, military music, reminiscences by award recipients, and speeches by government and military officials. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: perfectA-OK - Astronauts on the Mercury Project in 1961 popularized A-OK, meaning "excellent, perfect"; it was coined by blending the adjective "A," as in A-one or A1, meaning "first-class," with "OK." More... palinoia - The compulsive repetition of an act until it is perfect. More... parfait - Literally French for "perfect." More... perfect binding - A book bound by gluing instead of sewing. More... | |