Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, March 14, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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platitude
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Future Perfect Continuous TenseWe use the future perfect continuous tense to indicate how long something has been happening once a future moment in time is reached. How is the future perfect continuous tense most commonly formed? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Vein of LoveAccording to tradition, the vena amoris, or "vein of love," runs directly from the heart to the fourth finger of the left hand. This belief has been cited in Western cultures as one reason why engagement and wedding rings are worn on that finger. The earliest known use of the phrase is found in A Treatise of Spousal or Matrimonial Contracts, published in 1686 by Henry Swinburne, who claims the concept derives from what ancient culture? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Lakeview Gusher Starts Spewing Oil (1910)Modern oil-drilling technology includes safety features such as blowout preventers, but when the Lakeview Gusher exploded in 1910, such safeguards were nonexistent. The result was one of the largest oil spills in history. Located in Kern County, California, the out-of-control oil well created rivers of crude oil that workers rushed to contain with makeshift dams. Though it never caught fire, it eventually released some 9 million barrels of oil. When was it finally brought under control? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Ferdinand Hodler (1853)By the time Hodler was a teenager, tuberculosis had killed much of his family. Having been trained in the basics of painting by his stepfather, the orphaned Hodler—imbued with a strong sense of mortality—became one of the most important Swiss painters of his time. He evolved a powerful means of expression with strong rhythmic patterns and a tight linear structure, which he called "parallelism." In the months leading up to January of 1915, Hodler made a series of paintings documenting what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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make (something) up as (one) goes (along)— To improvise continuously as one does something; to do something without formal guidelines, structure, rules, etc. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Heroes Day (2018)St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a nation comprised of a group of more than 30 islands in the Caribbean Sea, with St. Vincent being the largest. March 14 is National Heroes Day, when the country honors their national hero, Chief Joseph Chatoyer. He led the nation in preventing the Europeans from colonizing the islands. On March 14, 1795, Chatoyer was killed by British troops at Dorsetshire Hill. A monument honoring Chatoyer stands on this spot; as part of the Heroes Day celebration, a wreath-laying ceremony is held at the obelisk at Dorsetshire Hill. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sacrificeoffer - Originally meant "to present or sacrifice something to a religious entity." More... sacrifice - From Latin sacrificium, related to sacrificus, "sacrificial," from sacer, "holy, sacred." More... oblation - Something offered to God or a god, like a sacrifice or donation, can be called an oblation. More... victim - Originally denoted a person or animal killed as a sacrifice. More... | |
| In the News | |
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Was Jane Austen Poisoned? New Evidence about the Writer's Weakened Eyes Raises QuestionsOn July 18, 1817, novelist Jane Austen died at the age of 41. Much of Austen's medical biography is murky, and how she died remains an enduring mystery. Historians, in the two centuries since, have dissected what little evidence exists. In her later ... More... | |