Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, May 27, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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grotesque
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adjective PhrasesAn adjective phrase is an adjective and any additional information linked to it that work together to describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence. How does an adjective phrase differ from an adjectival phrase? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 OologyOology is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of eggs, especially birds’ eggs. Understanding birds’ nesting habits is an important part of this field, as egg features like shape and color have been linked to nest sites. For example, cliff-nesting birds lay highly conical eggs that are less likely to roll off, while hole-nesting birds tend to lay more spherical eggs. Birds that lay eggs in holes or burrows tend to have white eggs, and birds that build nests in trees lay what color eggs? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Le Paradis Massacre (1940)The Le Paradis massacre was a WWII war crime committed by German soldiers under the command of officer Fritz Knöchlein. After becoming isolated from their regiment and running out of ammunition during the Battle of France, a group of British soldiers surrendered to German troops. They were then led across the road, lined up against a wall, and shot. Ninety-seven British troops died. Two survived and hid, but they were captured several days later. What happened to Knöchlein after the war? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837)Hickok was an American frontier marshal, legendary marksman, and gambler. In 1861, while working as a stagecoach driver, he shot and killed outlaw Dave McCanles, earning a reputation as a gunfighter. After serving as a Union spy during the Civil War, he was appointed a US marshal and tamed two Kansas towns. He was shot dead by a drunken stranger while playing poker at a saloon in the town of Deadwood. At the time, he was holding what combination of cards, now known as "dead man's hand"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.Henry Fielding (1707-1754) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be (as) green as a gooseberry— To be very young, immature, and/or inexperienced. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival (2019)This festival celebrating the Italian tradition of street painting was brought to Santa Barbara, California, in 1987. Some 200 professional and amateur artists create chalk "paintings"—both reproductions of old masters and original designs—on the Old Mission courtyard. In Italy in the 17th century, vagabond chalk artists often painted the Madonna, and they were known as madonnari. Artists still follow the tradition in the Italian village of Grazie di Curtatone, and Santa Barbara's "I Madonnari" is considered the village's sister festival. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wavecomber, breaker, roller - A long curving wave is a comber, a wave that curls over and dissolves into foam is a breaker, and a long wave moving steadily shoreward is a roller. More... scend - As a noun, it is the surge of a wave or the sea; as a verb, it means to pitch or surge up in a heavy sea. More... undulate - From Latin unda, "wave." More... wave - Meaning "movement of the sea," it seems to be an alteration of the earlier wawe, "wave," from Old English woeg, "motion, wave." More... | |