Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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prodigal
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Ellipses When Omitting Text from a QuotationThe most formal way ellipses are used is to indicate that some text has been omitted from a quoted sentence or passage. For what reasons would we omit text from a quotation? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the UK's senior finance minister and a member of the Prime Minister's cabinet. He oversees public spending across Government departments and frames the annual budget. The office, established under Henry III, is now considered one of the four Great Offices of State. As Second Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor's official residence is 11 Downing St, next door to the home of the First Lord of the Treasury. In 1997, who actually moved into Number 11? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Rutan Voyager Completes First Nonstop Flight around the World without Refueling (1986)Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, who first conceived of the craft and sketched it on the back of a napkin in 1981, the Rutan Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. It took off from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986, and landed there nine days later. The aircraft more than doubled the previous record of un-refueled flight set by a US Air Force B-52 in 1962. How much does the Rutan Voyager weigh? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805)Smith was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1827, he claimed that an angel directed him to buried golden plates containing God's revelation, which he translated as the Book of Mormon. He led converts to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and introduced the custom of polygamy. When in 1844 he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the US, he and his brother were thrown in jail, where they were killed by a lynch mob. What happened to the church after his death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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go to Canossa— To become or make oneself humble; to do a penance or seek absolution for some wrong. A reference to Canossa Castle in Emilia Romagna, Italy, where Emperor Henry IV humbled himself before Pope Gregory VII in 1077 to have his excommunication lifted. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Thorlak's Day (2019)Thorlak Thorhalli (1133-1193) was born in Iceland and, after being educated abroad, returned there to become bishop of Skalholt in 1177 or 1178. He was canonized by the Icelandic parliament five years after his death. His day traditionally marks the climax of Christmas preparations for Icelanders. It is associated with housecleaning, as well as the preparation of special foods. The hangiket, or smoked mutton, for Christmas was usually cooked on this day, and in the western fjords, the smell of skate hash cooked on St. Thorlak's Day is still considered a harbinger of the holiday season. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: soldierbombardier - First denoted a soldier in charge of a bombard, an early form of cannon. More... functional shift - The process by which words change parts of speech without the addition of a prefix or suffix, as in soldier on, the verb, being created from soldier, the noun. More... guerrilla, gorilla - Guerrilla is from a Spanish diminutive of guerra, "war," and refers to a soldier of an independent armed resistance force; gorilla is the ape. More... | |