Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 10, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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nonviolence
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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SlashesThe slash ( / )—technically known as a virgule but also called a slant, solidus, or stroke—serves a number of purposes in writing. What are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Mad as a March Hare"Mad as a March hare" is an idiomatic phrase derived from the excitable and unpredictable antics of hares during their breeding season, often incorrectly believed to occur only in March. Though the phrase has been in continuous use since the 16th century, it was popularized by Lewis Carroll in his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which the March Hare co-hosts a tea party with the Mad Hatter. What are some of the strange behaviors displayed by hares during mating season? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Rubens's Massacre of the Innocents Sells for £49.5 million (2002)Misattributed to an assistant of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens until 2002, when an expert from Sotheby's auction house identified it as the work of the master himself, Massacre of the Innocents is an early 17th-century painting depicting Herod's slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem. One of two paintings Rubens made of the Biblical scene, it fetched £49.5 million ($76 million) at auction and is one of the priciest paintings ever sold. Its style is reminiscent of which Italian painter? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Marcel Proust (1871)One of the great literary figures of the modern age, Proust was a French author who is best known for À la recherche du temps perdu, his 3,200-page masterpiece. After the death of his mother, the asthmatic Proust increasingly withdrew to eccentric seclusion, where he wrote his multivolume, semiautobiographical work. The discursive novel explores issues of human psychology, time, memory, and desire, but Proust died before completing it. What is the English translation of his novel's title? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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long-run— (used before a noun) Involving, maturing after, or lasting for a long period of time. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Bahamas Independence Day (2021)The Bahama Islands gained independence from Great Britain at 12:01 a.m. on this day in 1973. The islands had been a British colony for nearly 250 years, but are now a commonwealth, with their own prime minister and parliament. Businesses are closed on the tenth, a legal holiday, but festivities go on for a week with parades and celebrations. A fireworks display at Clifford Park in Nassau on July 10 tops off the celebrations. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: railwayMain Line - The principal line of a railway (1841), it also has the meaning "affluent area of residence" (1930s), originally that of Philadelphia, from the "main line" of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which added local stops to a string of backwater towns west of the city in late 19th century that helped turn them into fashionable suburbs. More... one-track mind - Is a reference to the railway. More... railway - The word was first recorded in 1776, but the first actual railway opened nearly 50 years later, in 1825. More... sidetrack - First used for a railway siding or a minor track or path. More... | |