Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, November 30, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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intermit
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the SubjectThe subject in a sentence or clause is the person or thing doing, performing, or controlling the action of the verb. Only that which has the grammatical function of a noun can be the subject of a clause. Why? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Blue AngelsIn 1946, the US Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, popularly known as the Blue Angels, performed for the first time. Intended to enhance Navy recruiting and to represent American armed forces as international ambassadors of good will, the Blue Angels perform aerial demonstrations involving highly precise maneuvers while flying in formation. During the stunts, the jets can sometimes come within 18 inches of each other. Why is it that pilots in the Blue Angels squadron do not wear G-suits? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Battle of Narva (1700)Sweden's power and influence in the Baltic region was growing when the young and inexperienced Charles XII came to the throne in 1697. Seeing their chance to end Swedish domination of the area, Charles's neighbors—Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark, and Augustus II of Poland—formed an alliance and attacked. At Narva, the first major battle of the Great Northern War, Charles's army soundly defeated the superior Russian forces. A few years later, Peter returned to Narva. What happened? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Jonathan Swift (1667)Known as one of the greatest satirists in the English language, Swift was an ordained Anglican priest who devoted himself to exposing England's unfair treatment of his native Ireland. In his ironic 1729 tract "A Modest Proposal," he suggested that the Irish escape poverty by selling their children to by eaten by the English. His classic Gulliver's Travels is a ruthless satire of human follies. Swift once mocked a publisher of astrological predictions by making what prediction of his own? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.Edwin Abbott (1838-1926) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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the butt of the joke— Someone or something at whose expense an insulting or mocking joke is made. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Eton Wall Game (2025)Every year on St. Andrew's Day, England's prestigious Eton College holds the famous Eton Wall Game, a variety of rugby that has its own highly technical rules and is different from all other forms of the game. The object of the game is to win goals by maneuvering the ball into the opposing team's "calx," designated by a chalk line on a garden wall at one end of the field and by a mark on a tree at the other. The game is made up of many scrimmages along the brick wall that marks off the college athletic field for which the game is named, and goals are almost never scored. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sheetmap - Comes from Latin mappa mundi, "sheet of the world" from mappa, "napkin, tablecloth." More... ream - Used to be 480 sheets of paper and is now 500. More... bed clothes, night clothes - Bed clothes usually refers to blankets and sheets, while night clothes refers to pajamas and gowns. More... portfolio - Comes from Italian for "carry" and "sheets or leaves of paper." More... | |