Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
walkaway Definition: (noun) An easy victory. Synonyms: blowout, romp, runaway, shoo-in, laugher Usage: Stanley has a gift for science and has won first prize at his past four science fairs, so this year's fair is almost a guaranteed walkaway for him.

Article of the Day

The Tabernacle According to the Torah, the Tabernacle was the portable sanctuary of the Hebrews, constructed to specifications revealed to Moses by God and used during the Hebrews' desert wanderings after the exodus from Egypt. In 957 BCE, during the reign of King Solomon, it was replaced by the Temple of Jerusalem as a sign that God had given his people rest from their wandering. Elaborately described in the Bible, it was divided into an outer room and an inner room, the Holy of Holies, which housed what? More...

This Day in History

Israeli Knesset Convenes for the First Time (1949) In 1948, following a failed attempt by the UN to divide Palestine, which had been under British mandate, the nation of Israel proclaimed its independence. The first legislative assembly, or Knesset, convened in February 1949 and succeeded the Assembly of Representatives that had functioned as the Jewish community's parliament during the Mandate era. The prime minister and the president are responsible to the Knesset, whose members are elected by popular vote. What does "knesset" mean in Hebrew? More...

Today's Birthday

Renée Fleming (1959) Fleming is an American soprano who specializes in opera and lieder, a type of German art song intended for soloists. The daughter of two music teachers, Fleming graduated from SUNY Potsdam in 1981 with a degree in music education and went on to study at Eastman School of Music and Juilliard. Her professional debut was in Austria in 1986. She has won numerous awards for her roles in opera and for the classical music she has recorded. What did Fleming do to pay for her studies at Juilliard? More...

Quotation of the Day
Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Idiom of the Day
make as though — To behave as if; to pretend or make it appear that. More...

Today's Holiday

Valentine's Day (2023) How St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers remains a mystery, but one theory is that the Church used the day in an attempt to Christianize the old Roman Lupercalia, a pagan festival that entailed putting girls' names in a box and letting the boys draw them out. The Church substituted saints' names for girls' names, but, by the 16th century, it was once again girls' names that ended up in the box. Eventually, the custom of sending anonymous cards or messages to those one admired became the accepted way of celebrating St. Valentine's Day. More...