Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, September 23, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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languorous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Non-Restrictive Relative ClausesNon-restrictive relative clauses give us additional information about a noun that has already been identified, but this information is not essential for the sentence to make sense. What two words cannot be used to introduce non-restrictive clauses? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PsychogeographyThe vaguely defined field of psychogeography involves reflection on the effect of environment on one's emotions and behavior. The concept emerged in the 1950s when French Lettrists and Situationists, finding contemporary architecture physically and ideologically restrictive, reimagined the city. Their perspective likely descended from the Dadaists and Surrealists while also drawing upon Charles Baudelaire's concept of urban wandering. How is psychogeography relevant in the modern world? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Merchant Royal Sinks, Taking Cargo of Gold and Silver with Her (1641)A holy grail of marine salvage, the wreck of the Merchant Royal, one of the most valuable of all time, has eluded treasure hunters for centuries. When the leaky, 17th-century English merchant ship sank in rough weather in the vicinity of the Isles of Scilly and southwestern England, she took with her a fabled cargo of gold, silver, and precious gems worth over a billion dollars today. Among the riches lost in the wreck was the money to pay whom? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Coltrane (1926)Coltrane was an influential American jazz saxophonist and composer. He worked with numerous big bands before emerging in the 1950s as a major stylist while playing with Miles Davis. His playing exhibited a dazzling technical brilliance as well as ardent emotion. Coltrane made a number of influential recordings, among them the 1960s classics My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme. He was deeply spiritual and interested in all religions. What church made him a saint after his death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 If people only made prudent marriages, what a stop to population there would be!William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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snow on the mountain— Silver, grey, or white hair on one's head, as due to aging. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Aizu Byakko Matsuri (2025)Aizu was once the sturdiest castle in northeast Japan, but it was destroyed in a battle between the Emperor's forces and the Shogun's forces in 1868. The Byakkotai, or White Tiger Band, young men who vowed to lay down their lives in defense of the castle, saw what they thought was fire rising from the walls. Thinking it had fallen into enemy hands, they killed themselves. Each September to commemorate their courage, there is a procession of 500 warriors and a lantern procession through Aizu Wakamatsu, where the original members of the White Tiger Band are buried. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tapfaucet - Probably comes from French fausset, meaning "bore, tap." More... tattoo - In the military sense—of a signal summoning soldiers to their quarters at night—it was originally written tap-too, from a Dutch word taptoe, meaning "close the tap" (of a cask), which was told to soldiers when they were expected to return to their quarters. More... tick, tickle - Tick, as in "sound of a clock," "mark of correctness," originally meant "light touch, tap," and its modern senses are recent developments; tickle is probably a derivative of this version of tick. More... tit for tat - Probably borrowed from Dutch tip for tap, "blow for blow." More... | |