Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, February 18, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the PredicateSentences must always include both a subject and a predicate. The predicate is, essentially, everything in the sentence that follows the subject. It is made up of at least one finite verb. What else can the predicate include? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Winged CatsSince Henry David Thoreau first recorded the details of his encounter with a "winged cat" in 1842, there have been over 138 reported sightings of such creatures. Some explain the phenomenon as the result of improper grooming, which can lead cats to develop winglike mats of fur, but there are also a few medical conditions that can give cats a winged appearance. One is feline cutaneous asthenia, a skin deformity characterized by abnormal elasticity and stretching of the skin. What is the other? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Race Car Driver Dale Earnhardt Dies in Daytona 500 Crash (2001)Earnhardt was a seven-time champion and one of NASCAR's most successful drivers when he was killed at the 2001 Daytona 500 race. In the final lap, his car veered abruptly down the track and made contact with two others before hitting a concrete retaining wall head-on at about 160 mph (258 km/h). He was killed instantly. In the wake of the tragedy, NASCAR launched an intensive safety campaign and the Florida Legislature passed the Earnhardt Family Protection Act changing what laws? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Helen Gurley Brown (1922)Propelled to fame by her 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, Brown became editor-in-chief of the struggling Cosmopolitan magazine. By directing the magazine toward single, young career women and by being an outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom, she not only revived the publication but also played a part in the sexual revolution. By the end of her 32-year tenure with Cosmopolitan, the magazine ranked sixth at the newsstand but first in what other kind of store? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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make ground— To become more successful, popular, important, or accepted. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri (2023)Hadaka Matsuri means, literally, "naked festival". The young men who participate are naked except for traditional white loincloths known as fundoshi. Sometimes the participants in Hadaka Matsuri immerse themselves in a river beforehand to purify themselves. Occasionally several semi-naked young men will carry a mikoshi, or portable shrine, in the form of a horse, rice bale, or sake barrel into the river with them. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: laylay - As in layperson, it derives from Greek laikos, "of the people"—as opposed to clerics. More... nest egg - Poultry farmers formerly placed a porcelain or other fake egg in a hen's nest to encourage it to lay more eggs—from this came nest egg, money saved to encourage the making of more. More... lay, lie - To lay is to place something; to lie is to recline. More... | |