Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
discalced Definition: (adjective) Barefoot or wearing sandals. Used of certain religious orders. Synonyms: unshod Usage: When a procession of discalced friars passed through the doors, I wondered if I should remove my shoes.

Article of the Day

The Highland Games The modern Highland Games began in the 1780s as an organized effort to revive Scottish Highland traditions. These celebrations of Scottish and Celtic heritage center around competitions in piping, drumming, dancing, and Scottish heavy athletics. The caber toss, in which a competitor balances a long, heavy wooden pole vertically and then tosses it, has become a recognized symbol of the Highland Games. What other feats of strength are often included in the Games' athletic competitions? More...

This Day in History

King Macbeth Is Killed (1057) Macbeth was originally a governor and military commander under Scottish King Duncan I, whose ancestors had seized power from the ancestors of Macbeth's wife. Macbeth ascended to the throne by killing Duncan in battle in 1040 and ruled Scotland for the next 18 years. In 1057, Macbeth was mortally wounded at the Battle of Lumphanan by Duncan's son Malcolm. Malcolm was crowned king the following year. Is Shakespeare's famous tragedy about Macbeth historically accurate? More...

Today's Birthday

Sir Walter Scott (1771) Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott is widely regarded as both the inventor of the historical novel and one of the genre's greatest writers. His extremely popular "Waverley" series consists of more than two dozen romances of Scottish life. The first, published in 1814, was an immediate success, yet Scott continued to write anonymously until 1827. In 1825, his business nearly failed. By what means did he attempt to stave off bankruptcy, eventually achieving financial solvency after his own death? More...

Quotation of the Day
A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Idiom of the Day
be not short of a penny (or two) — To be exceptionally wealthy; to have no concerns regarding money. More...

Today's Holiday

Dozynki Festival (2025) For many Christians around the world, August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption. But in Poland, it is also a time for celebrating the harvest. During the wheat harvest festival known as Dozynki Pod Debami, or Festival under the Oaks, the reapers make wreaths out of grain, flowers, nuts, and corn. When they present their wreaths to the master and mistress of the estate on which the wheat is grown, they are invited in for a feast, which is followed by dancing. More...