Today's Highlights
| Word of the Day | |||||||
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frothy
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using the Past PerfectIf we are highlighting that the action or event in the past perfect tense came before another action or event, this second verb is often (but not always) in the past simple tense. The past perfect can appear in a sentence either before or after a later action or event. Regardless of its position, what does the past perfect always refer to? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Tempest PrognosticatorThe Tempest Prognosticator, known also as the Leech Barometer because it uses leeches to predict storms, was invented in 1850 by Dr. George Merryweather. The device contains 12 leeches, each kept in a small bottle. When the leeches become agitated by electrical conditions in the atmosphere generated by an approaching storm, they attempt to climb out of the bottles and trigger a small hammer that strikes a bell. Whose poetry inspired Merryweather to build his device? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Olympic Medalists Create Furor with Black Power Salute (1968)The silent protest of two black American athletes at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was an iconic and controversial statement. Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos received their medals shoeless to draw attention to black poverty in America, and they performed the Black Power salute as their national anthem played. They were booed by the crowd and were later expelled from the staunchly apolitical games. Smith saluted with his right hand. Why was Carlos forced to salute with his left? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888)One of America's greatest playwrights, O'Neill spent his youth as a heavy-drinking, itinerant seaman, then began writing plays while recovering from tuberculosis in 1912. Within a decade, he had won his first of four Pulitzer Prizes. Extremely prolific, he wrote passionate works about tortured family relationships and spiritual conflict, including Long Day's Journey into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Both of his sons committed suicide, and he disowned his daughter for marrying whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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shank's nag— One's legs and feet, used for walking; travel by foot. Also "shanks' nag." A reference to the shank— the lower leg between the knee and the ankle—and the use of ponies or horses for travel. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 World Food Day (2025)Proclaimed in 1979 by the conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, World Food Day is designed to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and to promote cooperation in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. October 16 is the anniversary of the founding of the FAO in Rome, Italy, in 1945. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: markingpastry wheel, pastry jagger - A pastry wheel or pastry jagger is a handled tool with a thin sharp wheel, used for marking and cutting rolled-out dough. More... stocking - A white marking on the lower part of a horse's leg. More... on the dot - Probably a reference to the minute hand of the clock being exactly over the dot marking the given minute on the dial. More... hilum - The scar on a seed marking the point where it was attached to its seed vessel. More... | |
| Match Up | |
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| Mismatch | |
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