Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, November 14, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Ars AmatoriaWritten around the time of the birth of Christ, the Ars Amatoria, or Art of Love, is Ovid's handbook for acquiring and keeping a lover. The Roman poet offers practical yet witty advice to both men and women, at times exercising discretion. He often delves into psychology, such as when he suggests making a lover artificially jealous to keep him or her attentive. He advises a young man to gallantly brush any dust from his date's gown. What is his advice if the gown is not dusty? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Melville's Moby-Dick Published in the US (1851)Inspired by his whaling experiences on the South Seas, Herman Melville penned Moby-Dick, the now famed tale of a deranged whaling captain's obsessive voyage to find and destroy the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. The novel is at once an exciting sea story, a sociological critique of American prejudices, a repository of information about whaling, and a philosophical inquiry into the nature of good and evil. What may have inspired Melville to name his whale Moby-Dick? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891)Banting was a Canadian physician who, with Scottish physiologist John Macleod, won a 1923 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the hormone insulin. Banting and his assistant Charles Best experimented on diabetic dogs, demonstrating that insulin lowered their blood sugar. Insulin was proven effective on humans within months of the first experiments with dogs. In acknowledgment of Best's work, Banting gave him a share of his portion of the Nobel Prize. What tragic accident took Banting's life in 1941? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A decent boldness ever meets with friends.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be (as) green as a gooseberry— To be very young, immature, and/or inexperienced. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Plebeian Games (2022)The Roman leader Flaminius is thought to have instituted the Plebeian Games in 220 BCE. They originally may have been held in the Circus Flaminius, which he built. Later, they may have moved to the Circus Maximus, a huge open arena between the Palatine and Aventine hills. The Games were dedicated to Jupiter, one of whose feast days was November 13, and included horse and chariot races and contests that involved running, boxing, and wrestling. The festival lasted from November 4-17, and its first nine days were devoted to theatrical performances. More... | |