The biggest addiction in college: skipping class. Part of my job as an Admissions Advisor at Eastern Washington University is to give presentations to visiting middle and high school classes that come to see what a college campus is like.
The Athenian Agora. The Agora of Athens was the center of the ancient city: a large, open square where the citizens could assemble for a wide variety of purposes. On any given day the space might be used as a market, or for an election, a dramatic performance, a religious procession, military drill, or athletic competition.
1716, earlier aera (1610s), from Late Latin aera, era an era or epoch from which time is reckoned, probably identical with Latin aera counters used for calculation, plural of aes (genitive aeris) brass, copper, money (see ore, also cf. copper). The Latin word's use in chronology said to have begun in 5c. Spain (where, for some reason unknown to historians, the local era, aera Hispanica, began 38 B.C.E.; some say it was because of a tax levied that year).