Tuesday, June 23, 2009

pule \PYOOL\, intransitive verb:

• To whimper; to whine.

Pule is perhaps from French piauler, "to whine, to pule," ultimately of imitative origin.

drop a dime

• To snitch on someone. Often, to save their own ass. Comes from the old cost for a payphone call, ten cents.

"John got popped, so he dropped a dime on his supplier and they let him go."
Trivia

Under the rules of professional bowling, what is the maximum weight allowed for a pin? How about the minimum weight?

• Maximum, 3 pounds 10 ounces; minimum, 3 pounds 6 ounces.

Today in History:

• Banff National Park: Canada's first national park was signed into law; it is in Alberta, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains (1887)
• SAT: standardized college-admission exam was first administered; 8,000 test-takers had 90 minutes to answer 315 questions (1924)
• Warren E. Burger: was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States; he served until 1986 (1969)
• John Gotti: the "Teflon don," boss of the Gambino crime family, was sentenced to life in prison (1992)

Today's Birthdays:

• Edward VIII (1894-1972): king of England who abdicated for love; Napoleon's consort and French empress Joséphine (1763-1814) shared this birth date
• Bob Fosse (1927-1987): choreographer/director, Tony winner for Pippin, Oscar winner for Cabaret; also, playwright Jean Anouilh (1910-1987)
• Clarence Thomas (61): Supreme Court justice
• Randy Jackson (53): rock star and American Idol judge
• Frances McDormand (52): Oscar winner for Fargo; also, actors Ted Shackelford (63), Bryan Brown (62) and Selma Blair (37)
• Zinedine Zidane (37): 1998 World Cup MVP; Olympic gold-medalist Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) was also born on this date