-----Original Message-----
From: carol delossantos [mailto:ylorac1111@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 8:18 PM
To: nolowflow@davebarry.com; judifto@hotmail.com; rob@cockeyed.com
Subject: Literary Experiment
Hello Dave and Rob and Lovely Judi,
I am bound and determined to get a perfectly usable, useful, and cool sounding word to be used by the common people so that it will become, in fact, commonplace.
This word has been languishing in obscurity for who knows how long. I found it reading the dictionary one day and thought 'this word rocks'. So I started using it. Well, people looked at me like I was an idiot because they'd never heard it before either (I've never even seen in print).
PULE
pule [ pyool ] (past puled, past participle puled, present participle pul7ing, 3rd person present singular pules)
intransitive verb
whine: to whine, whimper, or cry plaintively ( archaic )
[Early 16th century. Origin uncertain: probably an imitation of the sound of whimpering.]
So, I thought wouldn't it be a cool experiment to try and introduce a word back into everyday vernacular and circulation?
Now, on the West coast, we have the Experimenter Rob Cockerham, and on the East coast we have PYOOLitzer Prize winner and all around cool columnist, Dave Barry and me (Carol D.) in the middle on the Third coast of Texas! If we combine our resources, maybe we can see if it'll work!
But, if Mr. Language person cannot help our cause, I will go away and quietly pule all by myself until I'm all puled out.
Best Regards,
Carol De Los Santos
Hmm. I am honored to be considered of the same class of influence and skill as Mr. Barry. AND I have a scheme to promote this au-internet. Here it is:
I could put a link up on cockeyed.com to EVERY auction that contains the word "pule" in the title.
It can be done like this:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd
=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=pule
If people know and trust that link to be at the top of cockeyed.com for a year or so, they may be coerced into including the word "pule" in their descriptions. I tried this tactic with "hans blix" (the poor guy didn't have any merchandise), and influenced two auctions within a few days.
Pule is a short word, so it could be easily included in ebay auction descriptions.
-Rob Cockerham
On February 25th, 2003 Cockeyed.com fan Carol De Los Santos wrote. She asked me to help promote this one word: pule. She explained that it meant "to whine".
I'm pretty stingy with favors, but I've actually had a plan for word-promotion bumping around for a while, just waiting for the right word, so I leapt at this opportunity!
Back in 1999 or so, before I was friends with the Cardhouse Robot, I saw that he had linked to a search on ebay, by copying the complex URL in his address field. He linked to a search for cute with a link like this:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=cute
This amazed me when I first saw it, but now it makes perfect sense. Whenever the instructions to the webserver are revealed in the web address, it is easy to mimic them. I use this same technique from time to time, for instance linking to a google image search for bliss.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bliss&btnG=Google+Search
Or Yahoo Movies for naked:
http://search.movies.yahoo.com/search/movies/title?p=%5Bnaked%5D+type%3Afeature&string=naked&intl=us&search=title&s=wt,-$s
Or All Recipes for deep fried:
http://search.allrecipes.com/SearchResults.asp?site=allrecipes&allrecipes=allrecipes&q1=deep+fried
Instead of just linking to one funny item on ebay, this technique can reveal an entire array of similarly-titled auctions.
I've been posting a few auctions with the word "pule" in the title, and I am encouraging others to do this also. So far there have been around 40 pule auctions running at a time. Anyone can get included in this search, just post an auction with the word pule in the title.
Try to make 'em funny. Try to put an image in the gallery.
I hope people continue to post them, and I hope this builds interest in the word "pule".
The word really has nothing to do with my site. It is just a word that Carol suggested.
This little flag linking to pule auctions will be on the front of cockeyed.com until August 2003. This is your invitation to post pule auctions and get at least a few more viewers. Thanks.
The soap-camera auction | Home | Contact Rob Last updated March 23rd, 2003. Terms and Conditions Copyright 2003 Cockeyed.com
But I was not discouraged. I sent letters to Marylin Vos Savant, William Safire, local columnists; Leon Hale and Ken Hoffman. Although Ken and Leon responded to my letters, they didn't write anything about PULE. I guess Marylin and Safire are too good for me. Nada from them.
I could've rolled up into a tiny ball and puled in a corner, but I forged ahead. I wrote to The Word Detective. At last! Persistent puliness pays off.........
By Evan Morris
Copyright C 2003 by Evan Morris
For Release: Monday, December 1, 2003
Dear Word Detective: Why don't we use the word "pule"? I like this word
and I have been integrating it into my vocabulary. My question is, how can
I (a mere commoner) initiate a program to get this word out to the people so
that it can be used rather than have it sit in the dictionary in obscurity?
I've thrown this word out to a few other media in hopes that it will gain
popularity and become a handy, common word. EBay has a few "puley" auctions,
for starters. Maybe I could rent a billboard and post my word up there and
let the people pull out their dictionaries and look up the meaning
themselves. -- Carole, via the internet.
Sounds like a plan. By the way, I'm not certain whether you meant that
"puley eBay auctions" literally, but I searched eBay for "puley" and only
found one item, a poster for a concert in San Diego featuring a band named
"Puley." Seems like an odd choice for a band name when so many better
monikers (Psycho Doormats, Dead Gerbils, etc.) are available.
"Pule" (pronounced "pyool") is indeed an interesting, useful word, although
I can't really imagine becoming attached to it the way I am to "flapdoodle"
and "nincompoop." As a verb, "pule" means "to cry or whine weakly or
plaintively, as a child," and the adjective forms "puling" and "puley" evoke
constant whining and whimpering. Maybe it's not a bad name for a band after
all.
The roots of "pule" don't do much for the word's image. "Pule" is probably
derived from the French dialect word "piouler," meaning "to cry or cheep" as
a chicken or the young of an animal might.
Although "pule" is rarely heard today, and then more in the UK than in the
US, it's been around since at least 1534 and was once quite common. The
British poet Thomas Carew (1589-1639), in his poem "To a Lady That Desired I
Would Love Her," wrote "Then give me leave to love, & love me too, Not with
design, To raise, as Loves curst Rebels do, When puling Poets whine, Fame to
their beauty, from their blubbr'd eyn." John Keats (1795-1821) also knew
"puling" when he heard it: "Men were thought wise who could not understand
His glories: with a puling infant's force, they sway'd about upon a rocking
horse, and thought it Pegasus."