Word: poke
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...sell some 17,000 theatre owners a full year's supply of films (100 to 300 per theatre), sight unseen. They do not sell the films by name, since none has been completed and only a few planned. Instead they sell their studio's reputation. From the poke sticks a real pig's ear or two, a few guaranteed bristles: "three Gables, four Rooneys, two Mervyn LeRoy specials," etc. To get these, an exhibitor must buy a full schedule of unknowns, many of which will prove to be not pigs but turkeys. This is the system known...
Lately Animalizer Andrews has quieted down somewhat as director of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History. But even there, since he is able to poke into all the museum's affairs, from blue whales to green sapphires, he has added a lot of vicarious information to his own experiences. Into his latest book, This Amazing Planet (Putnam; $2), Dr. Andrews has packed this miscellaneous knowledge. The book adds up to a fascinating heap of glorified Ripleyisms, of scientific believe-it-or-nots. Samples...
Thus did Dr. Funk poke the U. S. economy in a vulnerable spot. A creditor nation ever since World War I, the U. S. vainly hoped the Smoot-Hawley and other tariffs would keep it that way, forgetting trade is a two-way street. Cordell Hull, knowing that, has long preached reciprocal commerce. World War II put an end for the present to his small successes...
...There U. S. artists and musicians have studied under first-rate Frenchmen each summer since; in off hours could relax in the Forest of Fontainebleau's shady green aisles, feed ring-snouted carp in the pond by the palace, down drinks and French pastry at sidewalk cafes and poke mild fun at Rosa Bonheur's bull on its pedestal in the village square...
...earned some $5,000,000 in the ring, had started a pugilistic "comeback" at 45. In Atlanta, during two rounds of roughhouse scrapping that left him wobbly-kneed, he had knocked out of the ring one Cowboy Luttrell, a fat, 34-year-old wrestler who had taken a poke at him during a wrestling match which he refereed last spring...