Slang that big Babushka used to use

[kart.livejournal.com]

I've just started reading the learn_russian community yesteraday and have been digging through some of the good older posts.

My great-grandmother was born and raised in a Russian speaking family near Grodno/Hrodna, before the revolution. She emigrated and brought unknown quantities of precious slang with her. Lots of her slang was based on Yiddish, and there was probably plenty of Polish influnce as well.

There is one word, though, that my relatives remember yet we never could figure out: "hotzula". As in "oy, look at fat hotzula there walking down street with her rear end hanging out of pants."

I have no idea how to spell it... maybe гуцульа with a soft г. Any ideas on what the actual word might have been or its origins?

(no subject)

[ignite.livejournal.com]

I did a poor job of teaching my dog "sit" and "down". Now when he sits, if he doesn't get a treat he lays down and vice versa. What I would like to do is start over, but using words from Russian instead. I can look up the verbs no problem. However, in the two years since I took Russian 1, I have forgotten the command tense. I think its also called imperative tense. I didn't see it in the memories.
So, what I was wondering is, how about a 3 minute course on imperative tense?

Thanks,
Kyle