stop exeuction and give my a prompt

[David Bear]

I would like to have the ability to insert a statement in my code that would 
stop program execution at that point and give me a python prompt.  I don't 
know what to call this. 

What I would like to do is to stop program execution and inspect the state 
of certain dictionaries --- I don't want to insert a bunch of print 
statements and watch output fly of the screen.  I'd also like to be able to 
fiddle with these dictionaries when my program stops.  

Any pointers?