About George

Hi, I'm George.

I'm what they call an "award winning" humor writer. I write a weekly humor column for newspapers, as well as funny freelance essays for other publications and Web sites. Well, I did until 2018 or so. This blog is left up simply for you to enjoy. 

I live in Southern California in a flat, baking valley named for San Gabriel who, by all appearances at least, was a saint.

This blog exists for one reason: I could no longer hold back the urge to inject the world's English lexicon with the phrase "Wa Blog."

. . .

If you would like to know where "Wa" (pronounced like "saw") comes from, here is a brief explanation...

The Origin of "Wa"

What is the origin of "Wa," you ask, because you are sitting in your cubicle pretending to work? It's funny the things that stick. In college, my friends, like all college students overburdened by the requirements of studies and hoisting multiple cases of beer, wanted to lighten their load in every way they could.

So to make their lives that much easier, to reduce the burden of pronouncing both syllables in my last name, my friends took to simply calling me "Wa." I don't remember exactly which friend coined it, but chances are it was Ted.

Coincidentally, the word "Wa," in Japanese, means harmony and balance. In fact, "Wa" even refers to specific things which are Japanese. For example, "Wafuku" means Japanese-style clothes. Ironically, in college, even though my friends did not know anything about Japanese-style clothes, they shouted "Wafuku!" at me a lot.

So it is that I name my blog "The Wa Blog." You may not know that "Wa Blog" is also part of the lyrics to the five-note musical theme which the alien spacecraft in "Close Encounters" plays to communicate with earthlings. The full five notes go like this: "La la loo WA BLOGGG!"

"Wa Blog!" is also a great thing to blurt out loudly in a meeting if anyone asks your opinion of the sales projections. Or randomly on a first date. Seriously. I could use the exposure.

. . .

Other derivations of Wa:

You Gotta Have Wa, a very entertaining book about the word "Wa" and the sport of Japanese baseball.

The Japanese symbol for Wa

Wa state

. . .