More Japanese references

[David Evers]

On Sun, 18 Feb 1996, Yoshiko Kihara wrote: 

> 
> Professor Wawazume (VL 142)
> "Wawazume" is undecipherable. "Zume" could be a variant of "tume", or a 
> nail. but. . . .
> 

I've just reread Vineland shortly after "What do you care what other people
think?", the second volume of Richard Feynmann's autobiographical anecdotes
to be transmitted through the medium of Ralph Leighton.  Under these
circumstances, the name "Wawazume" suggests "Wawa" and "sue me".

"Wawa" was F.'s abbreviation for "whatever it was", a kind of semantic
placeholder -- akin to "mumble" as used by Bay Area computer scientists.

Not remotely convincing, I know, but those were the associations that
fired for me then.

Cheers,

---- Dave

dme at nemesys.co.uk