1.) Poobala? What the heck does that mean?

Poobala is a word I invented when I was a real little kid. You know how little kids will jump out at people and yell, "BOO!!!" Well, I would jump out and yell, "POOBALA!!!"

2.) Uh, why would you yell poobala instead of boo?

That is just what my mom, likely fearing for my sanity, asked me. The answer? "Well, ANYBODY can jump out and yell boo but only I can yell poobala."

3.) So you were a weird kid?

Well I prefer the term "independent, original and boundary expanding rugrat" but essentially, yes, I was a weird kid.

4.) So poobala is a word intended to cause fear?

Again, as a kid I would have preferred "a word intended to cause abject mind shattering horror." Albeit a five year old's idea of abject mind shattering horror. Actually though it also has other various shadings. Given the, "Only I can yell poobala," thing, being poobalad has some exclusiveness to it. So it also therefore has a touch of class and cool. And so if someone poobalas you there is a touch of compliment as well as extra insult and injury carried with it. As you can see, poobala is very complex word.

5.) So you are now a weird adult?

An independent, original and boundary expanding weird adult, thank you very much.

6.) What are the proper ways to use the word poobala?

Well the obvious original way is to, again, leap out and yell, "Poobala!!!" This is especially the favored use for kids. The proper response to this is to cower in fear (or mock fear if you have to). If you are too proud to scream and cower like a wussy then also acceptable is to say with an indignant and insulted look, "Don't you poobala me!" or some variation of the same.

For adults wanting to use the word but again too cool to shout out, "POOBALA!!!" at the top of their lungs, you can instead use the word as an "insult". But, again, given that you are going to all the trouble of using poobala, the very use is also sort of a compliment of a sort. Confusing, ain't it? Proper use in this case would be to say with just a touch of arrogance to your victim, "Poobala on you-bala." Again, proper response would be, "Don't you poobala me.":

There is also the lesser used backward variant on poobala, the labapoo.

7.) That isn't technically poobala backwards though is it?

You're asking for it.

8.) Why poobala.com though?

Well this site started on my own personal homepage (http://home.earthlink.net/~jinxo). Thanks to my section on TV Crossovers And Spin Offs garnering some attention I on a regular basis would blow through the amount of hits my little site was allowed per month. So I decided to expand to a full fledged real web site with a cool domain name and everything.

Only that meant I needed a domain name. To my mind the three rules for picking a site name were 1.) Keep it short and simple, 2.) make it unique, memorable 3.) Make it relevant to the site's content.

Many folks suggested I name the site something like "crossovers.com" or such. Only, hello, I wanted to be able to put other stuff up on the site too, mostly TV and film related silliness. But guess what? Every good domain name related to TV and films? Pretty much taken. Go get something unique I kept ended up with novel length domain names...

"www.this-is-a-cool-tv-site-that-is-utterly-great-or-at-least-I-hope-so.com"

So I could have it short, unique or specific to the content but all three wasn't working. That's when I thought about "poobala". Word I made up so it was available. It's as short as you can get. It's unique. As to the site content... okay its a stretch but here is my thinking. Everything on this site comes from my happy if skewed mind which it turn is a product of my independent, original and boundary expanding... aka weird... childhood (Which is still not over - I have been sent several "cease and desist on your childhood" letters but I just keep tearing them up. I may be in big trouble soon). Well if there is one word that stands for all that... it would be poobala.

9.) Isn't that kind of a stretch of logic as far as "Make it relevant to the site's content" though?

Hey,why you gotta bust my chops like that?

10.) So, poobala is a made up word though, right?

Yes... and, maybe no. At age three or four I seriously doubt I searched through obscure texts to find the word. Just seemed like a good thing to yell at folks. That said, when preparing to put this site up, as a goof I did a Google search on "poobala" and was utterly stunned when I actually got results. It seems that it may be a word in one or more foreign languages. Worrying that I might be accidentally be naming my site something very offensive or odd... okay, odder... in another language, I contacted one Hindu site where the word popped up. I was told by the site operator that he had no knowledge of the word and that as it appeared in a transcript of a speech it likely may have been a phonetic misinterpretation of another word. It also showed up on a Polish site but, again, heck if anyone could tell me what it meant. It also came up in use as a name!!! Some guy is actually named Poobala (the lucky so and so!). Since in most cultures folks don't name people offensive things I think I'm still safe. Actually when I first started this site I only found the occassional "poobala" pop up while doing web searches. But more and more it seems to show up as a real word more and more.

And I actually did get an email from someone whose last name is Poobalasubramanian who was amused that part of his name was used to scare people. Anyway he provided some very cool poobala info. Apparently in the old South Indian language of Thamzil( or Tamil) the word breaks down with "poo" meaning flower and "bala" meaning young or youthful. So apparently I was actually running around scaring people by shouthing "youthful flower" or "flower of youth" at them. The only thing weirder than that is that... that kind of works. Young kid running around yelling and scaring people with the full power, er, flower, of youth. What are the odds I'd randomly make up a word that means that???

Anyone with more knowledge of what poobala means in other languages around the world, please, drop me a line at crossoverguy@poobala.com.

10.) I have money I just don't want. Is there some way I can give it to you to keep this site up and running?

You want to give me some money? Really? Well, like I'm going to say no. Sure. If I can validate your existence by taking your money I'm more than happy to help. Click here and go nuts.