Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Nov. 8, 2014)

Words to Ponder

In this time of political, economic, and personal disintegration, music is not a luxury, it is a necessity; not simply because it is therapeutic, nor because it is the universal language, but because it is the persistent focus of (our) intelligence, aspiration, and good will.

… Robert Shaw, orchestral and choral conductor

African Proverb

Man is looking for wealth while Death is looking for him.

Heads Up

Having a head doesn’t spare you at all. Even a nail has a head, yet it gets hammered nonetheless.

Daffy-nition

Toastmaster: a person who eats a meal he doesn’t want so he can get up to tell a lot of stories he remembers imperfectly to people who have already heard them.

Safety First

St. Keyne, daughter of Braganus, prince of Garthmatrin or Brecon, called “Keyne the Virgin,” eventually removed to Mount St. Michael, and by her prayer a spring of healing waters burst out of the earth, and whoever drinks first of this water after marriage will become the dominant house-power. “Now,” says Southey “a Cornishman took his bride to church, and the moment the ring was on ran up the mount to drink of the mystic water. Down he came in full glee to tell his bride; but the bride said, ‘My good man, I brought a bottle of the water to the church with me, and drank of it before you started.’” –Southey: The Well of St. Keyne (1798)

Strange Analogy

Edo: Do you know that Noah was the greatest financier that ever lived?

Bedo: How do you make that out?

Edo: Well, he was able to float a company when the whole world was in liquidation.

What’s in a Name?

Tekpuchakian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, tek is defined as single, and puchak, a variant of bajak, is defined as leg; therefore, a one-legged person.

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CK Garabed

Weekly Columnist

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Latest posts by CK Garabed (see all)

• A Reminiscence: John Najarian - February 19, 2020
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Aug. 5, 2017) - August 7, 2017
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (July 22, 2017) - July 22, 2017