Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Sept. 26, 2015)

Folk Wisdom

This is the best world, that we live in,

To lend and to spend and to give in;

But to borrow or beg, or to get a man’s own,

It is the worst world that ever was known.

Arabic Proverb

Ask the experienced rather than the learned.

Daffy-nition

Censor: A person who sticks his NOs in other people’s business.

From the Word Lab

Zounds!: An exclamation that is a contraction of God’s wounds (reference to Jesus). It is normally pronounced zownds not zoonds, because of the great vowel shift, which was the result of the French-Norman impact on the English language.

Back in the time when such exclamations were used, people would swear on God’s body parts rather than his name, thus avoiding breaking the Third Commandment, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Frank Advice

Sunday was to be the day of Aram’s wedding, and he and his father were enjoying a nightcap together. Lifting his glass in a toast to his father, Aram asked, “Any advice before I take the big step, Hairig?” “Yes,” the father said. “Two things. First: insist on having one night out a week with the boys. Second: don’t waste it on the boys.”

What’s in a Name?

Rev. Fr. Diran Bohajian is the pastor of St. Leon’s Armenian Church in Fair Lawn, N.J. Bohajian is a variant spelling of Boyajian; the misspelling is an example of the familiar Ellis Island hatchet jobs perpetrated on Armenian names.

The same can be said of Kahaumjian vs. Kouyoumjian.

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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