Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 23, 2016)

Armenian Proverb

They asked the bullfrog, “Why do you continually croak?” He replied, “I’m enchanted with my voice.”

Newspaper Item

Dr. D_____C_____, noted health authority, who was to speak on “How to Keep Well,” could not appear because of illness.

… Alameda (Calif.) Times-Star

Evolution vs. Creationism

It is easier to suppose that the universe has existed from all eternity than to conceive a Being beyond its limits capable of creating it.

… Shelley, Queen Mab

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream

That this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

… Voltaire

A Most Ingenious Paradox

Frederic, the pirate apprentice, has reached his 21^st birthday, and at midnight he will be free of his indenture, or so he thinks. When he was a baby, his nurse had been told to apprentice him to a pilot, but being hard of hearing, she had thought the word was “pirate.” The pirate king breaks the bad news to Frederic that, as he was born on leap year day, his 21^st birthday, stipulated in the articles of indenture, won’t take place for some time, and that so far he has served a little over 4 years. At which time the whole pirate crew sings, “A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox.”

… “Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan

Tombstone Rhyme and Reason

Underneath this ancient pew

Lie the remains of Jonathan Blue;

His name was Black, but that wouldn’t do.

What’s in a Name?

Santourian: Persian in derivation, identified as a trade, santour is defined as a stringed musical instrument, such as a dulcimer. Therefore, one who makes or plays such an instrument.

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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