Uncle Garabed's Notebook (Jan. 30, 2016)

From the Fortune Teller

If cold December gave you birth,

The month of snow and ice and mirth

Place on your hand a turquoise blue,

Success will bless whate’er you do.

Turkish Proverb

Blood that is to flow will not stay in the veins.

Fraternity

Older brothers are to be looked up to.

Younger brothers are to be looked after.

True to Form

The surest sign that a man is in love is when he divorces his wife.

Epitaph on a Talkative Old Maid

Beneath this silent stone is laid

A noisy antiquated maid,

Who, from her cradle talk’d till death,

And ne’er before was out of breath.

Whither she’s gone we cannot tell;

For if she talks not, she’s in –!

If she’s in –, she’s there unblest

Because she hates a place of rest.

… Benjamin Franklin

From My Persian Dictionary

Khánam: lady (of high rank)

Begum: ” ” ” ”

Khatún: lady (of inferior rank)

Lang: lame (as in Timur Leng for Tamerlane)

What’s in a Name?

Soukiasian: Greek in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, hesuchios is defined as quiet, peaceful, at rest.

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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.