Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 19, 2016)

Moral Maxim

Our enemies are nearer the truth in their opinion of us than we are ourselves.

… La Roche foucauld

To Ale with It

Who buys good land buys many stones,
Who buys good meat buys many bones,
Who buys good eggs buys many shells,
Who buys good ale buys nothing else.

Grammer Gurton’s Needle

A Rap for the Beagles

An estate was lately advertised for sale; after a description had been given of the beauty of the situation, the richness of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, this addendum was given to enhance the value of the property: N.B. –There is not a lawyer within 10 miles of the place.

The Long and the Short of It

Dick cannot blow his nose whene’er he pleases,
His nose so long is, and his arm so short;
Nor ever cries, “God bless me!” when he sneezes—
He cannot hear so distant a report.

A Howler

Cleopatra lived and loved on denial.

Literary Errors

Virgil has placed Aeneas in a harbor which did not exist at the time, “Portusque require Velinos” (Aeneid vi. 366). It was Curius Dentatus who cut a gorge through the rocks to let the waters of the Velinus into the Nar. Before this was done, the Velinus was merely a number of stagnant lakes, and the blunder is about the same as if a modern poet were to make Columbus pass through the Suez Canal.

What’s in a Name?

Bakirjian: Turkish in derivation, identified as an occupation, bakir is defined as copper, and a bakirji, a coppersmith.

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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