Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (April 2, 2016)

Armenian Proverb

A dress that is not worn wears itself out.

Chinese Wisdom on Civility

You ask me why I greet the priest,

But not his god;

The god sits mute; the man at least

Returns my nod

Perception and Conception

We can all perceive the difference between ourselves and our inferiors, but when it comes to a question of the difference between us and our superiors we fail to appreciate merits of which we have no proper conceptions.

… James Fenimore Cooper, The American Democrat

His Hirsute Suit

A bristling beard was his peculiarity:

He kissed. She thought it smacked of insincerity,

And bridling up remarked with great severity,

‘Such misdemeanors are, I trust, a rarity;

Also your face, besides its angularity,

Is hidden in a razorless asperity:

Were it not so, I call it great temerity—

Our walks in life are not upon a parity.’

Wherefore he shaved, to give his chin the purity

It knew ere he emerged from his minority.

The razor, naked, with no guard’s security,

Slipped. Gizzard cut, he joined the great majority.

Where he will pass the eons of futurity—

Above—below—I can’t say with authority.

… Frank Sidgwick

What’s in a Name?

Adalian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, adali is defined as muscular.

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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