Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Sept. 3, 2016)

The High Price of Glory

Rigidly classical, you save

Your praise for poets in the grave.

Forgive me, it’s not worth my while

Dying to earn your critical smile.

…Martial

Contrary advice

Always advise a friend to do that which you are sure he is not going to do. Then if his venture fails, you will receive credit for having warned him. If he succeeds, he will be happy in the opportunity to tell you that you were dead wrong.

A Modern Aphorism

The virtuous man by his very existence reproves the vicious man.

A Telling Question

How many new inventions came from the Soviet Union during the Bolshevik Communist era?

The Soul in Space

It is, therefore, a source of great virtue for the practical mind to learn, bit by bit, first to change about in visible and transitory things, so that afterwards it may be able to leave them behind altogether. The person who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign place. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong person has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.

…Hugo of St. Victory, twelfth-century monk from Saxony

What’s in a Name?

Chapakchourian/Jabakjourian/Jabaghjourian: Armenian in derivation, identified as a geographical location, Chapakchour is the name of a village in the vicinity of Bitlis, centered between Garin, Kharpert, Moush and Dikranagerd; thus a native of that place.

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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