Uncle Garabed’s Notebook

Confession?
Good taste is the enemy of creativity.
… Pablo Picasso

From the Trivia File
Victor Emmanuel II (1820-78), first king of Italy, was popularly called Father of his Country in allusion to his unnumbered progeny of bastard children.

Daffy-nition
Practical man: One who looks for a wife who already has a fur coat and has had her appendix out.

Would-be Proverb
There’s a big difference between being energetic and being restless.

From the Word Lab
Sub Rosa (“under the rose”) has come to mean “that which is done in secret.”
A rose hanging over a council table indicated that all present were sworn to secrecy.
In ancient myth, the Egyptian god Horus (whom the Romans called Harpocrates) came upon Venus engaged in one of her many love affairs. Cupid, her son, gave a rose to Horus as a bribe to keep quiet; thus Horus became the god of silence, and the rose became the symbol of confidentiality.

Presence of Mind
Boozji Khosrof was used to being a bachelor so long, that when he finally married and was making plans for his honeymoon trip, he purchased only one ticket. Noticing this, his new bride exclaimed, “Why, sirelis, you bought only one ticket!” Khosrof immediately responded, “Aman Asdvadz, I completely forgot myself!”

What’s in a Name?
Khaligian: Conjectured to be Turkish in origin, identified as a descriptive term, Khalig, a variant of halik, is defined as maker, creator.

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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