Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Feb. 20, 2010)

The Radical Believer
To a thinking person atheism is a prerequisite to spiritual enlightenment. However, it is not the end of the line. According to G.B. Shaw, that occurs when atheism is followed by mysticism.
 
A Little German Humor
Hermann: Papa, vat’s a vacuum?
Papa: A vacuum is a void, Hermann.
Hermann: I know, Papa, but vat’s the void mean?
 
Epitaph
The following quaint and significant epitaph was inscribed upon the tomb of a famous beer drinker in one of the rural districts of England:
Beneath these stones repose the bones
    Of Theodosius Grim;
He took his beer from year to year,
    And then the bier took him.
 
An Anonymous Tip
Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

Who Wrote Don Quixote?
Miguel de Cervantes is credited with the authorship of “THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES of the Renown’d DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA.” Yet Cervantes himself in the work states that the chronicler of the adventures of Don Quixote was Cid Hamet Benengeli. Was Benengeli a fictional Moorish chronicler created by Cervantes?
Cid (from Sayyid in Arabic) is a title like sir, denoting “my lord.” Hamet is the Spanish version of the Arabic name Hamid which means “praiseworthy.” Benengeli is considered by some to signify “son of a stag,” in Spanish cervanteno. Yet another critic has proposed that Don Quixote was not authored by either Cervantes or Benengeli, but Sir Francis Bacon, in which case Ben is Arabic for “son,” and Engeli could mean “of England.”
 
What’s in a Name?
Mkhjian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, a mkhji is a dealer in carpenter’s nails.

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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