Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Oct. 9, 2010)

Riddle (Answer below)

Present somewhere in this slight confusion,
Uniquely oblique in its direction,
Zealously look and find the connection,
Zigzagging unto the ultimate line,
Lingering but briefly on its design.
Inquisitive minds the truth soon complete,
Nonchalantly you, too, can make ends meet,
Glimpse opportunely and see the solution.

From the Trivia File

At Tennyson’s funeral, Royalty was represented, but Royalty itself was conspicuously absent. The Prince of Wales was at Newmarket, where he personally congratulated a successful jockey.

            …George Gissing

A Left-Handed Compliment

When one apologized to the Rev. Charles Marriott by saying, “I’m afraid I made a fool of myself last night,” it could not have been very comforting to hear him reply: “My dear fellow, I assure you I observed nothing unusual.”

Daffy-nition

Paratrooper: 1. A soldier who climbs down trees he never climbed up.

2. The only man who gets up in the world by falling down on the job.

Solution to Riddle

The initial letters of the eight lines spell PUZZLING. Additionally, and somewhat harder to spot, is that the 8th letter in the first line, the 9th letter in the second line, the 10th letter in the third line, and so on, spell SOLUTION.

What’s in a Name?

Shoomlian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, a variant of shom, which is defined as inauspicious; sinister, gloomy; evil omen. Thus, shoomli would describe someone possessing those attributes.

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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
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• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (July 22, 2017) - July 22, 2017