Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Oct. 16, 2010)

Old English Proverb

When the husband drinks to the wife, all would be well;
When the wife drinks to the husband, all is.

On Originality

The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none
     …Chateaubriand

Not Exactly Birds of a Feather

Once upon a time, a southern preacher set out to have a great revival. He preached and exhorted in the most fervent manner, night after night, but the requisite enthusiasm among the hearers did not manifest itself. Evidently something was needed to set their slumbering souls afire. So the preacher took the sexton into his confidence, telling him that he was going to perform a miracle.

A white pigeon was procured and taken in a basket to the gallery, and there the sexton was told to secrete himself on the eventful night. At the appointed time, after working up the congregation to the requisite pitch of expectancy the preacher was to cry out:

“Descend, O Holy Dove, descend!”

This was to be the signal for the sexton to liberate the pigeon, which was to symbolize the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

After a thrilling peroration the exhorter made his frantic appeal:

“Descend, O Holy Dove, descend!”

There was no response.

A second time he cried out, in even more frenzied accents:

“Descend, O Holy Dove, descend!”

Still there was no response from the gallery, while the waiting congregants were fairly spellbound with expectancy.

For yet a third time the cry went up, and this time, the preacher got a most unexpected reply. Thrusting his woolly head between the curtains, the sexton blurted out:

“De cat done et up de dove! Shall I throw down de cat?”

What’s in a Name?

Kajajian: Armenian in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, kajaj is defined as dwarf, pygmy.
Janjigian: Armenian in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, janjig is defined as midget.

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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