Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 15, 2011)

Scottish Proverb
He who is up early and has no business has an ill wife, an ill bed, or an ill conscience.

The One Pillow that Armenian Couples Grow Old on

Restoration of Life by Semiramis
This legend is a manifest fraud, and yet may be typical of other legends. At the village of Ara, the king of Armenia inspired Semiramis, Queen of Assyria, with a fatal passion, but he refused an alliance of marriage; so the queen declared war against the Armenians, but strictly enjoined her soldiers on no account to injure the young king. Notwithstanding this injunction, the king was mortally wounded in the battle, and the queen obtained possession of the dead body, intending to restore it to life by magical incantations. It is needless to say that her incantations were powerless; but she induced one of her favorites to personate the dead king, and then gave out that she had restored him to life by the special favor of her gods, who “had licked his wounds and cured them.” In corroboration of this “miracle,” the village where this happened was ever after called Lezk (Licked).
… The Constantinople Messenger, June 15, 1881.

Simple Logic
Edo had invited Bedo over to the house for a game of tavli. Bedo tended to play so slowly and deliberatively that, out of exasperation, Edo exclaimed, “Bedo, why do you take so long to make simple moves? Must you play so slowly?” Bedo responded, “My dear Edo, experience has taught me that the slower I play in the course of an evening, the less I lose.”

What’s in a Name?
Taneian; Turkish in derivation, identified as an occupation, tane is a truncation of tanekermez, where tane is defined as grain, berry, seed; and kurmuz as red. Therefore, cultivator of red grain.

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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