Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 19, 2011)

Orwellian Seer
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
…Voltaire
 
A Wry Comment
A member of the faculty of a prominent London medical college, wishing to share some good news with his students, wrote on the blackboard in his classroom: “Professor Hastings informs his students that he has been appointed honorary physician to His Majesty, King George.” When he returned to his classroom in the afternoon, he found that someone had scribbled below his announcement this line: “God save the King.”
 
On the Persians
The Persians have been called “ the French of Asia,” and their superior intelligence, their esteem for men of learning, their welcome to Western travelers, and their tolerance of Christian sects in their territory, as contrasted with Turkish fanaticism, would seem to derive from the rich culture of this great choir of poets, perpetually reinforced through 500 years, which again and again has enabled the Persians to refine and civilize their conquerors, and to preserve a national identity. To the expansion of this influence there is no limit, and we wish that the present republication may add to the genius of Saadi a new audience in America.

…Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, February 1864. Extract from Preface to the American Edition of The Gulistan or Rose Garden of Sheik Saadi.
 
A Cutie
There was a very cautious man who never romped or played,
Who never drank or even smoked or kissed a pretty maid.
So when he passed away, his insurance was denied
For since he never lived, they claimed he never died.
 
What’s in a Name?
Etyemezian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, et is defined as meat, and yemez as does not eat. Therefore etyemez describes someone who does not eat meat, a vegetarian.

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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