Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (June 9, 2012)

The Great Qualifier

“The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a ‘but.'”

… Henry Ward Beecher

Greek Mythology

Deianira, the wife of Hercules, was the unwitting cause of his death. Nessus, the centaur, having carried her across a river, attempted to assault her and was shot by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. The expiring centaur gave Deianira his tunic, steeped in blood, telling her that it would reclaim her husband from illicit loves. When she had occasion to give it to Hercules, the poisoned blood brought about his death.

African Proverb

I pointed out to you the stars and all you saw was the tip of my finger. The E.

Entry in an Autograph Album

When you’re sitting with your honey

And your nose gets runny

Don’t think it’s funny

Cause it’s snot.

Gratitude

A miser, who had refused to sell his corn while prices were high, hoping it would go still higher, awoke one morning to find that the price had gone down. In his despair he hanged himself to one of the beans in his chamber. Pietro, one of the servants, hearing the noise ran into the room and, appalled at finding his master hanging from the ceiling, he forthwith cut the rope and saved his life. When the miser was refreshed with a cup of water and was himself again he insisted that Pietro pay for the rope he had cut.

… Baldassare Castiglione

What’s in a name?

Boursalian: Presumed to be Turkish in origin, identified as a location, Boursa is a city in Turkey, and Boursali is defined as a native of that city.

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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