Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (June 30, 2012)

A Clear Observation

You always hide just in the middle of the limelight.

… G.B. Shaw to T.E. Lawrence, who had complained of press attention

Inscription on a Tombstone

Erected to the memory of

John McFarlane

Drown’d in the Water of Leith

By a few Affectionate Friends.

Cheating the Devil

Rabelais says that a farmer once bargained with the devil for each to have on alternate years what grew over and under the soil. The canny farmer sowed carrots and turnips when it was his turn to have the under-soil share, and wheat and barley the year following.

The Oyster’s Last Gasp

“I was always religiously inclined,”

Said the oyster as he slid down

The minister’s throat, “but ne’er

Did I dream I’d enter the clergy.”

Daffy-nition

Egotist: Someone who tells you those things about himself that you intended to tell him about yourself.

From My Persian Dictionary

Búgház: embouchure

Zumurrud: emerald

Tappah: eminence (high ground)

Shughl: employment

What’s in a Name?

Tanielian: Hebrew in origin, identified as a proper noun, Taniel or Daniel is defined as God is my judge.

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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