Uncle Garabed's Notebook (Sept. 29, 2012)

Here’s the Difference

Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.

–Malcolm Cowley

Danish Proverb

He who takes the child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.

Great Expectations

Thalestris: A queen of the Amazons who went with 300 women to meet Alexander the Great, in the hope of raising a race of Alexanders.

Modern Aphorism

The proper function of penal laws is not merely to punish crime, but to prevent it.

On the Tombstone of a Pedestrian

This is the grave of Mike O’Day

Who died maintaining his right of way.

His right was clear, his will was strong,

But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.

A Good-Natured Toast

To your birthday, glass held high,

Glad it’s you that’s older—not I.

From the Trivia File

Wolves can appear as were-animals, and in Armenian legend can be a form taken by witches and warlocks who can also ride wolves.

What’s in a Name?

Zanazanian: Armenian in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, zanazan is currently defined as different, various, diverse, sundry, distinct. According to Avedisian’s Armenian Name Dictionary, zanazan has had different meanings, but during Armenia’s Golden Age, it meant beautiful, fair, handsome, elegant, admirable, superb.

Note: Many of Uncle Garabed’s articles previously published in the Armenian Weekly may be viewed on www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/C.K._Garabed.

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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.