Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (June 21, 2014)

A Modern Aphorism

It is a good strategy to strike the fence-sitter with your enemy’s hand.

A Paean to the Bearers

Regarding those Armenians among us who believe that we have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, they should be thankful for the efforts of the Indians who are carrying the Chiefs, and the rest of the nation, too.

Riddle

What is neither fish nor flesh, feathers nor bone,

But still has fingers and a thumb of its own?

(See answer below.)

Thesis and Commentary

Thesis: “We are not defined by our successes but by how we handle our failures.”

Commentary: “Sometimes handling our successes is more difficult than handling our failures.”

From My Persian Dictionary

Chakush: hammer (small)

Házir: handy (at hand), immediate

Pardah: hangings (curtains)

Balá: hardship

Common Knowledge

Edo: Next time you pay me a visit, don’t bring your dog. I don’t like the way it barks at me.

Bedo: Don’t you know the old proverb, “A barking dog never bites”?

Edo: I know the proverb and you know the proverb, but does the dog know it?

Answer to Riddle

A glove.

What’s in a Name?

Bilemjian/Bilamjian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, bilemek is defined as sharpen, whet, grind. Therefore, a bilemji is a knife or scissor sharpener.

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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