Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Aug. 2, 2014)

Then and Now

Most young people think they are being natural when really they are just ill-mannered and rude.

… La Rochefoucauld

Hairenik Media

From the Word Lab

Calcutta: from Kali-cuttah (temple of the goddess Kali). Remember the movie “Gunga Din”?

Beat the Devil

A farmer entered into a pact with the devil whereby the devil would assure bumper crops of what the farmer sowed provided that they would, on alternate years, receive what was over and under the soil. The farmer, when it was his turn to receive what was under the soil, sowed potatoes and beets, and when it was his turn to receive what was over the soil, sowed wheat and barley.

Daffy-nition

Brevity: Words that cover more ground than they occupy.

Ambiguity

“Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine”;
Thus cried the maiden with fervor divine;
But from her statement what must we infer—
They shan’t touch her liquor or shan’t touch her?

… Puck in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Deep Stuff

Edo: What does it mean to be a philosopher?

Bedo: A philosopher is someone who goes around asking people questions like, “Did it ever occur to you that your entire life may be one big misapprehension?”

What’s in a Name?

Badanajian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, badanaji is defined as a whitewasher, or preparer of color washes, distemper.

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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