Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Nov. 1, 2014)

He Should Know

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

… Calvin Coolidge

Strange Advice

Be careful of your virtues; they may turn out to be vices.

Yugoslavian Proverb

He who picks up a thorn on the road has one less sin, for had he stepped on it, he would have cursed.

From the Word Lab

Kil in the name of places means a “cell, cloister, or chapel.”

Kilbarchan (Scotland), Kil-bara-cin, the kil on the hilltop

Kilcrin (Ireland), the little kil

Kildare is Kil-dara, the “kil of the oak.” St. Bridget built her first cell under a large oak.

Kilham (Yorkshire), the chapel close

Kilkenny, the kil of cloister of St. Kenny or Canicȇ

Kilmore (Ireland), the big kil

Kilsyth (Ireland), the great kil (“sythe” means great)

Icolmkill (Scotland), is I-Columb-kil, i.e., “the island of St. Columb’s cell.” The Culdee Instiutions of St. Columb were established in 563 for the purpose of converting the Picts to Christianity.

Daffy-nition

Man: One who wishes he were as wise as he thinks his wife thinks he is.

A Toast

Here’s to Dan Cupid, the little squirt,

He’s lost his pants, he’s lost his shirt,

He’s lost most everything but his aim

Which shows that love is a losing game.

What’s in a Name?

Shenloogian: Persian and Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, shenloog, a variant of shenlough, is defined as glad, cheerful, happy.

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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