Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (June 27, 2015)

Folk Wisdom

People will believe anything if you whisper it.

From the Word Lab

Wrangle for an Ass’s Shadow: To contend about trifles. The tale told by Demosthenes is that a man hired an ass to take him to Megara; and at noon, the sun being very hot, the traveler dismounted, and sat himself down in the shadow of the ass. Just then the owner came up and claimed the right of sitting in this shady spot, saying that he let out the ass for hire, but there was no bargain made about the ass’s shade. The two men then fell to blows to settle the point in dispute. While they were wrangling, the ass took to its hells and ran away, leaving them both in the glare of the sun.

Worth Repeating

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have founded empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded his empire upon love; and to this very day millions would die for him.

… Napoleon Bonaparte

Armenian Proverb

Water cleans the outside, tears, inside.

Small Change

Edo: How about being my bridge partner tonight. We’re playing for only a tenth of a cent a point.

Bedo: You can’t kid me. They don’t make coins as small as that.

What’s in a Name?

Nourijanian: Arabic and Persian in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, nouri in Arabic is defined as light, and jan in Persian is defined as soul; thus, soul’s light.

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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