Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 11, 2017)
Native American Proverb
Before eating, always take a little time to thank the food.
Daffy-nition
Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, and scorn in the driver ahead.
…Mac McCleary
A History Lesson
Emmanuel Carasso or Emanuel Karasu (1862–1934 ) was a lawyer and member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso family of Ottoman Salonika (now Thessaloniki, Greece). He was a prominent member of the Young Turks. The name is also spelled Karaso, Karasso, and Karassu. The form Karasu is a Turkification of his name, meaning literally ‘black water’.
Karasu was a member, and possibly founder, and later president of the Macedonian Risorta Masonic lodge in Salonika and pioneered the masonic movement within the Ottoman Empire. Masonic lodges and other secret societies in Salonika were meeting places for sympathizers of the Young Turks, including Talaat Pasha. Karasu was one of the first non-Muslim members of the Ottoman Freedom Society, which later became part of the Committee of Union and Progress. When the CUP came to power, he became the Salonika deputy in the Ottoman parliament. He was offered various positions in the Ottoman government, but turned them down. Karasu was one of the three men who personally informed Sultan Abdül Hamid II that he had been deposed in April 1909.
He was the uncle of Isaac Carasso, who industrialized the production of yogurt. In 1919, Isaac, who was also from Ottoman Salonika, started a small yogurt business in Barcelona, Spain, and named the business Danone (“little Daniel”) after his son. The brand later expanded to the United States under an Americanized version of the name: Dannon.
What’s in a Name?
Berejiklian: Derivation undetermined, identified as a geographic location, Berejik is a town in Turkey, and Berejikli denotes a native of that town.