Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Nov. 10, 2012)

Reformation

I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there, in prison, that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.

… Malcolm X

From the Trivia File

A White Elephant. Some possession the expense or responsibility of which is more than it is worth. The allusion is to the story of a King of Siam who used to make a present of a white elephant to courtiers whom he wished to ruin. Because the animals were considered sacred, and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was simultaneously both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch’s favor, and a curse because the animal had to be retained and could not be put to much practical use, but cost a significant amount to maintain.

Good Advice

A doctor fell in a well,

And broke his collarbone.

The doctor should attend the sick

And leave the well alone.

From My Persian Dictionary

Hikáyat: fable

Súrat: face

Zaríf: witty, facetious

Bakht-yár: prosperous, favorable

The Saddest Words of All

Overheard at a church bazaar: “My wife and I speak Armenian to each other when we don’t want the children to understand what we are talking about.”

What’s in a Name?

Jamharian: Armenian in derivation, identified as a calling, jamhar (jam + hayr = churchman) is the equivalent of jamgoch, the caretaker of a church.

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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