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Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 30, 2010)
So that’s the Clue Fortune does not change men; it unmasks them. …Suzanne Necker From the Word Lab Walnut: The foreign nut; called in M.E. walnote, from O.E. wealh, foreign. It came from Persia, and was so called to distinguish it from nuts native to Europe, as hazel, filbert, chestnut. Some difficulty there is in cracking the name thereof. Why
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Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 16, 2010)
Clever Analysis The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t. …Henry Ward Beecher Daffy-nition Obstinacy: The strength of the weak. From the Word Lab The Armenian word for eggplant is smpoog. However, our parents
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Dec. 26, 2009)
A Spanish Proverb A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. Elegy for a Departed Nobleman The noble Earl of Sandwich is departed, His lordship is decidedly deceased. No man was better bred— (Note Sandwich, ergo bread)— He’d done his duty at the final feast. His relatives,
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Dec. 19, 2009)
How About Infamy? Fame is the beginning of the fall of greatness. … V.V. Rozinov A Clean Limerick There was a young lady named Ruth, Who had a great passion for truth. She said she would die Before she would lie, And she died in the prime of her youth. An Idea with Merit The boss got his employees
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Dec. 5, 2009)
From the Internet Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forego the farmer’s debt
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Nov. 21, 2009)
Pretty Strong Words Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. I may grow rich by an art that I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor. …
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Oct. 17, 2009)
From The Devil’s Dictionary Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. —Ambrose Bierce A Different Man When a woman who asked Philip of Macedon to do her justice was snubbed by the petulant monarch, she exclaimed, “Philip, I shall appeal against this judgment.”
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Oct. 3, 2009)
Abdul Abulbul Amir Lesley Nelson-Burns This song was written in 1877 by Percy French at Trinity College for a college concert. His original title was “Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.” He sold it to a publisher for five pounds. It was published without credit to him and he never received royalties for its
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Sept. 12, 2009)
From the Trivia File “Moron” was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard from the Greek word moros, which meant “dull” (as opposed to “sharp”), and used to describe a person with a mental age located between 8 and 12 on the Binet scale. It was once applied to people with an IQ of
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (August 29, 2009)
From the Trivia File The finger on which the wedding ring is to be worn is the fourth finger of the left hand, next unto the little finger; because of the received opinion of the learned…in ripping up and anatomising men’s bodies, there is a vein of blood, called vena amoris, which passeth from
