Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (May 12, 2012)
Inadvertent Flattery
A good listener is usually thinking about something else.
… Kin Hubbard
From the Word Lab
The word barbarian evolved from the Greek word “barbarous.” It came from the fact that Greeks could not understand foreigners and when they spoke it sounded like “bar-bar.”
Optimism
From the day of your birth
‘Til you ride in a hearse
There’s nothing that’s happened
That [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (May 5, 2012)
In Search of Intelligence
You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come:
Knock as you please, there’s nobody at home.
…Alexander Pope
Entry in an Autograph Album
God made candy
God made cake
But when He made you
He made a big mistake.
The Love that Surpasses All Understanding
Don’t disparage cannibals. After all, they do love people.
On Old Age
A man’s not old when [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (April 14, 2012)
American Proverb
Alcohol will preserve anything but a secret.
Upon My Word!
The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.
… Jean Cocteau
In Praise of Ribaldry
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
In space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
Entry in an Autograph Album
Can’t [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (April 7, 2012)
Trial by Judge
It is obvious that “obscenity” is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the courts, it means “anything that shocks the magistrate.”
… Bertrand Russell
Chinese Proverb
If you suspect a man, don’t employ him;
And if you employ him, don’t suspect him.
From the Trivia File
According to Teutonic legend, the wren gained [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 10, 2012)
Achievement Isn’t Everything
He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done.
… Samuel Johnson
Russian Proverb
A sleeping fox counts hens in his dreams.
From the Trivia File
Ouzelum bird: This fanciful bird is reputed to fly backwards, and thus does not know where it is going but likes to know where it has [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 3, 2011)
Insider Tips
When I was writing The Shadow of the Glen some years ago, I got more aid than any learning could have given me from a chink in the floor of the old Wicklow house where I was staying, that let me hear what was being said by the servant girls in the kitchen.
… J.M. [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Feb. 18, 2012)
Why, Certainly!
There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.
… W. Somerset Maugham
Greek Proverb
Through our ears others may persuade us not to believe the evidence of our own eyes.
With All Due Respect
Many a derder’s sermon is just so much durr-durr.
Practical [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 28, 2012)
Ignorance is Bliss
Love is what happens to men and women who don’t know each other.
… W. Somerset Maugham
Daffy-nition
Ungrateful man: A parson who at least once a week abuses his best benefactor, i.e. the devil.
From the Trivia File
According to Swedish legend, the stork received its name from flying round the cross of the crucified Redeemer, crying [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 14, 2012)
Spanish Proverb
If I die, I forgive you; if I live, we’ll see.
The Loyal Toast
This time-honored toast to the King (or the Queen) of England is normally drunk while standing, but it is the Royal Navy’s privilege to drink it sitting. The story is that the custom arose when George IV, when acknowledging the toast in [...]
Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Jan. 7, 2012)
Credentials
Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory.
… Leonardo Da Vinci
Double Solitude
There we stood, hands entwined,
Hers in hers, and mine in mine.
Giotto’s O
The old story goes that the Pope, wishing to employ artists from all over Italy, sent a messenger to collect specimens of their work. When the man visited Giotto (c. [...]
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