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Posted by Najib
After Mark posted about news of Lebanon in old magazines, i remembered a post i have been wanting to publish for a while. It’s about my old school’s supervisor who died one year and one month ago and who was one of Lebanon’s legends in sports. Chawki Rababi was a professional athlete in the 1950s and 1960s and was a member of the Lebanese volleyball team. He won the Luxembourg games in 1952 with the Lebanese team and coached the national team later on for two years. While searching his name, i found surprisingly a few old and recent pictures about him on Abdo Gedeon’s website. Of course we mostly loved him back in school for being very kind and forgiving when we were kicked out of the class, but he truly was a great guy. He used to give us advice and tell us stories about his glory days. My only regret is that i never managed to visit him since 2005 as things just got busy and time flew by. |
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Posted by Mark
1952 Jabby in Lebanon |
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Posted by Najib
I have a friend whose brother is called Rodger and he insisted that it is Rodger and not Roger. When i asked him why adding the “d”, he said his parents insisted on adding the “d” because they thought the kid was special. I am not sure he is aware of it but rodgering means shagging someone in slang dictionary and was related to Roger Moore as “the spy who rogers more” when he played Bond. I didn’t know myself until i googled it but that should provide a good explanation of his name. Funnily enough, my friend is called Richard but without the “T”. He’s no special kid, at least according to his parents heh! There are a lot of funny names in Lebanon, with people still calling their kids Hitler and Mussolini or Malfoufe and Khasse. According to WikiAnswers, the weirdest and funniest name in Lebanon is Adonis Zibara. |
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Posted by Mark
I keep hearing rumors that IKEA will be opening in Lebanon and I hope they do. It’s really weird why they aren’t open yet but I desperately need to get a kitchen for my new apartment and everything I’ve seen so far is priced more expensive than a brand new Beemer. IKEA, where are you? |
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Posted by Najib
I heard it in the morning on Radio One and just read it on autoblog:
And to think i asked Marie-Claire to let me drive the car and was even considering buying it (yeah right!). |
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Posted by Najib
On my way to Russia last week, i had two hours to waste at the Beirut Duty Free so i walked around checking out stores. Next to the Tumi bags stand, i was checking out a jewerly shop, forgot its name though, when i spotted a weird that was displayed. It was a cross with skull heads on each side and looked like something heavy metal or death metal people might wear. Now that might not look bizzare in other countries, but it is quite strange to find such crosses in Lebanon unless they have some religious meaning that i am missing.
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Posted by Najib
The Lebanese National Basketball team continued its humiliating streak and lost to Spain by 34 points (91-57) tonight and is therefore out of the world championships that are being held in Turkey. Spain is a very strong team and the world champion, but the Spaniards weren’t at their best at all since the start of the tournament and lost two games already. Why did Lebanon lose by that much? Simple. Same Shitty tactics, same shitty plays, same shitty coach. We had no inside game and no centers to defend ourselves and as a result the top two scorers of the Spanish team were unsurprisingly its centers, with Mark Gasol scoring 25 points and Fran VAZQUEZ scoring another 15 points. Jackson Vroman (the Lebanese player??) has been the most consistent so far in this tournament. Fadi el Khatib only played well in one game and was neutralized in the other games. Rony Fahed, Elie Rustom and Ali Mahmoud played hard and were the real asset of this team. Matt Freije played like crap, probably because he was not fit enough as he picked up an injury before the championships and the rest of the Lebanese players were practically in lalaland. Of course let’s not forget our coach who cost us over 100,000$ and humiliated the Lebanese basketball team like never before. Maybe the Lebanese Basketball Federation should start using its brains and investing money in young talents instead of spending money on naturalizing foreign players and getting foreign coaches. A very sad ending to what was supposed to be our most promising championships. |
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Posted by Mark
Varouj is an incredible Armenian restaurant located in a tight backstreet of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon. The place is tiny on the inside with only 4 tables and the restaurant is run by a father and son, the son cooks while the father takes care of the guests. Anyone who’s watched the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi will feel right at home in Varouj because the father is Lebanon’s version of the soup Nazi. What makes Varouj unique other than the really good food is the character of the father. We were five people having lunch and we were ordering the cold appetizers when the father decided we had enough appetizers and walked away. He wouldn’t let us order any more. Then when he felt it was time he came to us and asked us what hot dishes we wanted and while we were ordering he again told us that he thought we had enough and walked off. We wanted frogs for example but he refused telling us we already had enough dishes. Then later he even decided to cancel one of our other dishes. So we ordered frogs again and again but he kept telling us we didn’t need it. The table behind us called the father and told him they wanted some soujouk and makanek (kinds of sausages) and he told them not now later. Its crazy. He also wouldn’t remove a dish from the table unless it was wiped clean.
The food was delicious, we ordered: hommos, moutabal, fattoush, loubyeh, batata harra, labneh, tongue, spleen, kibeh neyeh, sheep balls, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek. All the dishes were the best I have ever tasted. The way everything is priced is also interesting. Basically nothing is priced and there is no menu. You go in, you order what you want and in the end he will tell you how much you need to pay and you don’t even get a receipt. Our bill came out exactly 100$ but according to my friend if we had ordered less or more the bill would have still come out the same. If you are planning a trip to Lebanon this is a place you need to try if you want a taste of local cuisine. The best way to find the place is to ask a taxi driver in Bourj Hammoud to take you or give the father a call on 03-882933 —————————— |
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Posted by Mark
Has anyone noticed the hand dryers in the City Mall bathrooms? They have Dyson AirBlade’s installed which are incredibly powerful and very fun to use. Next time you pass by City Mall you have to try them out. [YouTube] |
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Posted by Najib
Looks like our guys are still resting from their first win of the tournament. It sure looks like their first win was indeed a surprising one when compared to the next two games that followed. First humiliated by France, and today by New Zealand. I am eager to see how those defending this new coach we got are going to justify today’s loss. Ya 3ayb el shoum! |
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Posted by Mark
BloggingBeirut posted a video up of a truck drive in Mansouria that broke a few laws on his way to a construction site and then got away with it. Even the two cops in the video didn’t do anything about it! [YouTube] |
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Posted by Najib
While i was checking out the duty free in Moscow airport on my way back, i saw a Russian paper with Mar Charbel’s picture on its front page. I have no clue what the paper says or what’s its name and the few people i asked there did not help much. All i know is the title said something like “Mar Charbel blood cures millions” or something like that. It is hard to believe but throughout my 5 days trip, i could not find one single Russian who spoke decent English except our trainer of course. |
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Posted by Najib
After winning against Canada, the Lebanese Basketball team lost to the French team convincingly 86 to 59. Our weak point today, as i had pointed it out few days ago, was our inside play and our rebound capability. We only had two centers and none were able to contain the French inside game. French players were very physical as well and dominated the box. Added to that, this new coach made the stupidest changes i’ve ever seen. In the second quarter, as soon as Vroman sat on the bench, the French led a 10-0 run and kept it until the last quarter. He never asked for any time out to stop the French run. In the third quarter, he chose to rest Fadi el Khatib, Elias Rustom, Rony Fahd and at some point Matt Frayge. We were down by 14 points for God’s sake! How do you put all your key players out? Or maybe he had hoped Ghaleb Rida and Ali Kanaan would make some difference? Ghaleb sure helped the French open up the gap every time he spread his legs (don’t ask me why he does that) to shoot his failed 3 pointers. Ali barely caught a rebound and was outside the box most of the time. Fourth quarter was a joke too. No fight backs by any Lebanese player and the coach seemed careless. I really don’t understand how we get ourselves to the world championships and not put out a decent fight? Is it too much to ask for the team and his coach to be enthusiastic and motivated? Next game is on Tuesday against New Zealand on Tuesday at 4 pm. If Lebanon loses, he is out. Check out here the full stats of the game. |
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Posted by Najib
Lebanon won his first game at the World Basketball championship being held in Turkey against Canada 81-71. The best scorer was Fadi el Khatib with 31 points. This is relatively Lebanon’s easiest game. The hard part is yet to come. Here are some photos of the game. |
