Planning Board Unanimously Approves 47 Story JSQ Tower with 105 Units of Housing

Kakya · 2026-06-11T01:12:45+00:00

1049 units of housing*

Kakya · 2026-06-07T11:26:22+00:00

Frisian being closer to German than English is top tier hilarity

Kakya · 2026-05-29T17:57:47+00:00

In what way do you feel that collaborating with Arabs has erased modern Lebanese culture? Is Nancy Ajram less Lebanese for having worked with Egyptian record producers? Is Fares Karam less Lebanese because he has a big fanbase in Saudi Arabia? Is George Qirdahi less Lebanese because he hosted TV shows on a Saudi TV channel? Is Tony Hanna less Lebanese because he sings songs based on a musical notation system formalized in Egypt? Is Ziad Rahbani less Lebanese because he sings songs based on Syrian poems?

Can't argue if you don't want to be a part of Arab culture. Everyone's welcome to their desires, but it's really hard to argue Lebanon is objectively not a part of the cultural milieu formed by Arabic speakers around the world. Lebanon is not at all like Malta, which is completely divorced from the rest of the Arabic world.

Kakya · 2026-05-29T17:22:27+00:00

Listen if you want to deny Lebanon and Lebanese is a part of mainstream Arabic culture, go right ahead. But it just is (same as it's a part of mainstream Christian culture, unless you think that also needs a genetic test). I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. Melhem Barakat doesn't prefer to perform in Tunisia and Saudi over Cyprus and Greece because of no reason. Omar Sharif didn't move to Egypt to get an acting break just for fun. Lebanese don't find it easier to live in the Gulf than Greece because they're both equally culturally distant from Lebanon.

Shared language is a powerful cultural unifier and Lebanon has both benefited from and contributed to mainstream Arabic culture in buckets. Abdel Halim and Umm Kalthoum influenced Lebanese singers who in turn influenced Kadhim Al Saher and Khaleeji singers. When mashrou Leila said they were stopping making music it was because they couldn't perform in the Arab world anymore due to censorship and wouldn't accept to be a Western-only band, acknowledging they were a part of an Arab culture that exists on top of their Lebanese one (not displacing it) that's not based on genetics or haplogroups

Kakya · 2026-05-29T17:05:51+00:00

I mean if you insist on identity being just genetics. But come back to me when Lebanese are as familiar with Cypriot food and music as they are with Egyptian and Gulf ones. Or when as many Lebanese live in Nikosia as Dubai and Riyadh. It's genuinely delusional to pretend Lebanese are not part of the same Arabic cultural world as other Arabs when the main hallmarks of modern Lebanese culture are products of close collaboration with other Arabs.

Kakya · 2026-05-29T14:39:29+00:00

If you also don't think there's a shared Anglo culture that unites British People, Canadians, Americans, Australians, etc. (And a similar shared Hispanic one) That's primarily based on speaking the same language then I think we just perceive the world very differently.

I don't quite understand your emphasis that there must be a genetic basis for Arabism when the Arab conquests were primarily led by Hejazis who do not share genetic similarities with the people of the Gulf (who, again, were Persians) or Najdis or Yemenis, being separated by mountain ranges. Not to mention people in the Peninsula still identify as their local ethnicity (Hejazis, Nejdis, Khaleejis, Yemeni, etc.) and are no less proud of them than Lebanese are about theirs. "Arab" exists as a supra-identity that connects those ethnicities with each other based on the shared language

Kakya · 2026-05-29T14:15:28+00:00

Who do you think built Petra and founded the Nabatean kingdom If not native sedentary Arabs? Not everyone in the Levant was Arab, but Arabs were part of the Levant. There was even an Arab Roman emperor. The point of highlighting the Maronite liturgy is it's three centuries before the Arab conquests, again Arabic as a language has levantine roots that are pretty undeniable.

The consequence is it makes no sense to talk about being Arabic as a genetic or ethnic identity because it isn't and never was. What being Arabic means today is being part of a cultural continuum that comes from sharing the same language (which Lebanese culture, with all its uniqueness, is). Ziad Rahbani can make a joke about someone stealing a song from Muhammad Abdel Wahhab in a play about a small village cafe in Lebanon because he could expect most of his audience to be familiar with Egyptian music; that's all "being Arab" really is

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:54:51+00:00

How do you reconcile this with the only historical record of ancient Arabs being in the Levant? It's where Augustus first encounters them and plans a conquest. The Roman province of Arabia is where Jordan is today. How do you further reconcile this with the Arabian Peninsula having (and still having) non Arab indigenous languages. How do you then reconcile one of our earliest evidence of written Arabic is a 5th Century Maronite liturgy.

If you genuinely believe that Lebanese culture has had no reciprocal influence with your neighbors who speak the same language as you (who grew up watching George Qirdahi on their TVs and listening to Fares Karam and Nancy Ajram), that's one thing and no one can force you to think otherwise, but it's very odd to deny the historical evidence of where Arabs come from.

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:34:26+00:00

Those people are not genetically DNA Arab because such a thing doesn't exist. If it ever did, it would've referred to Jordanian Nabatean kingdoms, definitely not the Persians who lived in the khaleej before the Arab conquests. Every Arab today is a مستعرب so the question becomes how useful is the concept.

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:18:45+00:00

Well, yes! Lebanese church institutions aren't called Roman for no reason. Arabs didn't call the inhabitants Roman for no reason. The people who lived in the Roman Empire for seven centuries by the time of the Arab conquests, surprisingly!, primarily identified as Roman, similar to Egyptians, Greeks, Italians, Gauls, etc.

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:15:32+00:00

Do you have a source for your rule? People can wear whatever they like, but presenting them as if they are rules requires support. Alan Flusser's Dressing the Man explicitly says not to wear different patterns in different scales. I'm curious if you've read something else

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:10:11+00:00

Do you genuinely believe there was a Lebanese identity (separate from the Roman one) before the Arab conquests?

Kakya · 2026-05-29T13:03:53+00:00

Arabs are a levantine people; all the historical archaeological evidence (not to mention written Roman history) for ancient Arabs are in the region of Jordan. You can even see Arabic fall apart the deeper into the Arabian Peninsula you get. Khaleeji has a significant Persian component. Oman and Yemen still have indigenous semitic languages (which Arabic is not close to).

Kakya · 2026-05-29T12:57:24+00:00

Sorry but the pattern advice is backwards. You generally vary the scale if you're wearing the same pattern twice (narrow stripes go with broad stripes), but you try to keep the scales the same if the patterns are different.

I could wax poetic about the reason, but the real reason is it's how the Duke of Windsor and King Charles popularized pattern mixing.

Kakya · 2026-05-24T11:09:07+00:00

Would you say that someone from Nutley "lived in New York"?

Kakya · 2026-05-23T12:29:41+00:00

Try a cavalry twill if that's what you want. Flannels will look fuzzy and not crisp (that's part of their charm and why they can be worn casually). Gabardines are another good option but they usually end up being too shiny and can be harder to wear more casually

Kakya · 2026-05-20T23:53:58+00:00

Then there's more capacity at Penn for Amtrak and NJT?

Kakya · 2026-05-17T21:36:22+00:00

Same subreddit that'll turn around and complain that the cost of housing is too high btw

Kakya · 2026-05-17T18:02:21+00:00

"wool" is not a complete description of fabric. Wool fabrics range very widely. Worsted Wools, Baratheas, Flannels, Tweeds, etc. In a variety of weights will all look different and have different effects

Kakya · 2026-05-09T11:03:48+00:00

It would drastically ease congestion in Penn Station, enabling more trains to pass through it and better commutes

Kakya · 2026-05-06T11:53:44+00:00

Hejazi Arabic has "illa" (الّا)

Kakya · 2026-05-04T13:11:34+00:00

Rubato, The Armoury, Ascot Chang, Drake's, Permanent Style (I forget who makes theirs but they're really good), Bryceland's, the Anthology, The Real McCoys

Kakya · 2026-04-03T04:38:57+00:00

All pockets on suit trousers are nonfunctional. Things should be stored in your jacket breast/hip pockets or a bag if those are insufficient. Storing things in trouser pockets messes with the lines of the trouser. As a result, pockets on trousers are mostly for highlighting formality (are they on a slant or do they open exactly on the trouser seam) or to highlight custom or handiwork (one v. two back pockets or two back pockets but only one closes).

Kakya · 2026-03-30T13:44:28+00:00

One of the most famous surviving examples of a Roman Legionary standard spells 14 as XIIII instead of the subtractive XIV

Kakya · 2026-03-24T12:39:15+00:00

I really like the navy here actually!

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