The Ron Artest Experiment is off to a rocky start. Think in terms of Professor Phil Jackson holding vials of unstable substances … and it they have blown up in his face, and his hair is all Einstein-like … as if he were drawn by the guys at Warner Brothers cartoons. After two games, neither […]

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The work week here is not the same work week followed by the Western world. And China, too, if I recall things correctly from the Beijing Olympics last year, and the four months I spent in Hong Kong, last winter. Friday is the prime day of worship in Islamic countries such as the United Arab […]

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Both of us had Wednesday off. The only day this week that will happen. So we had to do something, right? Doing something can be a little tricky here. It’s not a tourist destination, like Dubai, up the coast. Abu Dhabi is far quieter (some would say “dull”), and more family-oriented … and it’s often […]

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* – Subtitled: “Or I Would Have Severe Trouble Getting from the Hotel to the Office” I’ve written variations on this before. From Hong Kong, for sure. From Europe, Japan and Korea, probably. From El Salvador and Mexico, possibly. Thank goodness for English … because I can make myself understood to most of the people […]

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That didn’t take long. Blake Griffin didn’t even make it to Opening Night before he was struck down … by the Clippers Curse. (Cue creepy music, imagine the late Vincent Price reading this to you aloud.) Turns out the Clippers’ blue-chip rookie forward, the top pick in the NBA draft … has a broken knee […]

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What was that about? The Angels played badly in Game 1, committing three errors and allowing a pop fly to drop for a hit, and all of that, in concert, led to three runs in a 4-1 defeat … and those of us who have watched this sure and steady franchise over the past decade […]

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For three-plus seasons, Allen Bradford’s decision to play football at USC looked as if it might have been a major mistake. He was recruited to play safety, or maybe linebacker … and got shifted to tailback late in the summer of 2006 when the position was hit by a rash of injuries. After spending most […]

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Riding in the taxi on the way to the office. Thousands of us creeping along, needing three or four cycles of green/yellow/red lights to get through one intersection. It gives me plenty of time to gaze out the window of my hermetically sealed (and delightfully air-conditioned) cab … and look at license plates that have the […]

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Well, we now know what the biggest offseason Dodgers story will be: The pending divorce between Frank and Jamie McCourt. Which officially moved into the “ugly” phase when it was revealed today that Frank McCourt has fired Jamie from her job as the club’s “chief executive.” (Frank is listed as the club’s “owner and chairman”.) […]

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My goodness, that was ugly. The team with the best record in the National League pretty much stunk up the NL Championship Series, and that is why the Philadelphia Phillies, rather than the odiferous Dodgers, are going to the World Series. And, by the way, that’s 21 seasons and counting that the Dodgers haven’t made […]

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