If this makes any sense, well, maybe there is something to the old notion that the best writing is done while drunk. I’ve never believed it, but I couldn’t pass a breath test anywhere on the planet, unless there’s a legal limit of .15 out there somewhere. I might be able to beat that. Maybe. […]

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Another rough year for the economy. The world economy, the national, the state … People losing jobs. Unemployment of, what, 12.5 percent in California? Something like 10 percent in the nation? Even higher, when you include people who have stopped looking for work and the scads of people not fully employed. U.S. print journalism is […]

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Man. Feel almost like I cursed the guy by writing about him. Like, 10 days ago, when I brought up that the Saints and Colts had shots at going unbeaten … and then the Saints lost the next day and the Colts lost their next game, too. (I’m one of those people who suspects, if […]

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If you have any money at all, and can afford to do better than a city bus (which costs 27 cents) … eventually, you have two choices of getting around town, in Abu Dhabi. Because by the time April rolls around, it will be astonishingly hot here, again, and will remain so into October … […]

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It was a more eventful decade than my initial thoughts indicated. “Wow. I have to come up with 10 good sports events from the 0-somethings? I’m not sure I can do that.” Turns out, a few minutes of cross-referencing years and sports, and it’s no problem finding 10. The trick is limiting it to that […]

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We blew threw the copy on a slow night at the paper,  and got home early, and I decided to celebrate by slog-jogging 40 minutes around the new neighborhood, here in Muroor. You see a lot, plodding through the streets, after dark. Many people out? Are they young? Old? What are they doing? Playing? Talking? […]

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Weirdest Dec. 25 of my life. Which is fine, because it means it was memorable. It never felt like Christmas here. Not really. Aside from the couple of hours I spent at St. Andrew’s last night. Remember, for the overwhelming majority of people here, Christmas has no meaning. Which means that in a lot of […]

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Interesting concept, a major Christian holiday in a profoundly Muslim nation. There are times here when you think you might be the only Christian (or non-Muslim, for that matter) in any given crowd in this city. If you’re among the local Arabs or the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indonesians … all Muslims. And it seems as if […]

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I realize a lot of you aren’t at all clear about where I’m at. Don’t feel bad. Within the past 24 hours we have talked to two fairly intelligent people who had no real idea where Abu Dhabi is. One had never heard of the United Arab Emirates. And the other lives in Europe. Hmm. […]

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And I missed it? Sigh. Well, at least I caught up to it, here in Abu Dhabi. Three weeks later. I grew up in Long Beach. I went to Long Beach State. I edited the student newspaper there. And I have been following Long Beach State basketball since I was a sophomore in high school […]

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