I will tell this anecdote again. I have used it on this blog at least once. Maybe twice. Thrice. It was the 2006 Olympics. At Torino. A gloomy, gray, soggy city trying to jumpstart its future after the Fiat plant closed up and left town. Actually, the media center was inside the old assembly line. […]

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Well, good for him. I always liked Steve Lavin, and my opinion is, of course, the acid test for coaching hires. No. Really. He was a relentlessly pleasant guy, upbeat and optimistic, all that. He recruited like crazy. His UCLA teams had a habit of winning big games. He just had a habit of losing […]

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This story is almost beyond comprehension, for those of us of a certain age.  Anyone, that is, old enough to remember the Evil Empire that was the Soviet Union. Now, not even 20 years after the Soviet Union fell, to the delight of the free world, a former agent of one of its more feared […]

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Ah, yes, the NCAA tournament bracket. I went with the “highest seed in every round” system … in the year that two No. 5 seeds and a No. 2 got to the Final Four. Nice timing. So, no, I will not be finishing atop the Abu Dhabi Ballers (sponsored by Tandoori Corner) standings. But I’m […]

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It kills me to look at the trash can here in the Teeny Apartment. On Earth Hour day. I see a section of my newspaper that I just finished reading. It is jammed in a spot right next to the plastic bottle that held a half-liter of grapefruit just. And just below it is the […]

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Remember when India conjured images in the western world of hundreds of millions of people starving in the streets? That concept is getting a little threadbare. And now we have more evidence of it: A group of Indian investors just paid $333 million for an expansion franchise in the Indian Premier League. That is, India’s […]

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One of the vanities of expatriates in the Electronic Age … is that we’re sure we know what’s going on back home. At least in the subjects we care about. Hey, we have wifi in the apartment! We know what’s going on! Sometimes, that isn’t quite true. Take, for example, Major League Baseball.

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This is a great thing about Abu Dhabi … at the same time that it’s a bit disturbing. A rule of thumb for expenses here: If it involves commodities, it will cost about the same as in First World countries. If it involves people … it will be cheaper. Often far cheaper. What does that […]

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So, walking home. I’ve been doing that for three months now. The Tiny Apartment is a brisk, 20-minute march from the office. And I save 10 dirhams ($2.70) by not taking a cab! Though it is beginning to get a little sticky and warm out there, even at midnight. May have to give it up, […]

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I am looking at my television. Looking at the machine, that is. Not at anything that might be on it. We have a TV in the corner of our living room. But we never watch it. Because we aren’t paying to have it hooked up. How is that working out?

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