The actor Tony Curtis died today. He was 85. The man made scores of movies, but I remember him, really, for one: the 1960 epic Spartacus. In it, Curtis played the soft “singer of songs” among Kirk Douglas’s army of slaves. Douglas was Spartacus, of course, and Spartacus was a historical figure and leader of […]

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We have a lizard that lives in our patio. I don’t know where he hides out during the day, but he is out at night. Every night. Just a question of which wall he will be scampering across once we open the door from the street. I don’t know for certain that he is a […]

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Well, it’s happened again. My old hometown has lost the Dodgers. Or their minor-league affiliate, anyway. Last time, it stung, but not like this. A decade ago, 2001, the Dodgers were ordered by Major League Baseball to reduce their number of “high Class A” teams to one, from two, and the Dodgers decided to stay […]

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Really. Don’t go away right off. It’s not about my team and how I lost by one yard to somebody. I don’t have a fantasy football team. Played one time, 10 years ago, didn’t really care for it, never been back. I’ve been watching it as a phenomena, however, and I have to give this […]

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A former journalism colleague of mine, Michelle, certainly is not a lifelong Padres fan. She was born in Michigan but grew up in Florida, went to school there and worked at Florida newspapers for most of her life. She went to the University of Florida, as did one David Eckstein. When Michelle first got to […]

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As a kid, I preferred UCLA over USC. The Trojans were big and bad, but UCLA was little and lithe and a little smarter than your average oafs, and I liked that. Terry Donahue played defensive tackle at 205 pounds. Bob Stiles was 5-foot-9 and and 175 pounds, but he stopped Michigan State’s huge fullback […]

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I was thinking about the Beijing Olympics, and realized that the U.S. men’s basketball team had zero Clippers on it. But then, neither did the Vancouver Olympics. Have any Clippers on the U.S. team. Though clipper ships presumably sailed to Vancouver, but not Beijing, it being too far from the ocean. Hong Kong? Sure. But […]

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Time for a list. Haven’t done many of late. And this is one of those days when little revelations seem to pop into my head. Not enough for a whole blog item on each of them … well, maybe … but enough for a list. I hope I’m not repeating too many of these. I’m […]

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I have been deeply involved in our coverage of the country’s professional soccer league here, known as (of course) the Pro League. It is fairly remarkable that such a small country has 12 “first division” teams and another 16 in the second division. But there you are. Emiratis in particular love the game (the Indians […]

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What makes Lebanese meals so great and so dangerous? You always get more food than you can possibly eat … and about 90 percent of it is starch. Even when it looks like paste. Take, for example, the Lebanese Flower, what must be the most popular Lebanese restaurant in Abu Dhabi.

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