A surge of social activity marked the end of the year. Yeah. What got into me? On Thursday night, we went to one of the 2-3 really nice French restaurants in the city, named Bord Eau, located in a big (too big, really) room in the Shangri La Hotel, and then we welcomed (as opposed […]

[Read more →]

I believe many of us like to think we’re glass-half-empty people. Doesn’t a sort of world-weariness make us seem, oh, more sophisticated? More realistic? Cock-eyed optimism … doesn’t the “cock-eyed” tell us all we need to know about optimists? Certainly, in the news biz, where we document famine and pestilence and death and destruction, optimists […]

[Read more →]

(With fixed link!) When you work at a newspaper, you don’t need to hear what your readers say. I mean, it could be healthy and informative, but most of the time all of us know what we did or didn’t do that made the newspaper not as good as it could have been. We know […]

[Read more →]

I assume this thing has gone viral. But if you haven’t seen the clip of the soccer linesman getting hit in the head by a ball … and losing his toupee in the process … you probably should have a look. Some unanswered questions here.

[Read more →]

I know the world is clamoring for this. Pictures of the living area of where we now live, in Abu Dhabi, with the new Ikea couch/chair/ottoman in the place. Find that Facebook link … here.

[Read more →]

Guy McCarthy, a friend and former co-worker, sent me a Christmas greeting in which he veered off to a topic that fascinates both of us: The U.S. national soccer team. Well, and he also poked fun at the English for getting all excited about their “easy” World Cup 2010 draw in a group with the […]

[Read more →]

In a late decision, I had Christmas off after all. Leah was also off. Same off day for both of us. Doesn’t happen much these days. So the question then became … where to go to deal with Leah’s sudden (but emphatic) repudiation of Indian and Lebanese food? (Which accounts for more than half the […]

[Read more →]

It’s a planet with 7 billion people on it whose agenda is “it’s all about me.” Or, OK, maybe 6.9 billion people living with that myopic world view (many of whom would like to deny it), and maybe 100 million people who are saints or grandmothers or both. So, it was with profound self-focus that […]

[Read more →]

I’ve written it a hundred times. I’ve known Landon Donovan since he was 16. I’ve been writing about him since then. I’ve been in his family home in Redlands and in his first home in Manhattan Beach … and, well, he was the rare major athlete I had anything resembling a quasi-friendly relationship with. I’ve […]

[Read more →]

My friend and former colleague back in Southern California, David, sent me the link to this advertisement for a Dutch company. The link is here.

[Read more →]