I generally do not read serious literature. Or literature meant to be serious. I’m a bit of a lightweight, I suppose. I’ve read all 16 books of the Reacher series but I still haven’t gotten through Moby Dick, despite numerous attempts. Call me Ishmael … the Quitter. But in this case, I have fought my […]

[Read more →]

I may have mentioned that I tweet. At … @PaulOberjuerge … I do it almost entirely for professional reasons, to notify followers of something I have written for The National, or something a colleague has written, and sometimes just to get a news nugget out there as quickly as possible. And I very selectively follow […]

[Read more →]

A notion popped into my head while writing a column for The National about how this looks like it could/should be the best season in the history of the UAE’s domestic soccer league: An imbalance exists in many countries between the leagues those nations deserve … and the league that they have. In both directions: […]

[Read more →]

I’d never had a manicure. Or a pedicure. I just didn’t see the need. Someone messes with your fingernails/toenails for a while … cuz why? It makes you a better person somehow? Healthier? Can’t you just cut your own nails in about two minutes and be done with it? Not getting it. Now, I have […]

[Read more →]

No point in talking about the weather, is there. But we do anyway. Especially at this time of year here in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Not only is it boiling hot, day after day …

[Read more →]

I had never been impressed with Diego Maradona as a coach, which anyone who read my South Africa countdown 2010 blog can attest. This is a guy who can barely function in life … but I’m not even going to broach those issues. It was Maradona the manager who almost achieved the impossible — failing […]

[Read more →]

Sports movies are nearly all horrible. They are. Horrible. Not just bad. Awful. I was reminded of this while watching the ridiculous sports movie named Wimbledon, starring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst and apparently made by a bunch of people who have zero idea how a tennis tournament … or a tennis match … or […]

[Read more →]

This differs markedly from the list in the item below — because this one includes the 40-plus foreigners in the league. The number of foreigners playing in the Pro League here in the UAE is up to a potential 48 this season (from 36 a year ago) because the league chose to add a fourth […]

[Read more →]

We all love them. Lists. The cheesiest website-hit-driving device ever created. Well, aside from “slide shows” of kittens or puppies. After a long drought, we’re banging out a list, Today, we’re going to go a little exotic here. My sense of the 10 best soccer players in the UAE — and we’re talking about Emiratis […]

[Read more →]

It’s fair to say that the United States doesn’t get heaps of sympathy, 10 years after 9/11, here in the Gulf. A significant number of people in this region apparently don’t believe the terror attacks on the World Trade Center actually happened. (Rather like an alarming number of Americans.) And then there were those who […]

[Read more →]