You may already know what television is popular in the States, from checking the ratings. We do not know what’s big there. We just like what we like, and may try something new if it gets a good review in the New York Times, for example. But we do watch a chunk of it. A […]

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I have several recurring dreams. In one of them, I am on the ground, and for some reason I look up in the sky to see a plane in trouble. In my dream, I seem to be the first person on the ground to have noticed this, and I watch the plane come down from […]

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Actually, I will take credit for this. The entire staff came in one day last month for a meeting with the executive editor, and I remembered some instances in the past where the sudden arrival in the same spot of a group with a common goal but far-flung addresses … seemed like a good opportunity […]

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It struck me as a bit odd to see a photo of Kobe Bryant hugging a teammate on the home page of espn.com. Kobe had passed Shaquille O’Neal to take fifth place in the NBA all-time scoring list, but the Lakers lost the game to the 76ers in Philadelphia, 95-90. And doesn’t losing the game […]

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Super Bowl Sunday is, in the Middle East … Sunday. The first day of the work week. Nothing super about it, unless you’re an American or a Canadian or one of those rare non-North Americans who are interested in the NFL. In the UAE, the big story in world football today (after the Chelsea-Manchester United […]

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We don’t get much rain in Abu Dhabi. Or the UAE. But we’re supposed to get a little. We’re about half way through the “rainy” season, with hardly a drop.

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Time for a little reminder of the best play from the best Super Bowl. Sure, you could search it, but since I have the link right here, you can look at it with one click. I wrote about Super Bowl 42 (Giants 17, Patriots 14) for The National, declaring it the best of the big […]

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Seventy-four are dead in Egypt, according to the government, after violence between soccer fans of the Cairo club Al Ahly and the Al Masry club of Port Said. This is by no means the first instance of dozens of deaths at soccer matches in the past three decades. In a three-piece package in The National […]

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The UAE is a country overrun by expatriates — 85 percent of a population of 7 million. But only a small fraction of them are Yanks. Probably fewer than 50,000. So, even though I spend most of my days in a room with native English speakers … they are speaking with accents I sometimes find […]

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