Time for a list. And why not some random facts from our home in the Gulf. 1. The Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi claims that 5 kg of pure edible gold is used at the hotel per year, mostly on desserts. Five kilograms is 10.1 pounds. At this writing, gold costs $1,648 per ounce. […]

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Something about Diego Maradona prompts people to break into song. Late last year, an Irish group named the Corrigan Brothers recirculated a song they had done a few years earlier entitled: Ooohhh Diego. Now, some Emiratis and fans of the UAE club that El Diego coaches, Al Wasl, have an Arabic-language tribute song entitled Maradona […]

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I am fairly sensitive to this. I lived in The 909 for much of my life, and in southern California 909 was considered the worst possible telephone area-code prefix to have — because it encompassed a region with economic issues, significant crime rates and some of the worst air in the world. A few years […]

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An advantage to working at a morning newspaper on the west coast of the United States: Pretty much the whole sports day was over by the time we reached our deadline. We had complete news packages. Not much terra firma is behind California in the time-zone map, aside from Alaska and Hawaii. So the total […]

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This is the wackiest notion I’ve come across in quite some time. In this story posted by the little newspaper/website named the Long Beach Post, a recent candidate for student body president at Long Beach State has called for the school to dump its Prospector Pete mascot and also change the nickname for the school’s […]

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Hmm. Three Easters, now, spent in the UAE, an overwhelmingly Muslim country. And I have done the same thing three years running. I suppose that makes it a tradition. I again walked over to St. Andrews, the Anglican church near where I live, for the Maundy Thursday service, and by searching the word “Maundy” (which […]

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Five years ago I might have watched consecutive baseball games on television. Or consecutive basketball games.Today and yesterday … I watched consecutive soccer games, on TV. Involving UAE teams. Teams I didn’t know existed three years ago. It’s my job. More or less. I wasn’t covering any of these games. But even if I’m not […]

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A couple of days ago we broached the topic of big cats in the UAE, and all that it means … most of it bad. In this piece today a writer for The National addresses head-on the concept that it is legal for people here to own big cats of the lion-tiger-cheetah sort, and outlines […]

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To walk in Abu Dhabi is to risk your life. And not just because it is dangerously hot half the year. And not just because sidewalks are often broken and uneven, inviting sprained ankles. Or worse. This is not a city built for pedestrians, and even when extra exertions have been made to get pedestrians […]

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No. Not an April Fool’s joke. Every six months or so, we at The National have a story like this: “Big cat found in city streets.” And we’re not talking about an overgrown tabby. These are the real deal. Lions and cheetahs, in particular, often brought into the country illegally, apparently for the amusement of […]

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