This is so UAE. This is so Dubai. Conspicuous consumption just cuz. We are into measuring things here, and we like stuff expensive, because not many places on the planet have so many people with money to just throw away on something like the world’s most expensive cupcake. And how much does it cost?

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The UAE has two cities of real significance: –The political capital of the country, Abu Dhabi. –The economic and tourist capital, Dubai. As you might expect, the cities are rivals. Residents of each are likely to defend their home city and belittle the other. And this applies across the economic spectrum. Emiratis of the two […]

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A vanity among residents of greater Los Angeles is that they breath the world’s worst air. Not even close. It might have been true for a stretch in the 1950s and 1960s, but strict controls on automobile emissions have turned SoCal air from horrible to just bad — and that doesn’t cut it among cities […]

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Back in 2010, during my first six months here in the UAE, I posted an item about how common the “pop top” is here. Banned in the United States, and many other countries for several decades now. Talking about that strip of aluminum (aluminium, for our British friends) … that could be peeled off the […]

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This seems to be the Elefant in the room at the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. Germany and Poland and Ukraine and, no, nothing to see here. Nothing to talk about. Just soccer, soccer, soccer! Isn’t it even a little weird that a team representing the country that visited so much violence upon Poland and Ukraine […]

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This is something you notice during the World Cup, too. Especially if you live where the games are shown at night, and become regular viewing. The First Day with No Games.

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This was so awful I actually felt badly for my English colleagues at The National. Well, not quite. But I was edging in that direction on the emotional spectrum. OK, I’d taken a tentative step … and then I just laughed. I believe even American soccer fans have become aware of the train wreck of […]

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I like national anthems, some of them. We have stipulated this on this site. (And if I ranked them right this minute, France and Russia would be 1-2 … or 2-1.) The final seven games of Euro 2012 begin at 10:45 p.m., here in the UAE, and I have been working in the office for […]

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I may come back to the Euro 2012 version of German vs Greek, which went down tonight, but we have to segue here to one of the most brilliant soccer parodies ever recorded. Talking about the German v Greek Philosophers’ Football Match done by the English comedy troupe Monty Python some 40 years ago. You […]

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Ladies and gentlemen, here is the real best player in the world. I know li’l Lionel Messi gets most of the love, and most of the trophies and nearly all the awards, but I will take Cristiano Ronaldo any day.

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