Have I written this before? Probably. But I am thinking of it now and will restate it. I love losing streaks. In life. But especially in sports. It gives us something to talk about. Something to focus on. A running subplot. Sometimes the plot. We lost some great losing streaks in the past decade. Four […]

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The search for a new place to live continues, and today took us over to one of the nearby islands. Abu Dhabi, city of, is a collection of several islands, with the eponymous island being where nearly everyone lives. However, with the city continuing to grow, construction and people are beginning to spill over to […]

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I was in a bar in Paris that night in 2006 when Zinedine Zidane was red-carded for butting Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the World Cup semifinals. It was a moment of madness. Materazzi was running his mouth, taunting Zidane, and the French star flipped out. We normally would not expect the moment to be turned […]

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When we arrived in the UAE, in October of 2009, I can tell you exactly how long we thought we would stay: Eighteen months. Two notions led us to come up with that number.

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I believe we did a good bit of sports journalism earlier this week when we reported on the practice of UAE soccer clubs paying fans to attend their games. It seems fantastical, at first blush, but if a person has a sense of how things work here, and traditions and history, it is less bizarre. […]

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The UAE has some of the world’s tallest buildings (including the tallest, the Burj Khalifa) but also some of the world’s oddest-shaped tall buildings. Few of us think much about how the thousands of windows in those skyscrapers are cleaned, but a member of The National’s business staff explained the process in a piece today. […]

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I was watching the end of the Monday Night Football game. Actually, it was Tuesday morning, here in Abu Dhabi, which is 11 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. I saw the final play, the controversial touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate … which won the game for Seattle, 14-12. And I was […]

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Trying to put into context a shocking result involving a sports superpower. Al Ahli 6, Al Ain 3 … in the UAE domestic soccer league. The Crimson Tide of Bear Bryant or Nick Saban being routed by, say, South Carolina. The Man United of Alex Ferguson going down heavily to Stoke. That is like Al […]

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In some cases, being the fan of a constant loser can actually be fun. Look at all the Boston Red Sox fans before they finally won their first World Series in 86 years, in 2004. Look at the Chicago Cubs; their fans wear that club’s century-plus without a championship as a badge. It’s like their […]

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The National’s correspondent in Iran, Michael Theodoulou, filed a story today describing how a woman who was being chided/shamed by a Shia cleric in Iran … beat up the cleric, sending him to the hospital. The problem, according to the cleric, was that the woman’s head was not completely covered. Can’t have that. A confrontation […]

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