Who among us has not been surprised, a time or 30, by the sudden arrival of the month of March? Which can cause consternation and embarrassment for those of us who had been planning on getting around to something “next month” — and it arrives tomorrow. The problem, of course, is that February suddenly ends, […]

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The UAE is nuts about records. World records. Any of them. But especially those involving tall buildings. Dubai now claims six of the world’s seven tallest hotels, for example. It had five of the top six, but the imminent opening of Tower 1 of the JW Marriott Marquis, which tops out at 355 meters (1,165 […]

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If you think American sports franchises are quick on the trigger, when it comes to firing coaches … you have not been paying attention to sports clubs overseas. The owner of the Chelsea soccer club fires a world-famous coach about once every six months. Once you get past Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes, […]

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It must be hard to be the brother of a star. A sports star, especially. Many of us seem to embrace the notion that if one brother is a huge talent, the other must be, too. Same parents, right? Same upbringing? Same results. Easy. Almost never works out. The “other” is generally shorter or stouter […]

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For much of the past decade, the game of tennis has seemed on a steady slog towards a joyless aerobics-driven end in which He Who Can Keep the Ball in Play Longest will win the major events, often in five hours or more. Men and women, nearly everyone stands on the baseline and slugs it […]

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And so it continues: What seems like the majority of U.S. soccer fans wanting to know where the hell Landon Donovan is, and … and well, how dare he!?! not report for every training session. An hour early. The day before. The latest misguided critic to weigh in is an ESPN blogger named Jeff Carlisle, […]

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Of all the luxury brands that target the Middle East, and the UAE, in particular, Ferrari seems to have the greatest hold on the imagination of consumers here. If you spend 10 minutes on the roads, you can see a Ferrari nearly every day in Abu Dhabi, and in some parts of the capital it […]

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Basically, this could not happen. The best football club in the UAE, probably one of the best in all of Asia, at home, against the worst club in the Pro League, a team playing in the top flight for the first time in its obscure history, and based in a small town in the near-empty […]

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If you are of a certain age, you may recall a recurring theme in the Peanuts cartoon strip. Charlie Brown would be preparing to kick a football, which his tormentor Lucy van Pelt was holding (as for a field goal) and as Charlie Brown approached she would snatch the ball away, much to CB’s frustration. […]

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That was the headline to the lead story in The National a few days ago. Big news. Well, the whole of it was: “Every home in Abu Dhabi to have its own street address”. What? And all those good times of describing where you live in relation to a major landmark … could be gone […]

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