Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi has an airport where most people alight only to catch another plane. The UAE is at a sort of crossroads of the Old World. If you want to go from Moscow south to South Africa, you may well change planes in the UAE. Going from Europe to the east of Asia? […]

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In a previous lifetime, an exchange student taken into our household gave me a gift. It was a garish necktie, quite long, with diagonal stripes of red, white and, I think, green. Maybe blue, too. Pretty sure I never wore it; it was that startling. I remember it being encased in a plastic sleeve and […]

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Interesting story. The New England Patriots are offering to take back Aaron Hernandez No. 81 jerseys. That would be the Aaron Hernandez who has been arrested on suspicion of murder. At first blush, it seems like an upright and decent thing for the Patriots to do. If anyone brings in a Hernandez jersey, the Patriots […]

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I love this concept. Love it. Even if it’s sponsored by a company that makes caffeine-laced sugary drinks that can’t be good for you … It’s just a very clever idea. The Red Bull King of the Rock. Start with a global 1-on-1 basketball tournament. Five-minute games, tournaments set in 25 countries to winnow the […]

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They play baseball here. Well, not here here, “here” being Abu Dhabi. To my knowledge, Abu Dhabi has one softball field … zero baseball fields. “Fields” of any sort are at a premium here in the desert, and heavily in demand by soccer players. So we have no ball fields here; none dedicated to baseball, […]

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The UAE is not unlike the U.S. — and much of the rest of the world — in this: Nearly everyone behind the wheel of a car will drive over the speed limit. The UAE is also like the U.S. in this: It employs officers who are prepared to give you a ticket for speeding. […]

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This coming weekend, Saudi Arabia will shift its work week from Saturday through Wednesday to Sunday through Thursday. This ought to be good for The Kingdom, more closely integrating it with the rest of the world. The business world, anyway.

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This is a match made in Emirati heaven. Tearing around the French countryside in high-end sports cars for hours and hours. Till you literally can’t stand driving 175 mph anymore. Le Mans, how had you never met the UAE?

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A well-done Sunday crossword — the big ones, preferably those from the New York Times, the Cadillacs of American English crosswords — are often not fun. You sit and stare at the page and, if you work in ink, as I do, you do not guess at answers before filling in letters. So you find […]

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Luis Suarez, the Liverpool forward and one of the elite bad boys in modern soccer history, made news today when he bit the arm of the Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. Got to give Suarez some credit. He fairly rooted around till he had brought his teeth to bear on Ivanonic’s upper arm, and gave him […]

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