I have been immersed in the English Premier League for most of five years now, and I have revealed/conceded both on this blog and in print that I am an Arsenal fan. (Or at least as far as I would prefer them to win, and I like them better than their competitors. In some quarters, […]

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Given that I’ve been re-reading Alan Furst, who spends a lot of time in Central Europe, and that World War I concluded with the end of the fairly ridiculous concept that was the Austro-Hungarian Empire … the other day I remembered a conversation I had more than 35 years ago — with someone who grew […]

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In some ways, Abu Dhabi (city of), ought to be a paradise for bicyclists. The island is flat as a table, a table about four feet above sea level. Nary a hill, to speak of,  and only 9.7 square miles. Almost nothing is more than four miles from anything else. That’s a bit far to […]

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Today was the final day of the World Championships in Athletics — or track and field, as it is known in North America. It was the first of several big events to be held in Russia in the next few years. The Winter Olympics in Sochi next February, the soccer World Cup in 2018. They […]

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Some stir in the blogosphere over the meticulously planned (and exhaustively justified) suicide of a former Kansas City Star sports journalist. It got a bit more exposure when Jim Romenesko posted excerpts of a Kansas City Star obituary and also some of the rationalizations behind the actions of the man who killed himself in the […]

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It was on Tuesday that several people in the newsroom of The National chuckled over one of the two cover stories on the front page, that morning, of an English-language newspaper rival, here in the UAE. UAE unaffected by Indian onion price hike Early this week, in the wake of Ramadan and Eid, things had […]

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A very silly story, brought to us by Agence France-Presse. A non-league soccer team in England was in desperate need of cash, and it managed to get it by improving the name recognition of the club. Which now includes Pele and Maradona.

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From the Arab Spring forward, worried people back in the States have inquired about our safety, here in the Middle East. Given upheaval in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen … and civil war in Syria. We understand their concern and appreciate it. From the other side of the Atlantic, “Middle East” must seem like one […]

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It’s a pretty sweet deal to be an Emirati, in the year 2013. Life in this region was very, very hard before oil, and oil in any significant amount came on line only a half-century ago. There are elders in this country who personally knew a life of subsistence farming and pearl diving … and […]

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Usain Bolt has one of the most appropriate names in sports. The world’s fastest human. Of course he should be named Bolt. Then came an extraordinarily fluky moment at the Athletics World Championships in Moscow last night. It began to rain as the 100-meter sprint finalists headed for the start line, and it was coming […]

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