It was always weird. Always bizarre. On the Craven Cottage grounds of Fulham FC, a Premier League soccer club based in London … a large and vivid statue of Michael Jackson. Yes, that Michael Jackson. The eccentric if prodigiously talented pop star. Caught while executing a dance move. The statue went up outside the Hammersmith […]

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So, the Dodgers clinched the National League West, which is fairly impressive, considering they were in last place on June 1. This season. They wrapped up things in Phoenix, beating the Diamondbacks 7-6, and the party was on. It started on the field, just after the game, and went to the clubhouse, So far, so […]

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A couple of requirements, seemingly, for the Western soccer player — meaning Europe and the western hemisphere. 1. A silly haircut. 2. A batch of tattoos. We have the silly hair, here in the Gulf. We do not have sleeves (or torsos) of tattoos — aside from those adorning/marring the foreign imports. Which I find […]

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This car may be cursed. After five days, a dead battery. Two weeks later, a right-front tire, with plenty of tread, that mysteriously went flat. Which brings to mind the Stephen King novel Christine — about a car apparently inhabited by a “vengeful spirit”. At best, the Audi is proving to be a money pit. […]

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This perhaps should not surprise me. Hoary clues in New York Times crosswords. If you buy NYT crosswords by the book, as I do, 200 of them at a pop … well, some are certain to be less than modern. (And I also doubt that all of these Sunday crosswords actually appeared in print, in […]

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It has been explained here how difficult it is to follow college football, and what little of it could be seen, easily, is now gone. Leave the country for four years, you realize most of college football you can get along without. With some exceptions. Your own team. Maybe your team’s league. A few of […]

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I like Bic pens. I’ve been using them throughout my professional career. “Medium black”, specifically. Nothing else will do. No fancy pens, and no blue Bics or “fine” points. Medium black, please. One of the great French inventions that has nothing to do with food or wine. Their attributes of Bic pens are many. Cheap, […]

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An annoying reality of life in Abu Dhabi, especially at the south/east end of the island, is the horn-honking drive-by drivers. In several neighborhoods here, guys pull up in their land yachts and wait for employees of coffee shops, restaurants and even groceries. That leads to gridlock in the streets outside those businesses, many of […]

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The America’s Cup once was a big deal. I can remember putting together a proposal, sent to the sports editor of Gannett News Service, a quarter-century ago, to cover the America’s Cup near Perth, in Australia. And it was not a ridiculous notion. At the time, the America’s Cup was big. Very big. (I remember […]

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I wrote a comment piece for The National today, looking at the United States soccer team, now assured of playing in a seventh consecutive World Cup. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, we must assume the majority of our readers know little or nothing of American soccer. They would refer to it as “football”, […]

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