The final book by Patrick O’Brian was not completed. Actually, his last sentence was not completed. The author of the still-popular Aubrey-Matarin series was 85, and had gotten a start on the 21st edition of the series, when he stopped writing. Perhaps he fell ill. Perhaps he was distracted, and then fell ill. But his […]

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Yes, they are still playing. Still alive, for that matter. The Rolling Stones. Most of them. The two that matter, anyway. Mick Jagger turned 70 in July and the hard-partying Keith Richards somehow is about to be 70, too, later this month. Their latest (last?) tour begins early next year, named the “14 on Fire […]

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999 magazine is published in English by a UAE government ministry, and the December issue had an interesting bit of information that makes for a handy list, too. (This was picked up by nearly every media outlet in the UAE, including The National. With comment from local law officials who make the point that ignorance […]

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I concede I thought Kobe Bryant could beat this, too. I covered the guy for more than a decade, and I saw him come back, time and again, from injuries that would sideline the average athlete. “Badly sprained” ankle? Kobe would be back in a week, or sooner. He would keep playing right through things […]

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Air Berlin is a pretty good name for an airline. Berlin is a hip place. The capital of modern and prosperous Germany. And German goods and services have a good reputation. “Air Berlin” … sounds like it may be cutting edge, and certainly well-run. Well, no. It is not. Air Berlin is just this side […]

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I am amused yet oddly proprietary about the World Cup and this Group of Death meme. Has to be one. At every World Cup. A Group of Death. It’s the law. And it’s silly. Cliche, vaguely morbid, overstates the importance of soccer, but it’s what we do. (And according to the link, above, the first […]

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We expected the one, but not the other. Yes, it’s perverse to live in Abu Dhabi and fly 3,100 miles to Thailand looking for sun, but we thought we would find it here, and we have not. We also were confident of some excellent Thai food and that, at least, has come to fruition.

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The World Cup intrigue begins earlier than ever. In this case, the pot distribution revealed today, ahead of the draw on Friday, was a source of some controversy. Well, it was in England, anyway. What it shows for fans of the U.S. national team is that the Yanks are likely to be in a tough […]

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On the edge of the grounds of the hotel where we are staying is a raised platform, about 30 inches high, perhaps 10 feet wide and 30 deep, and over it is a canopy, so that most of the rain stays off the deck. A few feet from the platform is a sign advertising manicures, […]

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A weird thing about being in Thailand — which is physically closer to the U.S. than is the UAE, and by several thousand miles — is an even bigger sense of disconnect from American sports. It’s the time zones. By 10 a.m. UAE time, just about every sports event “last night” in the U.S. is […]

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