I look forward to two more-or-less regularly scheduled social events each year in Abu Dhabi. 1. The staff party on the anniversary of the founding of The National newspaper. 2. The birthday party of a spouse of one of the newspaper staff. The latter was held tonight, and as usual it brought together an agreeable […]

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We are our own revisionists. What we know now as fact is something we would not have espoused a few years or months or weeks ago. We change our minds a lot; we don’t always remember we have done so. This is a particular problem for sports journalists. Given long enough, we embrace every side […]

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Marshawn Lynch is the star running back for the Seattle Seahawks who is making life difficult for himself in the days leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl. He is accomplishing this by refusing to carry out a contractual obligation to interact with the media assembled in New Jersey for Super Bowl 48. Lynch has spoken […]

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Not sure I’ve ever given an idea of what it is like for a sports writer to cover a soccer game, here in the UAE. Some of it will seem familiar to American journos. But some of it is not at all similar to your experience in a U.S. press box — from being served […]

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International orchestras play concerts in Abu Dhabi about once a year. During the Abu Dhabi Festival. Today was that one day, and we were happy to drive up to Emirates Palace and watch/listen to the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra. From Venezuela. For those of us who appreciate classical music but prefer pieces with some recognition […]

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Which sport do Americans like most? It was the same in 2013 as it was in 1985, and every year since. The National Football League. Duh. We like our danger and violence, and we like our color and strategy and cheerleaders, and tidy three-hour blocs mapped out on Sundays and three nights a week. The […]

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Not a fan of tattoos. Seems like a form of self-mutilation, generally. And then there is this thing. Which is a bunch of Dodgers history inked into a guy’s back.

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Big stir here, over the new soccer stadium in Al Ain. A three-day festival, a lot of pomp and ceremony, lots of conversation about how spectacular the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium is. And it is. It’s quite nice. Fairly striking, from the outside (artist’s rendering, above), when it is lit up with Al Ain’s predominant […]

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I had heard of Angelika Cibulkova, of course. You work in sports in a country where tennis is popular … sure, you have heard of anyone ranked in the top 30. What I did not know … is that Cibulkova is 1.60 metres tall — or just shy of 5-foot-3. Which makes her run to […]

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Expats come and expats go, in the UAE. And especially in soccer. The South American or African introduced amid fanfare when a transfer window comes open … often is dumped a half-season later. It happens because UAE teams depend so heavily on foreigners to score goals, and goal scoring is such an easily measured number. […]

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