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Entries from February 2014

Two Happy Thoughts Out of Opening Ceremonies

February 8th, 2014 · No Comments · Olympics

Back to Opening Ceremonies, yesterday. In the final 10 minutes of the show, when famous Russian Olympians were handling the torch … the two most prominent guys out there saw their Olympic careers marred by defeats to … Americans. It made me smile. To wit:

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Sochi Opens with a Near 10

February 7th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, Olympics, The National

Well, OK. Make it a 9.8. That fifth snowflake didn’t bloom into a ring, early in the show. Mechanical malfunction of some sort. But otherwise, the Russians did well tonight with Opening Ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Which came as a bit of a surprise, given the battering (see @Sochiproblems) Sochi 2014 had taken […]

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Checking in with the Lakers

February 6th, 2014 · No Comments · Basketball, Lakers, NBA

I have not paid close attention to the Los Angeles Lakers this year. I may not have even if I were not 10,000 miles from Staples Center. It became clear early that they were not going to be very good, and when Kobe Bryant’s brief return from Achilles surgery was interrupted by a broken leg, […]

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To Whom It May Concern … Will You Hire Me?

February 5th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, The National

Does this work? Really? People get jobs using these methods? Every day, here at The National in Abu Dhabi, we get unsolicited resumes (CVs, in the British parlance) from people who have no idea to whom they are sending them. Often, they are littered with typos and misspellings. We get engineers asking to match them […]

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Mickey D’s to Extend Reach in UAE

February 4th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, The National, UAE

It’s not just Americans who have an unhealthy attachment to McDonald’s. Anyone who has traveled has found the golden arches in the unlikeliest of places. The McDonald’s on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, tops my list of “unlikely locations” for the brand. But the French do not feast on McDonald’s. Not like people do in […]

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Animals and the UAE

February 3rd, 2014 · 1 Comment · The National, UAE

Not even four years is long enough, for the average pet-friendly westerner, to grow accustomed to the often distant and abrupt manner in which natives of the region treat animals. Certainly, there are instances of local citizens importing big cats and keeping them in their yard, for fun. Often in poor conditions. But in this […]

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Pete Peaks at 62

February 2nd, 2014 · No Comments · College football, Football, NFL, Sports Journalism, USC

Came out of a middle-of-the-night coma long enough, here in the Land on the Other Side of the World, and saw all but 15 points of Super Bowl 48 on some once-only, no-cost streaming video from Fox. Pete Carroll coached the winning Seattle Seahawks team, and he bucked some actuarial odds, and also reached the […]

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My Five Favorite In-Person Super Bowls

February 1st, 2014 · 1 Comment · Football, Lists, NFL, Sports Journalism, The Sun

This is kinda obnoxious, isn’t it. “Yeah, I’ve seen so many Super Bowls that I can do a list of my favorite five. That I saw. In person.” I have watched most of all of the 47 played so far. Which mostly means I’m old. I watched 35 of them on TV, but the other […]

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