“Did you hear about the Lindbergh baby?” For decades, that mocking question has been asked of someone who has come late — very late — to some news discovery. So it was today for me, and the NFL RedZone.

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Had not been home during college football season in a long time. So when we settled on this trip to SoCal, I checked the schedules of USC and UCLA. And there it was: USC home to Notre Dame. Even spending only 10 days in Southern California … I wanted to be there.

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I’ve been away. I may have mentioned that. The last time I was at Staples Center probably was 2009.  Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals. The Nokia Theater was complete, before the jump to Abu Dhabi later that year. But I don’t remember much of anything around it. Most of the rest of […]

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For the first time since 2007, we spent Thanksgiving Day at home, in California. The period of absence allowed us to get a sense of seven years of what probably was incremental change, perhaps not as obvious to those who experienced it year by year. For us, the on-the-ground experience of Thanksgiving jumped from 2007 […]

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After 150 miles on Southern California freeways the past two days, following most of two years driving in the UAE, I am fairly confident in writing this: Driving is a lot less scary here than in the UAE — where in 2010 the second-leading cause of death was “road injury”. Some obseverations.

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Day 1 of a Southern California visit. Almost as warm as Abu Dhabi. Not nearly as wet.

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Yes. I know. Tales of long/delayed/strange plane rides generally are of interest only to the people who suffer through them. But this one was particularly odd and exotic. Really. Trust me. How often have you flown over Greenland? Not just the tip of Greenland, like, 500 miles of it right in the middle?

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Noted a week or so ago: Too much good sports stuff this week. Specifically, today. Actually, we had even more good stuff than I presented. Add to the list:

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Omar Abdulrahman … the best player nearly no one outside the UAE knows about. He is really good, if he is allowed to play, and he has become the leader of the UAE national team, which plays host Saudi Arabia in the semifinals of the Gulf Cup of Nations tomorrow. He dominated the final Group […]

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This actually is a handy compilation of information, if you are planning to visit the United Arab Emirates sometime soon. And you probably are not planning any such thing, if you live in the States. It’s just too far. But this should be required reading for Europeans and, in particular, for Britons and Russians, who […]

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