A great word. Earworm. It’s that song, or even snippet of a song, that is running inside your head for hours, days, even weeks at a time. Apparently, it comes from the German, and the idea of something crawling inside your ear and doing damage to your brain reminds me of the king’s poisoning in […]

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Stan Hochman died a few weeks ago. He had been a reporter and columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News since 1959, and for the past few decades probably was the city’s most prominent sports journalist. Before Philadelphia? He had worked as a sports writer at the San Bernardino Sun, my old paper. Actually, he went […]

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For the past few years, The National newspaper, in the United Arab Emirates, has been paying fairly close attention to the National Hot Rod Association, back in the United States. It wasn’t just because we like to watch people driving 300 miles per hour. (We can see that on the UAE’s freeways. Just kidding. Not.) […]

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The National celebrated its seventh birthday today with dinner and party favors at the almost-new Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara on Abu Dhabi Island. We have had a birthday party every time April 17 rolls around, or on the Friday nearest to it. In this case it was Friday. These are always fine […]

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A person can walk in the UAE. From December through March, usually you will be OK. Before and after … not a good idea. Not at all. And I had been thinking, since we took up residence near the landward end of Abu Dhabi island, that I would like to walk home from the office. […]

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I came across a particularly unusual name while reading a story about the English Championship, which is the official (if misleading) name for English soccer’s second division. He plays as a winger for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and his name? Rajiv van La Parra. Think about that for a moment.

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The Dodgers sent out a press release last week describing the “new menu” items at Dodger Stadium for the 2015 season. Nos 1 and 2 on the list? (And these are real.) –Lasorda’s Meatball Marinara Specialty Fries –Lasorda’s Meatball Marinara Cone Also, La Taqueria’s Carne Asada Specialty Fries … and Fried Dodger Dogs at Extreme […]

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A Qatar-based business web portal known as bqdoha has published what it purports to be fairly accurate statistics on the population breakdown, by nationalities, of the UAE. This is a fascinating batch of numbers to look at, for those of us who live here. To see some assumptions validated, but also to find numbers we […]

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My favorite story of the weekend. The cheating chess grandmaster in the Dubai Open tournament. Cheating how? Rigging the clock to give him extra time? Telling his opponent, “Hey, is that Bobby Fischer behind you?” and then swapping pieces? No. It’s better than that.

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That was the temperature in Abu Dhabi today, in Fahrenheit. The hottest day of the year, and the first in 2015 in triple digits. It will not be the last. Oh, no. The notion of 103 is depressing, really. On April 11. And it is bound to get worse, far worse, before it gets better.

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