The world is covered by soccer clubs. Nearly every country on the face of the planet has a league. Most of those leagues play from the late summer into mid-May. Why, then, did I have almost no live soccer to watch for two days in April?

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I think “bucket lists” are silly concepts. Mostly, it seems like doing cliche tourist things. But I concede I did think of the “bucket” thing when I was mulling the concept of visiting all 50 U.S. states. I’m not that far off. Ten states to go. I could knock off most of them in two […]

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Many religions speak of an afterlife and, in particular, of heaven. An eternity in another realm … that’s an important concept, and one that is a comfort to many people. It is interesting, however, how divergent the views are on heaven, even within Christianity. It is generally described as a place of eternal happiness and […]

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Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Manny Pacquiao is a big deal in the UAE, too. Interest seems to be high, and most of it seems to focus on Manny. In part because the UAE is home to about 500,000 Filipinos. In part because Mayweather seems a bit arrogant, from the other side of the world. His […]

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“There Will be Haters”. Since January, Adidas has been trying to sell soccer shoes with that. Has any advertising slogan (that lasted more than a week) been worse? More objectionable? Has any slogan more overtly appealed to our baser instincts?

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I make a point of attending church on Maundy Thursday. The Thursday before Easter. I think it’s a pretty significant day/night. The Last Supper. The institution of communion. The visit to Gethsemane. The betrayal by Judas. And the night of legal shuffling that led to Jesus being crucified at noon the next day. I attend […]

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Dust storms are never fun. They are never good. But this one was alarming. Weird. Check out the video from The National’s website. It was that reddish-brown cast to it that made a person think of the “end of times”.

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I know. I know. I could hardly put up a headline worse than that, in terms of enticing people to read. “Don’t read this” would do far, far better. But this won’t take long. And you some tiny fraction of you might find it interesting to see who went in the first round of one […]

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If you are planning to coach or play in the Arabian Gulf League, the top level of UAE soccer, you may want to get this written into your contact: The club will pay any fines assessed on you.

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Late last year, I went off on the sloppy usage of “icon” and “iconic”. It was in regard to Vin Scully and a media release (not written by Vinny) about his plan to return to the Dodgers broadcast booth in 2014. And the intellectually bankrupt Dodgers PR crew used both icon and iconic within the […]

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