Whenever someone visits us in Abu Dhabi, I try to get them to a local soccer match. As I have noted before. For one, it’s free. Also, the crowd will be overwhelmingly Emirati, and the way that crowd reacts is a revelation, too, to visitors who typically spend their days in crowds of expatriates. Which […]

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The Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world, opened in Dubai in January of 2010. I was working in news at The National, back then, and I edited the “grand opening” story the night of January 4. Almost four-and-a-half years later … I finally went inside the Burj. And rode the elevator up to the […]

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  The Ferrari World theme park opened in Abu Dhabi in 2010, just before the second edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It made good sense, from a marketing standpoint. Once a year the popular Ferrari Formula One team would race at the track, and right next door, on Yas Island, was the theme […]

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Infants apparently do not get motion sickness, not that they can express their relief at their resistance — nor lord it over the rest of us. But it has been suggested that the old also have some degree of immunity to the condition. I am still waiting for that geriatric benefit. So far, my sense […]

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It was a week ago that the Los Angeles Clippers, the city’s eternal “other” team, looked bound for the Western Conference finals. Much to our surprise. Up 3-1 on the Houston Rockets after a blowout victory in Game 4 … it was going to happen! The Clippers in the conference finals for the first time! […]

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Interesting song, written 80-plus years ago by Irving Berlin. Heavily syncopated with vivid lyrics jammed into all those stop-and-start phrases. Puttin’ on the Ritz. Always interesting. But the version going through my brain?

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* Not talking about a person, though Donald Sterling might qualify. A friendly discussion/argument you can have nearly anywhere in the world? Which is the world’s No. 2 sport? Soccer is No. 1. The end. But what is No. 2? I am beginning to think it is basketball, which is played, to some extent, almost […]

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Brad Friedel, the 43-year-old American goalkeeper, said today he will retire from soccer when Tottenham’s season ends next weekend. That will end the professional career of probably the most-respected U.S.  player, in England — and perhaps around the world. Friedel, however, was never quite as popular at home as he came to be in England […]

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Being overweight is a major issue in the UAE. That was brought home again today by a story in The National noting that 45.1 percent of the women in the UAE are clinically obese, according to 2015 World Health Organization figures. Men here aren’t doing very well, either. The WHO numbers suggest 33.8 percent of […]

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Relegation would be a handy thing to have in U.S. sports. Most Americans, I think, understand the concept, by now. In nearly all global soccer leagues that aren’t Major League Soccer, two or three teams at the bottom of the standings go down to the next-lowest league. Which is pretty much a disaster. (And the […]

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