This is a weird and memorable flight. I now have done it twice, once in coach and once in business. But we did encounter one apparent change, between the first journey on EY171 (last summer) and the second (yesterday) — the route became something that stretches our understanding of the planet. There it is, above, […]

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After six years and two months in Abu Dhabi, we leave the UAE for the final time today, headed for Los Angeles on flight EY171, Etihad’s 16-hour-plus nonstop to LAX. It was a fast six years, filled with challenges unimagined during previous incarnations as California journalists. Each of us added a significant stretch to our […]

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I have voted for the Futbol de Primera award — formerly the Honda Award — for most of two decades. The award, voted on by journalists, goes to the U.S. national team player judged to have been the best performer in a calendar year. Michael Bradley is the winner, for the first time, over Clint […]

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Drones? Turn the birds of prey loose on them! This became a local story, in Dubai, when someone’s drone, hovering over Jumeirah Park, was brought down by a falcon, as explained in this story in The National. A Polish expat, who witnessed the falcon attack, got a photo of the falcon perched atop its victim, […]

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This has been a point of pride, in the UAE, for months now: Not only was a significant fraction of the first half hour of Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed in the deserts of Abu Dhabi … the movie premiered for the public here yesterday, December 16, two days ahead of the North American […]

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The thing about the internet is … it lasts forever. Or it must seem that way for those who wish people would stop dredging up some social-media faux pas of theirs from four or five years ago. The reality, says a key official at Google, is that we may be entering a new Dark Age, […]

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I had no inkling this would turn into one of the most uplifting nights of my life as a sports journalist. I knew that the Switzerland-based International Sports Press Association had teamed with Abu Dhabi Media to arrange for the first global competition meant to honor the best in sports journalism. What was not clear, […]

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Anyone who follows the English Premier League knows it has coughed up two big stories, so far this season. –The rise of Leicester City. –The fall of Chelsea. The former, last season, nearly was relegated (sent to the second division) before a sprint to the finish raised them to 14th place in a 20-team league. […]

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In the previous post I fretted over the possibility that the Golden State Warriors could break the Los Angeles Lakers’ record NBA winning streak of 33 games. Within hours of that post going up … the Warriors lost, for the first time this season. And I will take some credit for that.

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We remember how this goes: Your team is so good, so much better than everyone else, that the idea of them losing is hard to imagine. Or remember. In 1971-72, it was the Los Angeles Lakers, who won a record 33 consecutive games, over a span of 64 days. This season, it is the Golden […]

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