As July dragged on, I thought I noticed a change. The Abu Dhabi gridlock … seemed to be unlocking. It hasn’t taken as long to get from Point A to Point B here in town. Or so it seemed to me. And now we seem to have actual evidence … at least anecdotal … explaining […]

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My newspaper, The National, here in Abu Dhabi, has one of those “most-read” lists on its website. One for each department. News. Business. Sports. These lists are handy, whatever the news outlet. It allows you to discover quickly which stories are getting clicked on most often, and lets you catch up to stuff you might […]

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Now we know how the other half lives. Well, actually, it’s far less than half. The other 10 percent, maybe? Housing here is expensive. The real estate crash that pummeled the city of Dubai, an hour north of us, never really happened in Abu Dhabi, and the capital of the UAE remains a place where […]

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I don’t know this. But I believe it. Rumor floating around … that Manchester City, the new big spender of the English Premier League, is trying to add Landon Donovan to its roster. Considering that he scored three goals in the World Cup and had that nice 10 weeks with Everton last winter … Sure. […]

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I believe I mentioned here previously that, at The National, we conduct nearly all newsroom business in English. We just can’t always be sure that’s what it is. English. I mean, there’s a reason “Trainspotting” had subtitles in the U.S. When the Scots get going … it’s a major matter of “excuse me?” For the […]

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It is being reported that Pat Haden will succeed Mike Garrett as athletic director at USC, and let see if I can summarize my first impressions of that move. “Inspired … a perfect decision … a great guy … a very very smart man … a classy dude … absolutely the right man for the […]

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We decided, at The National, to do a story on the history of aging players who have signed, near the end of their careers, with Major League Soccer. The focus being on guys who were at least 30 when they got to MLS … 30 being the point when attacking players, in particular, tend to […]

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Drag racing may not have been invented in Southern California, but it certainly was organized and codified there, and has been part of the culture for more than a half century. The Beach Boys wrote, what, five songs about drag racing? Ten? Surfing, drag racing and girls, that’s what SoCal cares about, in the Beach […]

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When I saw this on the wire … it made me smile. As I wrote in this commentary for The National. The idea of Bengie Molina hitting for the cycle … the man who gives new meaning to the expression “base-clogger” … who probably is the slowest man in baseball and a contender for Slowest […]

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I have written before about my li’l insect pals in Abu Dhabi. Including a few days ago. I didn’t think I would be writing about them again so soon. But this was Armageddon. A whole nest of ants vs. moi and a squirt bottle of Windex. Inside the house. In the bedroom, actually. Yeah. (If […]

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