Man. Feel almost like I cursed the guy by writing about him. Like, 10 days ago, when I brought up that the Saints and Colts had shots at going unbeaten … and then the Saints lost the next day and the Colts lost their next game, too. (I’m one of those people who suspects, if […]

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If you have any money at all, and can afford to do better than a city bus (which costs 27 cents) … eventually, you have two choices of getting around town, in Abu Dhabi. Because by the time April rolls around, it will be astonishingly hot here, again, and will remain so into October … […]

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It was a more eventful decade than my initial thoughts indicated. “Wow. I have to come up with 10 good sports events from the 0-somethings? I’m not sure I can do that.” Turns out, a few minutes of cross-referencing years and sports, and it’s no problem finding 10. The trick is limiting it to that […]

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We blew threw the copy on a slow night at the paper,  and got home early, and I decided to celebrate by slog-jogging 40 minutes around the new neighborhood, here in Muroor. You see a lot, plodding through the streets, after dark. Many people out? Are they young? Old? What are they doing? Playing? Talking? […]

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Weirdest Dec. 25 of my life. Which is fine, because it means it was memorable. It never felt like Christmas here. Not really. Aside from the couple of hours I spent at St. Andrew’s last night. Remember, for the overwhelming majority of people here, Christmas has no meaning. Which means that in a lot of […]

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Interesting concept, a major Christian holiday in a profoundly Muslim nation. There are times here when you think you might be the only Christian (or non-Muslim, for that matter) in any given crowd in this city. If you’re among the local Arabs or the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indonesians … all Muslims. And it seems as if […]

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I realize a lot of you aren’t at all clear about where I’m at. Don’t feel bad. Within the past 24 hours we have talked to two fairly intelligent people who had no real idea where Abu Dhabi is. One had never heard of the United Arab Emirates. And the other lives in Europe. Hmm. […]

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And I missed it? Sigh. Well, at least I caught up to it, here in Abu Dhabi. Three weeks later. I grew up in Long Beach. I went to Long Beach State. I edited the student newspaper there. And I have been following Long Beach State basketball since I was a sophomore in high school […]

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Baseball has not done well on the international scene. Not like basketball. Certainly not like soccer. A little better than American football, but that isn’t saying much. Baseball made the Olympics for a while, there. American football really isn’t played anywhere that isn’t the 50 states. However, I am now convinced baseball has an enormous […]

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The Teeny Abu Dhabi Apartment has one big, odd characteristic. It has five large (to very large) blank, white walls. That is, it has five tracts of vertical space practically crying out, “Put some art on me! Hang a tapestry! Do something to cover up my white nakedness!” So, today I did.

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