Burgers are not in short supply in the UAE. McDonald’s seems to have franchises in every second Abu Dhabi gas station, and many hotel restaurants offer them, too. A burger shop has recently opened in the lobby of the building in which we live. (Which reminds me; burgers are always beef burgers, in the Gulf, […]

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Thanks to a reader from Hawaii for spotting this one, in the Los Angeles Times, of all places. A “mixologist” in Abu Dhabi is producing camel milk shakes, as well as latte. And he is at the new Ritz-Carlton, which is no more than 10 minutes from where we live. I have a confession to […]

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Since moving to Abu Dhabi, nearly four years ago, I have returned to the U.S. on three occasions. Each of those three times … I saw a baseball game within a few days of clearing customs at LAX. In this case, the Angels and Red Sox, at Anaheim Stadium. As usual, I found it a […]

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Traveling from the UAE to California is not a journey to be entered into lightly. One is divided from the other by 11 time zones. (Twelve time zones in the winter, when California goes off daylight savings time.) Only one nonstop exists from the UAE to California. (Emirates, from Dubai to Los Angeles, for 16 […]

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It is that time of year. School is over, summer has seized the country by the throat, Ramadan is on the way … and seemingly half the people in the UAE are headed for an airport. We at The National did a story this week about a rise in airline bookings this summer — up […]

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The condition known as “Delhi belly” is familiar in this part of the world, a reference to a form of traveler’s diarrhea, in this case picked up while in India (capital: New Delhi). It’s the regional equivalent of Mexico’s Montezuma’s revenge. A story in The National today, however, is about another form of Delhi belly […]

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Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi has an airport where most people alight only to catch another plane. The UAE is at a sort of crossroads of the Old World. If you want to go from Moscow south to South Africa, you may well change planes in the UAE. Going from Europe to the east of Asia? […]

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In a previous lifetime, an exchange student taken into our household gave me a gift. It was a garish necktie, quite long, with diagonal stripes of red, white and, I think, green. Maybe blue, too. Pretty sure I never wore it; it was that startling. I remember it being encased in a plastic sleeve and […]

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I love this concept. Love it. Even if it’s sponsored by a company that makes caffeine-laced sugary drinks that can’t be good for you … It’s just a very clever idea. The Red Bull King of the Rock. Start with a global 1-on-1 basketball tournament. Five-minute games, tournaments set in 25 countries to winnow the […]

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They play baseball here. Well, not here here, “here” being Abu Dhabi. To my knowledge, Abu Dhabi has one softball field … zero baseball fields. “Fields” of any sort are at a premium here in the desert, and heavily in demand by soccer players. So we have no ball fields here; none dedicated to baseball, […]

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