Even two weeks ago, it was “only” 105 here in Abu Dhabi. I stuck my head out the door, waited for the heat to slap me in the face … and decided I could make the 25-minute walk down to the supermarket. And I was right. Though I may not have wanted to go another […]

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A couple of friends of ours are leaving Abu Dhabi in 10 days. They are not coming back. We sometimes use Vietnam-era terminology to describe the concept of being expats in a place far from home. “The World” being the U.S., then as now. Being “short” means the days before you can leave are few. […]

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For months, I’d seen the kid in the newsroom. Maybe 26. One of our drivers, waiting for an assignment. He always wears a baseball cap. Backwards. Jauntily. With “Chicago” in script on the front of the hat — which puts it on the back of his head. It is not a look we commonly associate […]

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Euro 2012 began tonight, and if the Old World preening gets any worse these guys are going to dislocate shoulders from clapping themselves on the back. The quadrennial Euro soccer tournament involves 16 national teams from Uefa, and right about here in the discussion all Euro fans are obliged to inform the rest of the […]

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I love bobbleheads. I have confessed to this several times. At this minute, I have two bobbleheads on my desk at The National, here in Abu Dhabi. Duke Snider and David Eckstein area a little worse for wear, given that late-night cleaners handle them roughly, but they still nod at me, and make me smile. […]

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The Material Girl dropped by the UAE’s capital for a couple of shows over the weekend, and this time of year it is way too hot to be standing outside for hours. But the Sunday show was her first show in the Arab world, and it was a big deal locally. Something like 20,000 people […]

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Too bad it wasn’t December. Or January. Or February. Especially February, when the city has been dark and rainy for months with no end in sight and the idea of sun lures a man to the airport without complaint. It is hard to leave Paris like this, in early June. The birds singing and the […]

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  We are in the final days of the Paris trip, and we made sure we addressed some of the basics today, before it is too late. Several hours in Parc Monceau, watching the bourgeoisie run and play … a trip over to our favorite Paris restaurant … a walk under the Eiffel Tower … […]

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Two of the best barbecues I have enjoyed, in the past three years, have been in a leafy suburb of Paris. Didn’t see that coming. We Yanks don’t normally associate Paris with grilling large amounts of meat over a pile of glowing coals. A good reason for that: It’s apparently illegal to barbecue inside the […]

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Wide tracts of Paris are less than green. A large park is never far off … but often it isn’t nearby, either. I’m thinking of the Marais, and much of the rest of the right bank of the city. Lots of stone and cement. It’s not as if Paris is Hong Kong, where you can […]

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