The Rams moved to St. Louis and became dead to me. Never appreciated the Raiders gangsta thing, and then they went back to Oakland. The Dodgers fell under the spell of the necromancer Frank McCourt. Never was an Angels guy. (I still consider them the Johnny-come-latelies who play 10-man ball.) Don’t care about hockey. Major […]

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I don’t make a habit of watching the final of the FA Cup, the second-biggest domestic prize in English soccer. Most of my life I just wasn’t interested enough, and I probably could not have seen it, anyway. Tonight I watched one for the second time in my life, and the first time since 1991. […]

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So, you, a Westerner, have just landed at the airport to take your job in Abu Dhabi. What would be the first 10 things that would make an impression on you? Yes, this is today’s list. 10. For a dry country, they sure do have a great variety of alcohol on sale at the duty […]

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To recap, Thursday night in the UAE is Friday night in the West. The end of the work week. And when we got word from a newsroom colleague that the detachment of Marines at the U.S. Embassy here in Abu Dhabi were hosting a Cinco de Mayo party … well, as Americans and Californians, don’t […]

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Putting this into historical context, I believe countries have a point where they feel a need to prove themselves to outsiders. This is when they enter their “biggest, longest, tallest” phase. Eighty years ago, the Empire State Building was built in an America coming to grips with its position in the world. As a major […]

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The UAE Falcons have been mentioned previously on this blog. Back in February I drove up to Dubai to watch them practice. A batch of guys, led by a German coach, are trying to play American football, as it is known here. (Just plain “football” in these parts being soccer.) They actually got a game […]

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One of the great urban myths from the days shortly after we arrived … was the “abandoned luxury car at the Dubai airport.” The narrative was this: High-flying foreign investor, realizes things have gone south as the real estate market implodes, well aware that white-collar crime is often heavily punished here … goes to the […]

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The most successful soccer club in the country is Al Ain FC, which happens to be located in the UAE’s version of suburbia, Al Ain City. Al Ain FC secured its 10th league title tonight in a 2-0 spanking of Al Jazira, the defending champions, who couldn’t be bothered to play hard. And UAE suburbia […]

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Just sitting here thinking of where I would go/visit … if time and money were no obstacle. Places I haven’t yet been. A fantasy list, I suppose it what it is, because it won’t happen, except in my imagination. You know the drill: top 10, with my most-like-to-see place at No. 1 10. Lisbon. Remember […]

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I love the President’s Cup final. It’s a major domestic soccer game, the local version of England’s FA Cup final. But what I really find fascinating is how big this is with the Emirati populace. This attracts regular guys in big numbers, but it also attracts many of the most prominent sheikhs in the country […]

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