The Super Bowl isn’t a new idea anymore, though some of us remember when it was. We are becoming fewer. Of course. And those intimately involved with the game … to the point of being at all of them … well, only a handful remain. I knew most of the journalism side of this story. […]

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A few people have asked me via e-mail how the situation in Egypt looks from over here in the UAE. I can’t speak for a country or even a city, but I am certain of this generality: Everyone is watching.

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Yes, you’re officially old but vaguely hip (or were) if you recognize that headline as coming from a song from 25 years ago: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” One of those “let’s get a bunch of celebrity singers together for a big, star-powered song to raise money for starving people somewhere” recordings. Can’t say I […]

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If you asked young Emirati males to name their five favorite activities, at least two of them would be watching soccer and driving cars. Emiratis, you may have deduced, are the Arabs who live here in the United Arab Emirates. They constitute about 15 percent of the population but about 98 percent of the actual […]

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Took me, what, three plane rides between Qatar and the UAE to realize that the airport code for Doha could be an homage to Homer Simpson. Yes, the code is … DOH No exclamation mark, though they may as well put one on there and be in on the joke. “The Simpsons” gets pretty wide […]

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I remember when this happened. The process was approved in 2005, the move became final on January 1, 2006. Australia, out of the Oceania Football Confederation … and in to the Asian Football Confederation. It seemed weird to me. Bizarre. A mistake.  If nothing else, geographically. Australia is its own continent. It’s no more a […]

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Many NFL fans consider this to be the biggest day of the season: The conference finals. Seeing who goes to the Super Bowl, as opposed to the Super Bowl itself. I might tend to agree with that. Two games with so much on the line … has to be better than one, right? As for […]

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One major issue I have with the new place we moved into last month. A tub instead of a shower in the bathroom. And my only question is … why?

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Both are exotic here. Golf. And rain. And I got some of both today. The European Tour begins its season in the Gulf. First here, in Abu Dhabi, then over to Qatar and Bahrain, then back to the UAE, at Dubai. (Did you know the world’s top-ranked player, Lee Westwood, spends most of his time […]

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The country has one professional sports league of significance,  and it’s the soccer Pro League, which is 12 teams spending significant amounts of money to try to win a domestic championship and perhaps last for a while in the Asian Champions League. Your basic soccer competition. Except with a bit more upheaval. If you thought […]

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