I “self-identify” as an Arsenal fan. This goes back years and years, all the way back to, oh, 2010, when I figured out I was an Arsenal fan without ever having made a conscious decision on the matter. Now that I am a fan of three years standing (albeit one who has never seen Arsenal […]

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I wrote a comment piece for The National today, looking at the United States soccer team, now assured of playing in a seventh consecutive World Cup. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, we must assume the majority of our readers know little or nothing of American soccer. They would refer to it as “football”, […]

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A kid from Iran this week won 1 million dirhams — or $272,000 — for playing video games. Maybe that will make his mother back off with all those “and who will pay you to play video games?” complaints. Turns out, the government here in the UAE will pay him — for winning a big […]

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I love the Mediterranean climate. Who doesn’t? Almost never really hot. Almost never really cold. Not much rain. Like here in Long Beach, California. Like in Sydney and Perth, Athens and Istanbul, Algiers and Barcelona, Cape Town and Santiago. Like nearly all of Italy. Consider the description:

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A few years in Abu Dhabi might lead a person to believe homelessness is not a significant problem around the world. In the UAE, everyone has a job … or they are headed for the airport. It’s the law. Which can lead to some jarring sensations, when you leave the UAE and touch down almost […]

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I was probably as pleased as anyone, aside from Real Madrid fans, perhaps, to see Barcelona go out of the Champions League. I’m very tired of their dainty little guys playing dainty little football, knocking it around 15 yards at a time, going sideways much of the time, just holding, holding, holding, able to run […]

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I am not too obstinate — OK, sometimes I am — to concede when I got one wrong. Or at least partly wrong. In January, I was certain David Beckham had picked the wrong club to join for the “one last challenge” he spoke of when he left the L.A. Galaxy, in December. That club […]

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We are into Month 2 of our car rental. For our first three years here, we made do with taxis and the occasional one- or two-day rental, nearly always job-related: A car to get me to a match in Al Ain or Dubai, for example. However, after we moved to the new place, further from […]

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I am trying to figure this out. Have I always hated to fly? Or do I hate it incrementally more, year by year, day by day? Other questions I am pondering:

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We hit Barcelona like a bunch of college kids on spring break. Like Russian sailors on shore leave. Had we enough time, we all would have gotten tattoos and probably ended up in jail. (OK, it was more like “seasoned travelers … very seasoned travelers … straggle back into downtown Barcelona the night before the […]

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