From 1982 until 1992, I visited London quite often. At least four extended stays in the city and the surrounding countryside. Twice, to cover Wimbledon, from start to finish, in 1985 and 1986. However, before today, the last time I was in London was 1993, and that was soccer-related, too. I was on my way […]

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A fun discovery at the breakfast spread, here at the Grandhotel Lienz in Austria: The Kleine Zeitung. That translates as Little Newspaper, and nothing could be more direct. This is a quarter-size newspaper, in one section. Like a tabloid, except about half the sheet size. (I placed a Bic pen on the paper, in the […]

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The National opened for business in April of 2008, and the newspaper had a website from the start. Of course. But in the past year or so, efforts to get readers to the site have intensified, and more people are involved on the web side of things, and page views have gone up dramatically. So, […]

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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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To live and work in the UAE is to believe water is plentiful. A fair amount of green, especially in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi. Fountains. Plenty of the stuff streaming out of our taps. Which is madness, because the UAE is on the edge of one of the driest deserts in the world, and […]

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Sharjah FC is one of the UAE’s most storied soccer franchises. The club won the first domestic title in the history of the UAE, in the pre-history of 1974, and added four more after. They also have won eight President’s Cups, the second-biggest prize in domestic football, and those eight are the biggest total among […]

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Roy Hodgson was named coach of the England national soccer team yesterday, and it was not a popular choice. Most English fans seemed to prefer Harry Redknapp, a sort of lovable rogue of a coach, in English eyes, currently at Tottenham, who has occasional bouts with the tax man and other shady doings. But “Arry” […]

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The Pan-Arabia Enquirer could be a regional English-language newspaper. It actually is an online satire site of The Onion ilk. And it is quite amusing, in my considered opinion, and points up the silliness of various concepts and institutions — which is the point of satire. If some of it is a little too “inside” […]

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Time for a little reminder of the best play from the best Super Bowl. Sure, you could search it, but since I have the link right here, you can look at it with one click. I wrote about Super Bowl 42 (Giants 17, Patriots 14) for The National, declaring it the best of the big […]

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The world of professional football (international variety) seems enormous. Countries you couldn’t find on a map have professional leagues. Countries you’ve never heard of have leagues. Countries like England and Germany have about 28 tiers of leagues. I’ve been writing from the UAE for more than two years and, admit it, most of you have […]

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