I heard the end of the 2014 World Series on Thursday morning in Abu Dhabi — Wednesday night in Kansas City, where the San Francisco Giants defeated the Royals 3-2 to win the championship for the third time in five years. I preferred the Giants. The Dodgers’ arch-rival, sure, but a National League team, and […]

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This is a sailing event that lasts nine months, so it’s not like you need to follow it day by day on the first leg of the round-the-world race to have a sense of the eventual winner. But I am doing just that. Following it day by day.

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Production journalists are creatures of habit. They know what will fit where. How many words with how many pictures. How to assemble four blocks, or five or six, to make a page. Fitting together shapes to complete a puzzle. And coding it up becomes a synaptic exercise. Just put your fingers on the keys, and […]

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It was on October 16, 2009, that we arrived in Abu Dhabi. Five years ago today. It seems longer. Not in a bad way. More in a “hard to remember life before” kind of way. A rule of thumb, among expats, is that if you do five years out of your home country, you never […]

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And I know a hare-brained sports scheme when I see one, having inflicted several dozen on myself over the past 30-some years. This one is crazy enough not even I would have done it in my youth. Probably not. Well, maybe not. And it involves 48 kids from the ages of 10 to 16. Check […]

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The national soccer team, easily the most popular and most professional of sports teams in the UAE, literally the only sport most Emiratis care about … played tonight. How did it turn out? Well, the UAE lost 4-0, at home, to Uzbekistan. Which is not what this current group of guys who, collectively, probably make […]

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  The Volvo Ocean Race may not be well known in the U.S. It is worth knowing. It’s the greatest race in the world. Nothing else involves sailboats circling the planet as fast as they possibly can be driven. The sailors will touch every continent except Antarctica and Australia. They will sail over every ocean […]

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On the same night Landon Donovan bid adieu (check the video at the bottom of the link) to international soccer in an emotional evening in Hartford, we were Australia fans for a few hours in Abu Dhabi. The UAE was playing host to the Aussies (or Socceroos, as they sometimes are known, back in the […]

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Planning vacations. Who knew that would be revealed as one of the widest culture gaps in the UAE? In short, westerners plan vacations. Often far in advance. In general, Emiratis plan little or not at all for vacations. And each group finds the other’s approach baffling. Take, for instance, the looming Islamic holiday of Eid […]

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The Asian Games. Held every four years … somewhere in Asia. The biggest world’s sports event that isn’t the Summer Olympics. Something like 10,000 athletes, and closer to 13,000 people involved, when coaches and staff are counted. The Asian Games are almost as big as the continent. And the 2014 edition opened offically tonight, with […]

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