If you have seen one World Cup soccer draw, you have seen them all. A vague attempt at some entertainment, a Fifa official droning on, someone from the host country talking a bit too long, then the puzzling, almost impenetrable dance of the ping pong bowls inside the giant goldfish bowls manned by celebrity presenters. […]

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It had never occurred to me. That Vin Scully’s hair might not be his own. It required a British colleague, at The National, to make me confront this. He had seen a photo of the Dodgers broadcaster on a page proof; I had run a small story on our two-page lighter-side-of-sports package in The National, […]

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I have been immersed in the English Premier League for most of five years now, and I have revealed/conceded both on this blog and in print that I am an Arsenal fan. (Or at least as far as I would prefer them to win, and I like them better than their competitors. In some quarters, […]

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In some ways, Abu Dhabi (city of), ought to be a paradise for bicyclists. The island is flat as a table, a table about four feet above sea level. Nary a hill, to speak of,  and only 9.7 square miles. Almost nothing is more than four miles from anything else. That’s a bit far to […]

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It was on Tuesday that several people in the newsroom of The National chuckled over one of the two cover stories on the front page, that morning, of an English-language newspaper rival, here in the UAE. UAE unaffected by Indian onion price hike Early this week, in the wake of Ramadan and Eid, things had […]

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It’s a pretty sweet deal to be an Emirati, in the year 2013. Life in this region was very, very hard before oil, and oil in any significant amount came on line only a half-century ago. There are elders in this country who personally knew a life of subsistence farming and pearl diving … and […]

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Usain Bolt has one of the most appropriate names in sports. The world’s fastest human. Of course he should be named Bolt. Then came an extraordinarily fluky moment at the Athletics World Championships in Moscow last night. It began to rain as the 100-meter sprint finalists headed for the start line, and it was coming […]

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When Jason Dufner shot a 63 in the second round of the PGA Championship, which we over here in the UAE follow with some interest, given that parts of this country look like Palm Springs with a shoreline … I looked at the photos of the guy and tried to remember why he seemed familiar. […]

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Last week, a letter arrived at the offices of Al Ain club, here in the UAE. It contained an invitation, extended by the English Premier League club Arsenal, to Omar Abdulrahman, by consensus the best soccer player in the country, to join the London club for a one-week trial. Not long ago — maybe even […]

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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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