The weather is the No. 1 topic of discussion in the United Arab Emirates at the moment, and not for the usual reasons. Instead of this being one of the hottest places in the world … we are struggling to deal with Arctic temps. Arctic, I tell you. Like 56 … 55 … 54 … […]

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This is hardly noticed in the particularly British (or Indian) parts of the world, but basketball probably is the second-most popular game on the planet. I know that several sports have made that claim (from volleyball to team handball to ping-pong, etc), but hoops probably is the real No. 2. Plus, a survey conducted last […]

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I thought the noise was unbearable in that moment in time when beepers ruled the land, 20-some years ago. They would go off in a press conference, and everyone but the perpetrator would be looking around, staring daggers at the idiot who had forgotten to turn off his beeper, which was now squawking. Now, of […]

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The United Arab Emirates is a distant doppelganger to Southern California, when it comes to cars. They love their wheels here. Love them. Mass transit here is buses. Not a rail line in the country, that I know of, though the government apparently is considering a high-speed rail link between the country’s major coastal cities. […]

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I’ve written fairly often about Diego Maradona. I know that. Almost unavoidable. El Diego coaches the Al Wasl team up in Dubai, and I cover a lot of domestic soccer/football here in the UAE. So Diego comes up a lot. We are trying to find the latest answer to the great sports question: How rare […]

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It was about 5 a.m. at this end of the Arabian Peninsula when Tim Tebow hooked up with Demaryius Thomas on the 80-yard scoring pass on the first play of overtime, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23 in the playoffs. By the time I got to the offices of The National later in the morning, something […]

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Well, 6.6 pounds lighter, to be exact. And it didn’t involve violent illness or amputation. You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but I weigh myself fairly regularly. Not that any of us really need to do that. Because if the clothes that used to fit don’t fit anymore … we’ve lost weight. Or, […]

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The big story in the offices of The National here in Abu Dhabi today … or most talked about, anyway … was the bar tab at a Dubai nightclub for 387,988 dirhams — or $105,638. Dubai is the biggest city in the UAE, and the best-known — which kills people in Abu Dhabi, the actual […]

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This was a first: A Briton asking me to write a story about Landon Donovan. The news peg is that Landon is back in England, for two months, on loan with the Premier League side Everton, and he seems likely to play his first match (in his second Everton go-round) Wednesday night. Here is that […]

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I addressed the question, in the headline above, in a comment piece for The National. Diego Maradona is the coach at Al Wasl, one of the top clubs in the UAE. As noted earlier on this blog, the FIFA co-player of the century (with Pele) is extraordinarily popular here. Loved to death. But can the […]

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