After 150 miles on Southern California freeways the past two days, following most of two years driving in the UAE, I am fairly confident in writing this: Driving is a lot less scary here than in the UAE — where in 2010 the second-leading cause of death was “road injury”. Some obseverations.

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The Dodgers released the dates for their promotional giveaways, in 2015, and we will wade through the tatty (fleece blanket) and the bizarre (a Tommy Lasorda garden gnome; brilliant but creepy) and go straight to the stuff that matters. The bobbleheads! The Dodgers have 10 bobblehead games scheduled for 2015, which boggles the mind. Remember […]

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I like to think I am good with geography. I have studied maps and globes since childhood. For fun. At this moment, I own three globes, here in Abu Dhabi, two of them about five inches wide, the third about 10. One of the little ones, which is quite nice despite its size, sits on […]

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This is kinda obnoxious, isn’t it. “Yeah, I’ve seen so many Super Bowls that I can do a list of my favorite five. That I saw. In person.” I have watched most of all of the 47 played so far. Which mostly means I’m old. I watched 35 of them on TV, but the other […]

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A few of these surprised me. Starting with No. 1. Other surprises came from the cities not on the list. These are the 10 most heavily traveled routes, leaving from Abu Dhabi, per Etihad Airways, the government-owned, Abu Dhabi-based carrier — which just had a record year, as this National story notes, by number of […]

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999 magazine is published in English by a UAE government ministry, and the December issue had an interesting bit of information that makes for a handy list, too. (This was picked up by nearly every media outlet in the UAE, including The National. With comment from local law officials who make the point that ignorance […]

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My age cohort comes from a generation of Americans that prefers to believe it will never be old. Certainly, it was a Baby Boomer who first uttered the infamous, “50 is the new 40” … and other riffs on that theme. And maybe, collectively, Baby Boomers will last longer and enjoy good health longer than […]

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It was four years ago today, October 18, 2009, that we began work at The National, in Abu Dhabi. I did not mention Day 1, in the blog entry that day, but it shows us going to the mall and trying to get a sense of the UAE. Seems like yesterday … and a lifetime […]

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Air travel has become crude and brutish over the past few decades. It has gotten worse in nearly every regard. But not on every front. Planes are safer. They seem to go more places. And the big one: The multi-media platforms most of the big and/or new planes have. Most of the movies I watch […]

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No, this is not about taking that civil engineering degree overseas. Still thinking about the Clint Dempsey move from Tottenham to the Seattle Sounders. Giving up a very prominent club for one hardly known inside the U.S. — even if the Sounders have great fans. So, mulling this a bit more, and I decided to […]

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