A few days back I posted an entry about how I doubt I will be able to cheer for the U.S. national team at the coming World Cup, because I have developed an animus towards Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach who dumped Landon Donovan. That provoked some reaction, some of it more than a bit tart. “We don’t […]

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In my time in the UAE, the senior national soccer team has been, mostly, wretched. The Emirati footballers completed a hapless campaign in the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup just after I arrived in Abu Dhabi, in late 2009, but I heard about it, and the reverberations could still be felt. […]

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This was a nice day in the realm of international sports for the UAE. An Emirati shooter won gold and a wheelchair sprinter won silver in the London Paralympic Games today. How big a deal is that?

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Every now and then I get on my marching band freak. I love marching bands. I may have mentioned that. Generally, I love the USC marching band. The Spirit of Troy, as the kids in sunglasses and plumed helmets prefer to be known. I would never say they are America’s best marching band. They are […]

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I know this is not ecumenical. I know it’s retro. But I am a child of the Cold War, and we treasured Olympic medals like … well, gold … back then, and kept close tabs of where they went. And I have never given it up. I am always aware of who leads the medals […]

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More peregrinations. From Abu Dhabi to the middle of New Jersey in eight “easy” steps covering 25 hours.

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London has turned out to be a fine city to host a modern Olympics. Lots of diversions, plenty of local expertise to make it all happen, good facilities, nice people, easy to reach … London is not new at this, though, having hosted twice before, including in 1948. But that was long ago, before the […]

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You hear this, now and then. And I did the other day on BBC. Or maybe it was Al Jazeera, here in the Gulf. That Usain Bolt, sprinter from Jamaica, “saved” track and field. Perhaps kept it from going extinct? Is that what “saved” means? Which is silly, of course. Track and field now is […]

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Watch track and field … athletics, most of the world calls it … and you will see some strange things. (And, no, that does not include U.S. teams throwing the baton and throwing the baton during the 4×100 or 4×400 relays; that happens at every Olympics.) Not many recent episodes, however, have been stranger that […]

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We continue to think of travel as difficult, but it really is not, in the abstract, compared to 10 years ago, never mind 50 or 100. Multiple flights, multiple varieties of ground transport … So, in Coventry, England. Going back to Abu Dhabi, UAE. How to?

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