The National is an unusual newspaper. Located in a country near the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, in a thriving city (Abu Dhabi) that attracts lots of expatriates. One that is written in English, a language that is native to only a fraction of the people who live here. The paper attracts an eclectic […]

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Today we link you to what I found to be two supremely interesting recordings of Sports People talking. I was thinking how the concept of the podcast and the videocast (is that the word?) are still fairly recent, in the larger scheme. Podcasts really gained traction only about a decade ago, and video of people […]

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We at The National are selecting — and writing about — the planet’s best places to see a sports event. Stadiums, arenas, race tracks (horse and motors), even a “Gulf.” This was the idea of Robert Mashburn, the sports editor here, who had a brainstorm a few months back to rank the top 10 venues […]

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My newspaper, The National, here in Abu Dhabi, has one of those “most-read” lists on its website. One for each department. News. Business. Sports. These lists are handy, whatever the news outlet. It allows you to discover quickly which stories are getting clicked on most often, and lets you catch up to stuff you might […]

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It’s chaos over there in the States, right? Owners and general managers ricocheting around the country chasing LeBron James and the other NBA free agents as of 12:01 EDT Thursday, trying to bundle up enough cash to sign Bron-Bron and all those other guys. We here at The National, in the United Arab Emirates, are […]

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Great day … I am back in sports journalism. I have transferred from the news desk at The National, here in Abu Dhabi, to the sports department. And so far it’s been rather like going home again. Even if “home” now includes quite a lot of cricket and rugby for what is, at heart, a […]

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It’s vacation! Not a change of laptop viewing venues! The three of us clearly didn’t get the memo. We had just had a very nice dinner of pesce spada (swordfish) for me, risotto con scampi for Leah and spaghetti vongale (pasta and clams) for Liz at one of the nicer restaurants in our little town […]

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I work at a newspaper that appears to have seven guys named Paul in its newsroom. Seven. And what makes things, uh, interesting … is that at the moment three of those seven Pauls work within three yards of each other. One of them is directly behind me and another faces him on the other […]

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My friend and former colleague Steve Dilbeck now blogs about the Dodgers for the Los Angeles Times. I would like to read Steve’s blog. I would also like to read a blog about the Dodgers. The trouble? None of the latimes.com blogs will load. Zero. Sports, politics, news. None can be called up. The people […]

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Another rough year for the economy. The world economy, the national, the state … People losing jobs. Unemployment of, what, 12.5 percent in California? Something like 10 percent in the nation? Even higher, when you include people who have stopped looking for work and the scads of people not fully employed. U.S. print journalism is […]

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