Much is being made about the brutal cold expected at the NFL playoffs game in Minneapolis on Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings versus the Seattle Seahawks at the University of Minnesota — with a forecast temperature at kickoff of 0 degrees Fahrenheit. That will make it one of the coldest games in NFL history, though the […]

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An American Christmas. We had not done one of those since 2007. A semi-surprising stat, in retrospect, given that I had not been outside Southern California on December 25 for a very long time … and maybe never, through 2007. Then came Hong Kong in 2008 and Abu Dhabi from 2009 through 2014. And I’m […]

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After six years and two months in Abu Dhabi, we leave the UAE for the final time today, headed for Los Angeles on flight EY171, Etihad’s 16-hour-plus nonstop to LAX. It was a fast six years, filled with challenges unimagined during previous incarnations as California journalists. Each of us added a significant stretch to our […]

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Drones? Turn the birds of prey loose on them! This became a local story, in Dubai, when someone’s drone, hovering over Jumeirah Park, was brought down by a falcon, as explained in this story in The National. A Polish expat, who witnessed the falcon attack, got a photo of the falcon perched atop its victim, […]

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This has been a point of pride, in the UAE, for months now: Not only was a significant fraction of the first half hour of Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed in the deserts of Abu Dhabi … the movie premiered for the public here yesterday, December 16, two days ahead of the North American […]

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The thing about the internet is … it lasts forever. Or it must seem that way for those who wish people would stop dredging up some social-media faux pas of theirs from four or five years ago. The reality, says a key official at Google, is that we may be entering a new Dark Age, […]

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I had no inkling this would turn into one of the most uplifting nights of my life as a sports journalist. I knew that the Switzerland-based International Sports Press Association had teamed with Abu Dhabi Media to arrange for the first global competition meant to honor the best in sports journalism. What was not clear, […]

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After six years on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean, I can safely identify two additions to Sports Competitions I Follow. The English Premier League … which is a subdivision of the ultra elite European Champions League. This is where the world’s most famous sports teams come to play because, really, we must concede […]

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One of the many memorable moments in Steve Martin‘s 1991 film L.A. Story involves his portrayal of local TV weatherman  Harris K. Telemacher speaking with another Angeleno about a shocking drop in temperature … all the way down to 58 degrees! They talk about “closing the windows” and “letting the cats inside”. Martin’s character sums […]

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As a sports editor, it is easy to wonder why various fields of endeavor cannot arrange their schedules so that they don’t overlap and dilute their audience — as well as the media recognition they might get that night or the next morning. Today, for instance, we had at least four events that could have […]

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