I’ll continue with the travel narrative in a bit, but here’s something a bit more recent
Well, after a hellish day of traveling, I’m back in the US of A. It was something of an unhappy arrival. I had a short scheduled layover in JFK airport in New York before proceeding to my new home of Washington DC. Unfortunately, neither the fates nor the Department of Homeland Security were with me. First, I got stuck behind an American dude with his new Spanish wife and kids and their dachshund (which had previously managed to escape during landing). That required some amount of paperwork, including the immigration official checking through the Spanish woman’s secret envelop (she was obliged to carry it with her, but was not able to see it before the immigration officer did). When it came my turn, the fellow was courteous enough, asking me the usual questions about what I was doing in the Middle East, etc. He assured me, “don’t get me wrong, I’ve visited Egypt. I like Egypt.” “I don’t,” I replied, while trying not to be too impolite. He did, however, find it quite strange that I would chose to take a trip to Sudan for tourism. “It was winter and we wanted to go somewhere warmer,” I said. “I’ve been to to Cairo in winter and it’s not that cold.” “We’re from California,” I clarified. “‘Nuff said!”
He then escorted me back to another room, saying to one of his colleagues, a Mr. ‘Abd al-Aziz, “I know you’re gonna hate me, but I got a CTR109 [or some such nonsense code] for you.” “You’re right. I do,” came the response. My name had popped up on the monitor and I was getting some special treatment. Me, a young Egyptian kid with an unfortunate name, a guy with a bit of a zabiba and a skullcap, an Egyptian family and a very tall New York Jew working between Cairo and Chicago, sporting a shaved head that nevertheless failed to disguise previous decades of Orthodox grooming. Depending on what you consider the latter, I was the only white person in the room, and the second to last to get questioned. Before it was actually my turn to go through the process, Mr. ‘Abd al-Aziz made a bit of small talk about Syphilis (that’s our cat), asking what kind of cat she was. I responded that she was a tortoise-shell. His answer was that he had some special breed at some point (I forgot what it was), but he had to get rid of it because it was “too emotional.”
After the poor kid who shared a name with an equally unfortunate Arab was waved off by ‘Abd al-Aziz, annoyed that he was obliged to bother this kid and have him open his bags, and after the New York Jew was advised to write to his Congressperson to complain that he is stopped and processed like this every time he goes back between Cairo and the US (writing the head of the DHS just won’t be going high enough, they assured him), I was then once again asked a number of routine and, considering the situation, not particularly invasive questions about what I had been doing in the Middle East, none of which would have been news to anyone reading this blog. About two-thirds of the time was spent not answering questions, but waiting while Mr. ‘Abd al-Aziz typed who-knows-what into the terminal.
Next, I had to proceed through customs, where I spent about 15 minutes waiting for someone to show up. The Customs official on duty was tied up dealing with the 20 cartons of Marlboros getting smuggled in by an Egyptian dude. The person that finally came again asked me a number of questions, most of which I had just answered with the previous two guys. Again, most of the time was spent waiting for the Customs official to type whatever it was he was typing. I should have just told them to save themselves the trouble. I’ve already done plenty of typing, they could just cut and paste from this blog.
Of course, by this point, I had missed my connection, so I was obliged to wait around for four hours for the next flight. Contrary to the Egyptian handlers who were more than happy to take my baksheesh in exchange for slinging my cat into the X-ray machine, the woman at JFK prit-near had a conniption when I slid Syphilis in her cat-carrier toward the X-ray machine with every intention of removing her before reaching the machine. I walked to the gate, where I was immediately assaulted by the sound of CNN turned up to 11. What’s more, aside from a couple minutes here about the police shooting of a serial killer and 15 seconds there about Honduran President Zalaya in the US, CNN spent every other moment “covering” the Michael Jackson memorial—”coverage” which largely consisted of footage of black cars driving around backed by repetitive interviews with people who had nothing interesting to say about Michael Jackson or anything else. I tried for a few hours to sleep through this ridiculousness with old Bruce Springsteen blasting in my ears to drown out CNN. Eventually, I realized there was a bar upstairs, so I proceeded to medicate myself with a Sam Adams cherry wheat beer. The cherry flavor was over the top. I felt like I was eating a McDonald’s cherry turnover with a beer chaser. Welcome to America.
‘Win the trophy. That’s what we can achieve,’ says Trent Alexander-Arnold of England’s chances at Euro 2024
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Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold says that the England squad will head to Euro 2024 believing it can win the European Championship in Germany this summer.
Speaking to CNN’s Senior Sports Analyst Darren Lewis, the Three Lions defender was bullish about England’s chances at the Euros.
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“People will say we’re one of the favorites. It’s the furthest thing from arrogance, but you have to have confidence and believe you can win it, otherwise you can’t.
“If you don’t believe you can, then you never will. So, look, we’ll go out there as a team. We’ll believe we can. But we know we have to perform in the way that we know we can to go and do it.”
Alexander-Arnold hasn’t featured much in 2024 due to a knee injury; the 25-year-old has recently returned to action in the Premier League with Liverpool, scoring a sublime free-kick against Fulham in a 3-1 win on April 21 for the Merseyside club.
Now, his goal is to prove to England boss Gareth Southgate that he is worth a place in the squad and build on his 23 international appearances.
It might surprise people to hear where Alexander-Arnold believes is his best position for the national team: in midfield alongside Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham.
“I would say midfield, I think, in an England shirt,” said Alexander-Arnold, who usually plays for Liverpool in defense as a right-back.
“I see myself as a midfielder, and that’s down to the conversations I’ve had with the manager,” he added.
“If it comes down to it, look, clearly I can play at right back and I can do a good job there. But with the conversations I’ve had with the manager and how he’s kind of spoken to me about the position, it is a midfield role – I see an opportunity there.”
Alexander-Arnold was ruled out of Euro 2020 after sustaining a thigh injury in the build-up to the competition and missed being part of England’s run to the final, where the Three Lions ultimately lost on penalties to Italy. During the 2022 World Cup, the Liverpool star was an unused substitute on four occasions and played just 33 minutes in Qatar.
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The 2024 NFL Draft has kicked off with the Chicago Bears selecting USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick on Thursday night.
Bears fans at the event applauded Williams as he walked onto the stage to share an embrace with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
This year’s draft could well be be a blockbuster one, with heaps of highly-touted quarterback talents, a potentially all-time wide receiver group and overall value throughout. It’s the first time in NFL history five quarterbacks were selected in the top 10, and there are plenty more teams searching for an answer at the position.
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With teams loaded on veteran players, the draft allows the 32 franchises to stock up on young prospects before heading into training camp to fine tune their rosters ahead of the opening of the new season in September.
Earlier Thursday, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said on X 150,000 fans are in attendance at the draft.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 NFL Draft.
There are some years where the crop of quarterbacks coming out of college football isn’t awe-inspiring.
This is not one of those years.
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Boeing and NASA decide to move forward with historic crewed launch of new spacecraft
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The mission is on track to take off from Florida as soon as May 6, carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station, marking what could be a historic and long-awaited victory for the beleaguered Starliner program.
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“Design and development is hard — particularly with a human space vehicle,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner program manager at Boeing, during a Thursday news briefing. “There’s a number of things that were surprises along the way that we had to overcome. … It certainly made the team very, very strong. I’m very proud of how they’ve overcome every single issue that we’ve encountered and gotten us to this point.”
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Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold says that the England squad will head to Euro 2024 believing it can win the European Championship in Germany this summer.
Speaking to CNN’s Senior Sports Analyst Darren Lewis, the Three Lions defender was bullish about England’s chances at the Euros.
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“People will say we’re one of the favorites. It’s the furthest thing from arrogance, but you have to have confidence and believe you can win it, otherwise you can’t.
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Alexander-Arnold hasn’t featured much in 2024 due to a knee injury; the 25-year-old has recently returned to action in the Premier League with Liverpool, scoring a sublime free-kick against Fulham in a 3-1 win on April 21 for the Merseyside club.
Now, his goal is to prove to England boss Gareth Southgate that he is worth a place in the squad and build on his 23 international appearances.
It might surprise people to hear where Alexander-Arnold believes is his best position for the national team: in midfield alongside Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham.
“I would say midfield, I think, in an England shirt,” said Alexander-Arnold, who usually plays for Liverpool in defense as a right-back.
“I see myself as a midfielder, and that’s down to the conversations I’ve had with the manager,” he added.
“If it comes down to it, look, clearly I can play at right back and I can do a good job there. But with the conversations I’ve had with the manager and how he’s kind of spoken to me about the position, it is a midfield role – I see an opportunity there.”
Alexander-Arnold was ruled out of Euro 2020 after sustaining a thigh injury in the build-up to the competition and missed being part of England’s run to the final, where the Three Lions ultimately lost on penalties to Italy. During the 2022 World Cup, the Liverpool star was an unused substitute on four occasions and played just 33 minutes in Qatar.
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