Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire comes into effect    Five survivors found day after Red Sea tourist boat sinking    Imran Khan supporters pushed back by security forces    Russia launched a record number of almost 200 drones toward Ukraine    King Salman calls for rain-seeking prayer on Thursday    Al Hilal advances to AFC Champions League knockout stage despite 1-1 draw with Al Sadd    Finance minister: All Vision 2030 projects have sustainable funding that won't affect public finances    Crown Prince announces medium-term debt strategy to diversify funding sources "A resilient economy capable of overcoming challenges reflects progress towards achieving Vision 2030 goals"    Riyadh Season draws 8 million visitors in 6 weeks    Alkhorayef highlights role of National Initiative for Global Supply Chains in boosting Saudi economy    Saudi Arabia signs investment deals worth SR35bn with foreign firms to strengthen global supply chains    Saudi Arabia unveils updates on Expo 2030 Riyadh master plan at 175th BIE General Assembly Riyadh Expo Development Company established to oversee strategic planning, operations, and legacy development    Saudi FM attends Quadripartite meeting on Sudan in Italy    Best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford dies    Cristiano Ronaldo's double powers Al Nassr to 3-1 win over Al Gharafa in AFC Champions League    Al Ahli edges Al Ain 2-1, bolsters perfect start in AFC Champions League Elite    Most decorated Australian Olympian McKeon retires    Adele doesn't know when she'll perform again after tearful Vegas goodbye    'Pregnant' for 15 months: Inside the 'miracle' pregnancy scam    Do cigarettes belong in a museum?    Order vs. Morality: Lessons from New York's 1977 Blackout    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    

Articles of the author D G Danchik
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH: Mobile phones
HOW often have you asked yourself: Whatever did we do without mobile phones? I mean there was once, not so very long ago, a world in which people did not walk around, drive cars, eat meals, etc., with one hand holding a small metal box next to (...)

18 - 11 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH: ‘Birds on wheels'
SO many people have commented on the different types of drivers spotted along Jeddah's highways and byways that I have begun to think of it in ornithological terms with all the wonderfully varied plumage, exotic behavioral patterns, and even (...)

04 - 11 - 2008
McCain – what went wrong?
It may seem strange to be writing the political obituary of John McCain a week before the Nov. 4 US election, especially as some opinion polls show him gaining ground and others show that large numbers of people are still unsure about Barack Obama (...)

29 - 10 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH: The Customer is Always Right?
THE customer is always right? Wrong. Let's face it, what is considered to be the appropriate, ideal attitude and behavior of a salesperson varies from one culture to another and also depends on the sales situation – a fast food outlet, for example, (...)

21 - 10 - 2008
YOU HAVETO LAUGH: Rubberneckers
RUBBERNECKING is a descriptive term which conjures up the image of people with elastic necks who are able to twist their heads 360 degrees in order to stare or gawk at something with great curiosity. There is, for example, often a tie-up in traffic (...)

14 - 10 - 2008
President Obama
Well, that's it. The American election is over, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden are, respectively, the President and Vice President of the United States. Yes, I know, there are still three weeks and one presidential debate to go. And, yes, of (...)

13 - 10 - 2008
McCain – the game-changer
With four weeks left before Americans go to the polls to elect a new president, the numbers do not look good for John McCain. Since the start of the financial crisis, he has been steadily losing ground to Barack Obama in the polls especially in the (...)

08 - 10 - 2008
Obama, McCain: Time to get serious
Earthquakes come largely unannounced, are over quickly, and leave the landscape dramatically changed. The recent tectonic shift in the world's financial markets has had an effect far beyond the failure of investment banks and plunging and then (...)

22 - 09 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
DOROTHY Parker, the sharp tongued American wit of the first half of the last century, famously said of a Broadway performance of the young Katherine Hepburn in the 1930s that Miss Hepburn ran “the gamut of emotions from A to B,” referring to the (...)

16 - 09 - 2008
John McCain and the pit bull bounce
We all know how far a dead cat bounces – not very far at all. What we are about to learn is how far a live pit bull can bounce and how long it can keep bouncing. A little over two weeks ago, John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his (...)

12 - 09 - 2008
Obama, McCain, and change
The American people, it seems, are hungry for a change of government. Almost 80 percent of them say they are dissatisfied with the way the federal government is handling the nation's problems, 51 percent are very dissatisfied. Senators Barack Obama (...)

11 - 09 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
HAVE you ever had a sensory stimulus that triggered a flow of visual memories, as if someone with a remote control had clicked the Play button in your head and glowing images appeared in full HDTV format? It could be any kind of stimulus: something (...)

05 - 09 - 2008
McCain's bold but risky choice
IN one of the most astonishing developments in modern American politics, John McCain stunned the nation with his choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice presidential running mate. Although Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five who has (...)

31 - 08 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
Conversations in Jeddah these days always seem to include something about shortages. There is a shortage of water so that some areas of the community have to depend upon tankers to supply that precious liquid. In other parts of the world, people (...)

29 - 08 - 2008
Obama in Denver
Denver, the Mile High City, witnesses the opening of the four-day Democratic National Convention today. Those attending the convention will literally be one mile higher and further removed from the effects of gravity than those of us at sea level. (...)

25 - 08 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
IS it just me or has there been an increase in road rage in Jeddah in the last few weeks. Yes, I know that the annual Summer Festival has been on, schools are closed, and the city is filled with visitors many of whom while driving either do not know (...)

22 - 08 - 2008
‘Truth is beauty'
Almost two hundred years ago, John Keats began one of the most famous poetic couplets of the Romantic era with the line, “Truth is beauty, and beauty truth.” Over the years critics have argued about what Keats meant, as indeed philosophers through (...)

20 - 08 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
DRIVING in Jeddah is no laughing matter. We have to be constantly alert behind the wheel, completely defensive, prepared for anything to come at us from any direction at any time, and constantly on the lookout for warning signals. Furthermore, we (...)

15 - 08 - 2008
Obama, McCain, and Banquo's ghost
LIKE Macbeth, we have all had an unwelcome guest at a party whose presence proved to be just a bit awkward. Someone has shown up whom we would rather not see, or be seen with, or who we had hoped would have gone away by now. Unlike Banquo's ghost, (...)

14 - 08 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
HAVE you noticed any changes over the years in the quality of service that you receive in Jeddah when you go into a shop, a bank, a travel agency, or any other office in the private sector? In the old days, shops were small and you were most likely (...)

08 - 08 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
HAVE you noticed how over the years supermarkets have become larger and larger, selling more products and providing more services, so that now there is almost no connection with the sort of place where you used to go to get fresh food, canned goods (...)

01 - 08 - 2008
Obama: postcards from abroad
WHAT a week it was for Barack Obama! He arrived on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on July 19th the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and so successfully leveraged his presumption that he landed back in the US a little over a week (...)

30 - 07 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
SAD to say that unlike the ladybug in the children's nursery rhyme, the litterbugs of Jeddah seem to have no intention of flying away anytime soon. What does, however, fly out of their hands from car windows, in parks or gardens, along the (...)

25 - 07 - 2008
Listen to this!
The square dance, though not American by origin, over the years became such an American folk institution that nineteen states felt compelled to pass legislation declaring it the official state dance, one of which, Illinois, is the home state of (...)

19 - 07 - 2008
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH
RECYCLING is a hot environmental topic in many parts of the world. Plastic bags are being taxed in Ireland and will be against the law in Australia next year and in Italy the year after. In the UK and some American states, importers and retailers (...)

18 - 07 - 2008
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