USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
The whole 82-0 phenomenon reinforces that whole bit about how the only thing a bunch of dudes need in order to have a good time is to sit around announcing the names of a bunch of old athletes.
Scott Bessent is a fucking savage and has been spending waaay too much time with Trump. He is hilarious 😭
“Gavin Newsom again “I think he may be in over his hairdo — he brought kneepads, maybe that was for his meeting with Alex Soros.” 🤣
https://t.co/0a2bZhyEnU
@SoundDobad I know this may sound petty, but I can’t stand it when people put photoshop a meth pipe in my mouth. A crack pipe doesn’t have that little bowl at the end. This is why we can’t trust AI. Please make the appropriate edit. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
WSJ reports from inside the senators meeting with Platner. Some interesting details where his biggest backers pressed him if any additional allegations were coming.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders asked Platner if any additional allegations would emerge against the embattled Democratic candidate, according to people familiar with the discussion. Platner said there weren’t any.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also attended the meeting, followed up and said there is a big difference between marital issues and allegations of sexual assault, the people said. Platner agreed and denied any credible allegations of assault were forthcoming.
https://t.co/MaWPEJ3qVx
Browns DE Jared Verse with a bold statement on his first impressions of his new team:
"You can tell how a team is by how they practice. You see losing teams practice terribly. You see great teams practice amazingly. It translates. That's not a losing team out there. The way everybody was moving, I didn't get to get into the team situations today, that's going to be another day. But the way them boys are moving, this isn't a losing team."
Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests.
"White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19," they wrote.
https://t.co/EewPNgDSu3
It’s all talk. Just withhold foreign aid to Israel for a month and they’ll stop bombing their neighbors - instant peace, the Strait of Hormuz can be opened, and gas drops $2 a gallon. Israel has been, and continues to be, the biggest welfare recipient from American tax payers.
Seven properties, a Mercedes G-Wagon, sneakers worn by Kobe Bryant and a Mickey Mantle rookie card worth $1.5 million. All of these things were bought with taxpayer money.
Paul Randall pleaded guilty in one of the largest Medicaid fraud schemes in the California history – diverting more than $270 million in tax dollars.