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.
College athletics in the dumps because they wouldn’t let kids monetize their YouTube channel or sign their jerseys for money. Kids weren’t even asking for much and now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with no guardrails.
As disastrous a ruling as there has ever been in modern sports. The pathway is now clear: gamble as much as you like, including on your own team and hope you are--or get--good enough that you can lawyer up down the line. A much bigger disaster than anything with NIL or portal.
I’m very positive Shai has not shot into the “coworker who doesn’t even watch the NBA but will go out their way to tell you they hate Bron” stratosphere. And I’m more than willing to bet he never will.
Never saw the appeal of roller coasters. Yeah we gonna wait on line for 45 minutes for a ride that lasts 90 seconds and the whole appeal is to scare the shit out of you by moving at speeds and heights that can kill you if something goes wrong. Bro just point me to the turkey legs
It’s so funny because people told me James Harden only kicked his legs out on his shot in game five because he was doing a step back.
What’s the explanation now?
Shoutout the Browns for doing right by their guy and making sure he���s still getting his checks and active insurance after a life threatening injury on the field … We know some teams, especially in the past, would’ve tried to find a way out of paying for a player that got hurt on their dime. Experiencing that first hand is why I appreciate the Browns for staying solid for Jeremiah. 💯🙏🏽
Ausar Thompson has 3+ OREB and 3+ stocks in every single game of this series.
He has the most total OREB in the playoffs (23), the 2nd most steals (14), the 2nd most blocks (14) and by far the most stocks (28).
Truly an unfathomable athlete.
Jokic losing a 3 vs. 6 seed first round series against an opponent who’s down their best player and another top five player is something they would’ve put LeBron in a gulag for in the 2010s. Just crazy
The latest megadeal for a top young player: Shortstop Kevin McGonigle and the Detroit Tigers are in agreement on an eight-year, $150 million contract extension. A massive windfall that locks up the 21-year-old well into the next decade.