C.J. Gardner Johnson broke up two passes in a row against Josh Allen today in 11on11. Then on the next throw he picked it off. He told Allen he was going to touch the ball before the Bills broke for summer break… then delivered!
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.
My son is wearing a New York Knicks jersey as part of an experiment to see how people react.
So far, he has been spat on, punched twice, kicked 3 times and verbally abused.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when he leaves the house 🙂🙂
May 30, 2016:
- Thunder lose by 8 in Game 7 of the WCF to Harrison Barnes on his birthday
May 30, 2026:
- Thunder lose by 8 in Game 7 of the WCF to Harrison Barnes on his birthday
Bizarre
If the special teams coach in dark knight rises didn’t die in the explosion he for sure got fired for giving up a opening kickoff tud to hines ward slow ass