Gotta be honest, this @ufc event at the White House looks spectacular. This is a big time show. I’m not there, and we all know all the complaints folks had about renovations at and around the White House, etc, but — to be fair — this is some impressive stuff I’m looking at. Props to UFC President @danawhite and the show they’ve put on. It’s Bigtime. Plain and simple!!!
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.
I have been in Starkville for 24 hours & the hospitality has been unmatched!
Crushed a freaking majestic steak with my new friends at Big E’s Dinner club. Holy hell what a meal, so stoked for the rest of an awesome weekend
"Today is my mom and dad's anniversary ... this is for them." ❤️
Delainey Everett dedicated her scoreless outing vs. OU to her late father after she lifted Mississippi State to its first-ever trip to the WCWS.
DAWGS headed to the WCWS!
State takes down mighty Oklahoma 6-0 sending the Bulldogs to the College World Series for the first time in school history and ending nine-straight trips for the Sooners.
What a moment for Samantha Ricketts and the Dawgs!