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 Promise to America is the path forward for the Democratic Party and our Country. We couldn't be more excited to have @Tom_Suozzi and @AdamGrayCA be the founding signers to this initiative.
#BREAKING: Former United States President @JoeBiden will speak at the Institute of Politics on Wednesday afternoon for an off-the-record study group with his long-time adviser Mike Donilon, a spring fellow at the IOP.
@EliseSpenner reports.
https://t.co/sm95NZhfUO
The HLS student government is embroiled in a bitter feud with the Dean of Students Office over a referendum to condemning disciplinary action taken against participants of pro-Palestine study-in protests.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/pmw6wmAxGF
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 formed a 13-member faculty advisory committee to provide input on the search for Harvard Law School’s next dean, the University announced on Thursday.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/f7lbJSMvrq
Harvard Law School temporarily banned at least 60 students from its library on Thursday, prompting more than 50 other students to protest the suspensions by staging another “study-in” protest at the library.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/Uxjgxn0YCN
More than 100 Harvard Law School students protested the war in Israel and Gaza and “Harvard’s complicity in Israel’s genocide” at a silent “study-in” in HLS’ Langdell Library on Thursday.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/g4SJMC5h3Q
Every year at Harvard Law School, less than 200 students graduate with a Master of Laws, or LL.M., the exclusive HLS degree that has quietly shaped governments, courts, and legal systems around the world.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/jzX8FyinhZ
Harvard professors Derek Penslar and Noah Feldman discussed Jewish identity at Harvard and shifting discourse on Israel over the past year at a Tuesday event one year after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/XjgxKRJ4bh
Harvard Law School’s Black Law Students Association endorsed professor David Wilkins and controversial former Winthrop House Faculty Deans Ronald Sullivan Jr. and Stephanie Robinson in the search for a new dean.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/CHKFx14r9y
The share of students of color enrolled in Harvard Law School’s J.D. Class of 2027 dropped by eight percentage points compared to last year, according to data released by HLS on Thursday.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/OoVceDXc14
BREAKING: The share of students of color enrolled in Harvard Law School’s J.D. Class of 2027 dropped by eight percentage points compared to last year, according to data released by HLS on Thursday.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/OoVceDXJQC
BREAKING: Share of Students of Color in HLS Class of 2027 down eight points from last year, to 43%.
This is the first class admitted since the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in 2023.
w/ @saketh_sundar in @thecrimson
https://t.co/O1bIobkH43
HL Central — an unofficial nonprofit student organization at Harvard Law School — has pledged at least $500,000 to fund a $25,000 annual scholarship for one incoming first-year student over the next 20 years.
@MacHealey and @saketh_sundar report.
https://t.co/LFitDQRuMe
As the search for a new HLS dean begins, faculty expressed strong support for interim Dean Goldberg and his deputies. Meanwhile, HLS student leaders are advocating for an active role in the search.
In @thecrimson w/ @MacHealey
https://t.co/3ZqXXx6ven
A common strategy has emerged as several elite American universities, including Harvard, contend with sudden presidential vacancies: appoint interim leaders — and keep them.
@e1ysegoncalves and @MacHealey report.
https://t.co/fbj1E5UQOS
Alan M. Garber '76 was permanently appointed as Harvard's 31st president on Friday. The decision put the University in line with many peer schools that recently made similar moves.
w/ @MacHealey in @thecrimson
https://t.co/IJIS5XJDHB