Matt Allan

Go Knights!

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I was invited to play a sport called pickleball by a man who is seventy-one.

I did not take this seriously enough. I want that on the record early.

The paddle is small. The ball has holes in it. The court is smaller than tennis. The name contains a pickle. I arrived believing I was being kind to an old man.

The old man is named Gary. Gary went 11 to 2.

He did not run. That is what I need to convey. He did not run one time. He stood in one place and the ball came to him, always, as though he had arranged it in advance, and I ran approximately four kilometers inside a rectangle.

There is a zone at the front of the court that you may not enter to strike the ball out of the air.

It is called the kitchen.

I asked why it is called the kitchen.

Gary said, "Nobody knows."

I asked whether there is an official term.

He said, "Non volley zone." Then he said, "Nobody says that."

So there is a written name that exists and is ignored, and a spoken name that is a room in a house, and every player in this country from nine years old to ninety uses the room.

I told him that a discipline with a forbidden ground, a name no one can account for, and a master who does not move, is not a game but a school, and that I wished to be taught properly.

Gary said, "You wanna go again?"

We went again. 11 to 4. He gave me the two extra points on purpose and both of us knew it.

Here is what I actually saw at those courts. Four of them, eleven in the morning on a Tuesday, and the people on them were somewhere between nineteen and eighty and they were mixed together at random. Nobody organized it. Nobody is in charge. There is a rack, you put your paddle in the rack, and the rack decides who plays next.

I have never once seen an eighty year old man and a nineteen year old woman be teammates in my country. Not in any activity.

I bought a paddle. It cost more than I expected and I did not ask why.

I have not beaten Gary.

Gary has a knee replacement. He told me which side it is on.

He told me on purpose.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I said goodbye to an American family at eight o'clock.

I left at 9:40.

Nothing went wrong. Nobody stopped me. I stood up, I said thank you, and then a ritual began, and I did not know it was a ritual until I was already inside it.

The first goodbye happens sitting down. This one is false. You say "well" and then you do not move. I moved. That was my first error.

The second goodbye happens standing. There is new conversation here. Better conversation. The finest stories of the entire evening are told after everyone has agreed to leave.

They save their best material for the retreat. This is a nation that fights hardest on the way out the door.

The third goodbye happens at the door. The door is open. Cold air is entering the house and nobody acknowledges the cold air. A woman named Deb told me about her sister's kitchen for eleven minutes with a screen door tapping against her shoulder the entire time.

Then the porch. Then the driveway.

At the driveway the husband got involved. He had barely spoken at dinner. In the driveway he became a different man entirely and told me about a tree.

I don't remember anything about the tree. I remember that he was happy.

Then leftovers arrived. At the car. Which means someone went back inside and made a plate while I stood in the dark, and nobody asked that person to do it.

Nobody ordered that. The supply train left on its own.

I got in the car. I believed I had won. My window was down because it was warm out. That was my final error.

Deb remembered one more thing.

Here is what I have learned since. You do not say goodbye. You say "I should get going," which starts a clock nobody looks at. Then, some time later, the host says "well, I'll let you go."

That is the permission. Only the host can grant it. I had been trying to leave without it, like a man walking out of a castle without being dismissed.

I now announce that I should get going one hour before I intend to get going.

An American friend confirmed this is correct procedure.

He also told me his grandmother once said "I'll let you go" and then talked for twenty more minutes, and he wanted me to understand that this is not a failure of the system.

That is the system.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I called a recommended electrician and he did not answer.

I called again the next day. He did not answer.

I mentioned this to the man who gave me the number, apologetically, assuming the man had died.

He said, "Oh yeah, he's terrible with the phone."

Then he said, "He's great though."

Terrible with the phone. Great though.

I asked how I am supposed to reach a man who does not answer his phone.

He said, "Just keep calling. He'll pick up eventually."

I called eleven times over six days. I left three messages of increasing formality. The third one was, I now realize, addressed to a dead man.

On day seven he answered and said, "Yeah?"

No apology. No acknowledgment of eleven calls. He answered as though we were mid-conversation.

I have since learned the rule, and the rule is upsetting.

The good ones do not answer.

The ones who answer immediately, who have a scheduling system, who send a confirmation text, who arrive in a branded vehicle within twenty-four hours, are the ones you should be afraid of.

Availability is the warning sign.

A man who can come tomorrow is a man with nothing to do tomorrow.

I said this out loud to an American and he nodded like I had recited scripture.

He said, "My guy took nine days to call me back. Best tile guy in the state."

Nine days. He said it with pride. He was bragging. He was bragging about being ignored.

I asked the electrician why he does not answer.

He said, "I'm in an attic."

That is the whole answer. He is in an attic. He is in an attic every day. The phone is in the truck and the truck is in the driveway and he is in the attic.

He said, "If I answered the phone I'd be a guy who answers phones."

He fixed my problem in thirty minutes and did not charge me for the trip.

I have his number. He will not answer it.

That is how I know it is a good number.

How long did your best guy take to call you back. Post the number of days. I want to see the correlation.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

There is a chair in every American house that is not for sitting.

It is for clothes.

Not dirty clothes. Not clean clothes. A third category that exists only in America and has no name in my language.

Worn once. Not soiled. Cannot go in the drawer. Will not go in the hamper.

They sit on the chair.

Inside I said: THEY HAVE ESTABLISHED A NEUTRAL TERRITORY BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN AND THEY HAVE GARRISONED IT WITH A CHAIR.

I asked a woman what the chair was called.

She said, "The chair."

I asked if it had another name.

She said, "The clothes chair. The chair. Everybody has one."

Everybody has one. She said it with total certainty. She did not know that she was making a claim about three hundred million people.

She was correct.

I have now surveyed nineteen American homes.

Seventeen had the chair.

The two that did not had a substitute. One had a stationary exercise bicycle performing the same function. One had a treadmill.

Inside I said: WHEN THE CHAIR IS ABSENT, A MACHINE IS CONSCRIPTED. THE FUNCTION MUST EXIST. THE VESSEL IS NEGOTIABLE.

I asked the woman when she last sat in it.

She said, "In 2019."

I asked what would happen if she put the clothes away.

She said, "Then I'd have to decide."

There it is again. The same word. The drawer, the chair, the same nation, the same refusal.

Inside I said: THIS COUNTRY HAS BUILT ITS FURNITURE AROUND THE PLEASURE OF NOT DECIDING, AND IT HAS NEVER ONCE ADMITTED THIS OUT LOUD.

I do not have a chair.

I have a bench at the foot of my bed.

I bought it for shoes.

There has never been a shoe on it.

There are four shirts on it and I know exactly how clean each one is and I could tell you the order they were placed there and I will not be moving any of them.

What is yours. Chair, bike, or treadmill.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

My car made a noise.

I took it to a large repair chain. They gave me a printed estimate for two thousand dollars. It was itemized. It had a barcode. It looked extremely legitimate.

I showed it to an American.

He read it for four seconds and made a sound with his teeth.

Then he said, "Don't do that."

I asked what I should do instead.

He said, "Go see Sal."

Sal has no sign. Sal operates out of a building with no name on it, on a street with no other businesses, behind a chain link fence that is always open.

There is no website. There is no phone number that anyone answers. You simply go there, and Sal is there, and Sal has always been there.

Inside I said: THE MAN HAS NO BANNER AND NO GATE AND YET EVERY HOUSE IN THIS PROVINCE KNOWS THE ROAD.

I drove to Sal's. There were nine cars in the lot. Nine. On a Tuesday. With no advertising of any kind.

Sal listened to my engine for eleven seconds.

He did not connect a computer. He did not look at my paperwork. He put his hand flat on the fender and listened, the way a physician listens to a chest.

He said, "Sensor."

I asked how much.

"Hundred forty."

I showed him the two thousand dollar estimate.

He read it. He handed it back. He said, "They're not wrong."

They're not wrong.

He would not insult them. A man with no sign, being handed the paperwork of a national chain, declined to say a single bad word about it.

He said, "They gotta replace the whole assembly. That's their rule. I just replace the sensor."

Inside I said: HE DID NOT CALL THEM THIEVES. HE EXPLAINED THEIR CONSTRAINTS. HE DEFENDED THE MEN WHO WERE ABOUT TO TAKE MY MONEY.

He fixed it in forty minutes.

I asked how he learned this.

He said, "My dad."

I asked if his dad was still around.

He pointed at a chair in the corner of the garage. An old man was sitting in it, doing nothing, watching.

He had been there the entire time. I had not registered him as a person. I had registered him as furniture.

Inside I said: THE MASTER SITS IN THE CORNER AND SAYS NOTHING AND THE SON IS ALREADY BETTER THAN HIM AND THIS IS THE ONLY THING HE HAS EVER WANTED.

I asked the old man if the son was good.

The old man said, "He's alright."

Sal did not react. Sal has heard "he's alright" his entire life. Sal understands what it means. Sal will say it to his own son in thirty years and mean the same thing.

I have sent four people to Sal.

None of them were told the address. I described the fence.

They all found it.

They always find it.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I mentioned that my garage door was making a sound.

An American immediately said, "I got a guy."

He did not ask what the sound was. He did not ask what kind of door. He produced a guy on the basis of the word garage.

I asked who the guy was.

He said, "Just a guy."

He did not have a company name. He had a first name and a phone number in his phone saved as "Mike Garage."

That is the contact name. Mike Garage. As though Garage is his surname. As though there is a family.

I asked how he found this guy.

"My brother-in-law used him."

I asked if the brother-in-law was satisfied.

He thought about it. Then he said, "He's still standing."

The house is still standing. That is the entire review.

Inside I said: THEY DO NOT KEEP RECORDS. THEY KEEP LOYALTIES.

I called Mike Garage. He answered from inside a vehicle. There was wind. He said he could come Tuesday between eleven and four.

Between eleven and four. A window of five hours. In my country this would be a scandal. Here it is generous. He gave me a window at all. Some guys do not give you a window. Some guys say "Tuesday" and that is the whole appointment.

He came at 1:40.

He fixed it in twenty minutes. He charged me less than I expected and he did not take a card, only cash or an app I had never heard of.

Before leaving he looked at my water heater, which I had not mentioned, and said, "That's gonna go."

I asked when.

"Couple years."

I asked what I should do.

He said, "I'll give you a guy."

He gave me a guy. Mike Garage has a guy. The guy has a guy. There is a network beneath this country made entirely of men named after their function, and none of them advertise, and all of them are busy.

Inside I said: THERE IS A SECOND NATION HERE. IT HAS NO SIGNS. IT IS ENTERED ONLY BY INTRODUCTION.

I have been given four guys since.

I have a guy for trees.

I did not know I needed a guy for trees.

I have trees now, apparently. They are my responsibility. A man named Rick told me so and then left.

[9mmSMG @9mmsmg]

New to trying to be healthy? Here's some advice.

1. Buy a blood pressure arm cuff and a high quality one. Take three measurements in the morning before eating, activity or any stimulants like caffeine or nicotine. Wake up, sit down, put the cuff on and average the three measurements. I check mine 2x a week to see what I'm eating or doing is doing to my BP so I can adjust. I maintain great BP through this practice. I also take evening readings occasionally to see how the day impacted it.

2. Get blood work, and I mean full panel labs. Have everything checked. Your cholesterol is the number 1 thing you should look at and your a1c is the second. Go through any other red flags after those.

3. Buy a fitness tracker and wear it day and night. I have the Whoop MG (not sponsored or have any affiliate link) but the Amazon one and the fitbit air are great too. I just feel like the Whoop gives me the best data. Keep an eye on your vo2 max, rhr and HRV. Start tracking sleep.

4. Don't neglect cardio and by that I mean Zone 3-5. Zone 2 is a great base builder, but 3-5 are going to bump your vo2 max which is one of the greatest predictors of longevity.

5. Weight training. I promise you won't suddenly accidentally become a giant bodybuilder.

6. Eat like an omnivore because you are one. Plenty of protein with moderate carbs and lower fat. I've tried every type of diet, my blood work has been the best eating meats, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes and rice.

7. If you drink, consider limiting it dramatically. It absolutely trashes your sleep and body.

8. Strive to be perfect and accept you'll fail at perfection. Where you land is better than where you were. Continually make changes to improve things. If you screw up a day don't make it a week.

9. Don't burn yourself out starting. Ease into it. Add a little more cardio each week. Eat a little better each day.

10. If you're fat and really are struggling with cravings that are hindering you, look into reta or tirzepatide.

[Cinemark Theatres @Cinemark]

The intro everyone's talking about (rightfully, so)!

Hear from Brandon, a projectionist at Cinemark Dallas XD and IMAX, as he gives his IMAX 70mm pre-film intro before The Odyssey 👏

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

So long, America🫡🇺🇸

49 days ago we landed in the USA to follow our country at the World Cup. We had no idea it would turn into the trip of a lifetime.

Thank you to everyone who followed along, and to all the people we met who made this journey even more special. We honestly don’t have the words to express how grateful we are for everything you did for us.

This trip exceeded every expectation we had. We came here with an open mind, wanting to experience as much of the country as possible. I still remember telling my friends on the flight to Atlanta that I hoped we’d get to meet a few locals on this trip. Now we’re flying home with friends all across the USA.

Before we came, we heard so many stereotypes and warnings about America. People told us about safety concerns, that they might check our social media at the border, and all kinds of other things. None of it matched our experience. This was probably the most welcoming country we’ve ever visited.

So if you have the chance to travel, do it. The world isn’t nearly as bad as the media often makes it seem. 99% of people are awesome!

I heard this quote somewhere during the World Cup, and I think it sums up our experience perfectly:

“If you want to hate the world, watch the news. If you want to love it, travel it.”

Thank you, America ❤️🇺🇸

[Matt Allan @mawithrow]

@FreddyLA7 Small town diners are the best food out there. Nothing bears a good old greasy spoon

[Matt Allan @mawithrow]

@DarkKnightGat Wait there's another knights fan in Boston? So I won't be the only one in the Garden flying the knights flag that day!

[Vegas Golden Knights @GoldenKnights]

HISTORY CONTINUES ⚔️

Season X has officially arrived!

@Toyota | #VegasBorn

[Vegas Golden Knights @GoldenKnights]

Opening Knight at The Fortress ⚔️

@naqviinjurylaw | #VegasBorn

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

Hello again.

We’re currently in Clemson, South Carolina. I’ve decided to come back here to document the final part of our road trip.

The main reason I deactivated my account two weeks ago was that things became increasingly toxic. For some people, it’s unfortunately unfathomable that a good story can exist without some kind of hidden agenda behind it. There was even a Reddit group going through my entire account trying to find anything they could use to reveal my identity.

I know this was only a small percentage of people, but after a while it became exhausting. During the last two weeks, I received so many kind messages on Instagram, and they really made me realize how many people genuinely enjoyed following the trip. Some people even told me that their grandparents regularly ask them, “What are the Germans up to today?” I think that’s really cool.

I decided to continue because I realized that the overwhelming majority of people loved following along. A small group of very loud people shouldn’t be able to ruin something that brought so many others joy.

I also want to clear something up, as people who follow me on Instagram already know.

I’ve been to the United States before. This is not my first visit, and I’ve never claimed that it was. The last time I was here was in January 2022, when I visited New York and Philadelphia.

A lot of people shared my Raising Cane’s post from November 2025 to make it look like I was secretly American. That post wasn’t from the United States, it was from my trip to Saudi Arabia.

This is my first time back in the U.S. in more than four years, and apart from Boston, I’d never visited any of the places we’ve been to on this trip before. That’s probably why many people assumed it was our first time in America, because for all of these places, it actually was.

And let me tell you, Ohio and Alabama are very different from New York City or Los Angeles.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for reading.

[Matt Allan @mawithrow]

@DarkKnightGat I'm a fan from new Hampshire and made my first in person game for finals game 6. The energy is just insane. From start to finish the production quality is exactly what you'd expect from vegas. Dream come true!

[rated ✧* @imyrated]

this can’t be the same heat george washington was wearing a wig in

[Zeegs @Zeeeegs]

BREAKING: Per @DannyWebster21, Reilly Smith will not be back with the Vegas Golden Knights next season.

> Joined VGK in 2017-18
> Won Stanley Cup in 2023
> Played 8 seasons in Vegas
> 323 points in 489 VGK games

Vegas legend. Thank you, Reilly ❤️

[🏆 - Andy @codedandunited]

Farewell sweet prince

[SinBin.vegas @SinBinVegas]

Our VGK free agency tracker is live. Every move involving current and former Golden Knights, plus a salary cap breakdown, updated all day as the deals come through.

https://t.co/vlC8rRUGkf

[Marco D'Amico @mndamico]

Vegas is up to something.