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 U.S. government just unveiled the majestic Greco-Deco design for the new federal courthouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The building is at once monumental and welcoming, classical and original. The iris capitals are an inspired touch, drawing on Tennessee’s natural beauty and weaving it into the stone of a federal building. The Chattanooga courthouse is precisely the kind of building that President Trump’s Executive Order on federal architecture—“Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again”—was designed to produce. When the courthouse is completed, it will stand as the living proof that the Order represents wise and humane public policy—something all Americans, regardless of political party, can and should support. Beautiful public buildings are not a partisan matter; they belong to everyone.

Mariska looking like she faced off against Wemby by herself 😭

Kirk Herbstreit sighting

Virginia Tech #Hokies move up to the No. 7 Recruiting Class in the country.

The Bears’ Board of Directors voted Thursday to advance the stadium development in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact to be selected. This is this first time that the Bears’ board has voted on any stadium site. As one source said, “There is more work to do but barring anything very strange, it’s a done deal.”