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Today’s Blog Post
The Weirdest Fortune Cookie EVER!
As my wife I just finished our meal in the great Chinese Restaurant in Kingston last evening, our waitress brought our bill. On top of the bill were two plastic packages with our Fortune Cookies.
And as you know living in North America or other parts of the Western World, it is at this point that our Chinese friends offer us our Fortune told by the small slip of paper inserted into the cookie.
Before I tell you what the Fortune were, I need to share what a Fortune Cookie is.
The posting on Wikipedia states.. quote…
“A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers, some of which have become actual winner numbers.
Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States and some other countries, but are absent in China. The exact provenance of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century, basing their recipe on a traditional Japanese cracker. Fortune cookies have been summarized as being "introduced by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately they are consumed by Americans." End quote.
That is very interesting. It seems that the Japanese were the first to introduce the Fortune Cookie in about 1918… or a wee bit earlier.
On the Web Site Chinese-fortune-cookie.com they suggest the following… quote…
“Without messages, quotes, phrases or funny sayings a Fortune Cookie would just be .... any other cookie.
Fortune Cookie Sayings were originally based on bible verses and proverbs. Then English versions of 'Confucius teaching' were introduced.
Today a Fortune Cookie Phrase can literally be anything. And at times, I think only the writer knew what the fortune meant :-)” End quote
Admittedly I have not thought much about Fortune Cookies until about 1983, when my mother sent us a bag of Fortune Cookies while we lived in Hong Kong. None of the Restaurants in Hong Kong at that time offered Fortune Cookies.
When the bag arrived to our Post Office and we opened it, many of the cookies were broken – but tasted great. Our Chinese Language teacher had never seen the cookies – only heard of them.
That day we laughed a lot as we read the many sayings in the bag. Too funny.
I think our teacher was the first one to ask an obvious question, “Who writes all these things? And who inserts them inside the cookie?” Our teacher was fascinated with that part.
Over the years I have broken open hundreds of cookies and read every Fortune – often keeping the saying to “reassure myself” and giggle a little.
Back to last evening…
My wife cracked open her Fortune Cookie first… and it read…
“Aim of the sky, because even if you miss, you will still be among the stars.”
We giggled together. This one pretty much sounded like all Chinese Fortune Cookie sayings. Cool.
Now are you ready for the weirdest Fortune Cookie EVER????
I cracked open my cookie… the first side read… it stated…
LEARN CHINESE – Yellow – huang
Lucky numbers 36, 47, 8, 46, 13, 37
Then I turned it over… and it states…
“You will read this and say, “Geez! I could come up with better fortunes than that!”
I looked over my shoulder to see if the waitress was giggling or not.
Hokey Mokey – I had actually thought that – about my wife’s saying.
I laughed out loud!
At that moment I realized that the poor guy or gal that had the task one particular day to write brilliant sayings for the Cookie… had just about had it… and typed that saying for me to read months latter in that Restaurant… and make me laugh.
I don’t think Confucius would have said that… nor is there one just like in the Bible (the original way of doing it).
And I doubt very much that the writer of the Fortune that I received will ever be reading what I write… BUT… I pause here to take my hat off to you… you deserve the “Fortune Cookie of the Century Award”. You are the bravest and most honest writer ever!
I was grinning as I went to bed last night… grinning as I woke this morning and will laugh all day.
That was the best… and has set me in a place of pure joy.
(My friend Terry cannot even use this one when he adds… “between the sheets” to his sayings!)
It is just too darn good! Thank you author of all things Fortunate and from Fortune Cookies! Thank you so much!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Resource
http://www.chinese-fortune-cookie.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie
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