Fortune Cookies

Fortune cookies are way more than just sugary goodness.  There is a lot to know about them.  Come to find out, much to my surprise, they are not even Chinese in origin...  but rather are thought to have come to the west coast of the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century - from Japan.  Surprise, Surprise. Learn something new every day -- whether you want to or not.  

I have always liked fortune cookies -- a nice little surprise to open at the end of a delicious Chinese take-out meal.  Sometimes they are philosophical in nature, or contain a fortune of some sort.  In other cases they have a list of lucky numbers for those who play a lottery or something witty and/or funny. Nice variety.

One of my favorite "fortunes" was mentioned in one of my all time favorite movies, The Big Chill.  "You will never amount to anything."  It still makes me laugh. That message seemed so unexpected somehow.  It caught me off guard.

Recently I encountered a few more "fortunes" while playing Guru Mahjong which, by the way, I had to delete from my phone because I was spending way too much time playing.  These are my faves from that source:

• You have the heart of a lion -- and the attention span of a squirrel.
• Life's a Journey.  Take a snack.

I think everyone would like to be reassured by a message like "Your spiritual path is unfolding exactly as it should." However... that is often not the case. More likely -- you would encounter an aphorism -- something like "If it seems fates are against you today, they probably are."

If I were going to write a fortune for a cookie, it might have something to do with a phrase I encountered recently that has been stuck in my brain.  It involves trying to avoid having your ass nailed to a high pole. It's such a catchy phrase really ... and such a clear image.  I sort of love it.

One last Fortune cookie fact.  Fortune cookies were made by hand until the late 1960's when a fortune cookie machine was invented by Edward Louie.  If you didn't already know that, you learned something from my blog today.  My work for today is done.  Am off to order some take-out.