Fortune Cookies

[GeneChing]

Let's start a thread on fortune cookies. Believe it or not, one of my aspirations as a writer is to write fortune cookie fortunes.

I'll begin with this:

Oakland police find at least 1,000 pot plants at former fortune cookie factory (http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_14044105)
By Kristin Bender and Harry Harris
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 12/21/2009 04:29:39 PM PST
Updated: 12/22/2009 10:34:17 AM PST

OAKLAND -- A fire at a former fortune cookie factory Monday afternoon led to the discovery of at least 1,000 marijuana plants worth about $500,000, police said.

Authorities said the small fire was sparked by an electrical malfunction about 2:45 p.m.

None of the marijuana plants were burned in the fire, which was extinguished in about 30 minutes.

Police Sgt. Rich Vierra said there is no sign that the 7,000-square-foot building is a working fortune cookie factory, bakery or retail outlet. The sign for Kar Mee Fortune Cookie Factory, however, remains on the building in the 200 block of Seventh Street in the Chinatown district of Oakland.

Police said plants, which ranged from seedlings to 4 feet tall, were being grown in a space of about 1,750 square feet. Inside the building, there is an overpowering smell of marijuana, growing tubs, chemicals, lights and other accessories used for growing marijuana plants, police said.

Police said the person or people who were growing the plants also were pirating electricity to power the lights, ventilation and irrigation systems.

The grower may or may not have been paying for some power but was able to tap into an old line in front of the building, police said.

Police said those who were growing the plants were extremely security conscious, with iron gates on the front of the building and something police described as an "iron cage" protecting the roof and skylights.

Vierra, who worked narcotics for many years, said the buds on some of the plants are some of the largest he's seen.

The Kar Mee Fortune Cookie Factory was founded in 1977, but a new owner took over the cookie business in 2007, according to the business's Web site. The phone number listed on the Web site for the cookie factory is disconnected.

An eviction notice on the building shows that the cookie factory was booted out in November 2008. Police said neither the building owner nor the former cookie business owner nor those responsible for the grow operation have been contacted yet.

A woman, who declined to give her name, who lives near the building said she frequently smelled marijuana but always thought it was coming from a different building.
Man, just imagine the kind of fortunes that company could have cranked out in their fortune cookies.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Muahahaha

Full Version
http://www.aaari.info/08-10-10Lee.htm

The Fortune cookie stuff starts @ 29 min. :D

NSFW warning - F bomb dropped at 31:48 - 31:51

(About 19 1/2 minutes in, there's a sound glitch but it fixes itself.)

[Lucas]

i posted this in some thread, but i had a fortune cookie that came true recently.

the cookie said i would recieve an opportunity soon to further my financial status.

the next day i got a job offer out of the blue from an old boss to a new company which comes with a significant raise.

my cookie today said that something will happen soon that will make my life more exciting....new years is coming up.

[uki]

awesome gene... awesome.

[GeneChing]

I just had this flash about Fortune Cookie Wisdom which has led me to the decision to post the fortunes I get here and encourage you all to do likewise. Come on now. We all eat a Chinese restaurants a lot. Post your fortunes.

My fortune from lunch today (I had the mabo tofu ;))

Live each day as though it were your last.
Disturbingly ominous... :(

[bawang]

nice fortune cookie sayings


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1Oo-so7Fg&feature=relmfu

[Sima Rong]

It's a shame they didn't make special random batches of hash fortune cookies for unsuspecting customers.

Never encountered these fortune cookies things myself, but know what they are from watching American movies. :)

Oh and wonderful quotes, bawang!

[Jimbo]

When I was 19 to 20 years old, I worked in a Chinese restaurant, and one time they got a batch of fortune cookies that someone at the cookie company had put very nasty fortunes into. We had gotten a few complaints, and I checked some of the fortunes. One said something like, "you're a *****, but you like it". Others were more sophisticated but still insulting. The printing was extra small on some of them to fit it all on.

Disgruntled employee?

[Brule]

Mine today was,

'Whatever side of the brain you use today, use it perfectly'

[Bacon]

Never mock the cookie
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ3VVcWoAMuT9J1HCp0jIvqBRX29fy4u Jwo4QNzD1rCPwUL5qwr&t=1

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.therandomshop.co.uk/gift-ideas/wp-content/uploads/pack-of-x-rated-fortune-cookies.jpg

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/frontsquare/df55_cookie_misfortune_evil_fortune_cookies.jpg

[GeneChing]

My fortune from lunch today (again I had the mabo tofu - they know me as 'mabo tofu' at that joint ;))


Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

[GeneChing]

I get more fortune cookie fortunes that I keep forgetting to post here. I only remember when it's a good one.


Fear is just excitement in need of an attitude adjustment

[GeneChing]

Go above and beyond you duty. You will benefit from it Love the typo. The fortune has uncanny timing as things are just crazy here right now with the Tiger Claw Elite Championship & KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64253) next week.

[SoCo KungFu]

Must have gotten some of those "mis"fortune cookies


You will die alone and unmourned

[Lucas]

Every fortune out of a cookie is better if you add 'in bed' at the end of any fortune.

[PalmStriker]

Fortune Cookie Messages are always so insightful: :D
"You do not have to know where you are going to be headed in the right direction." (latest fortune cookie message). Not to mention, fortune cookies have literally helped keep me from starving.

[Syn7]

Fortune Cookie Messages are always so insightful: :D
"You do not have to know where you are going to be headed in the right direction." (latest fortune cookie message). Not to mention, fortune cookies have literally helped keep me from starving.
That hungry, ay? I usually crack em for the fortune then give the cookie away.


"It's alongwaytogo, when you don't know where you're going.
You don't know where you're going when you're lost (lost)"

-Guru

[Lucas]

"It's alongwaytogo, when you don't know where you're going.
You don't know where you're going when you're lost (lost)"

-Guru

in bed.....

[Syn7]

You're still the baddest the fukc ass guy up in this motherfukcer!

[Kellen Bassette]

That hungry, ay? I usually crack em for the fortune then give the cookie away.


I eat half and throw the other half away. I made up my own superstition...

I used to save the good ones in my wallet...had hundreds of them in it...sometimes I would accidentally spill them everywhere when trying to buy something...it was awkward....

[mawali]

Depending on the company make, I try to put the numbers together for Big Lotto:cool: Haven't won yet but still trying when there may be a big payout!
Call me sentimental:D

[David Jamieson]

1. You will find new love

2. Stick with your wife


-source: simpsons.

[Lucas]

You're still the baddest the fukc ass guy up in this motherfukcer!

hell the fukc ya bro

[Lucas]

I eat half and throw the other half away. I made up my own superstition...

I used to save the good ones in my wallet...had hundreds of them in it...sometimes I would accidentally spill them everywhere when trying to buy something...it was awkward....

you eat half the fortune or half the cookie?

I only take the cookie if its handed to me. If its set down or left there for me i dont touch it.

[GeneChing]

Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake
What the heck kind of fortune is this?

I used to never eat fortune cookies. I used to just crack them for the fortune and toss the cookie part. One of my old teachers worked in a fortune cookie factory for a while and told me some horror stories. I can only imagine how nasty that must have been. Now I usually eat them. I don't know why. MSG withdrawal maybe? :confused:

[Syn7]

Starting to get numb, huh... you can only care so much before you just say "**** it". We eat tons of nasty stuff we think is fine. The more mass produced something is, the higher the chance of contamination.

[GeneChing]

For a spell, I thought the fortune wouldn't come true unless I ate the **** cookie. Now I just add Lucas's 'in bed' comment and it's all good.

BTW, Lucas, why does the TN office think I owe you nachos? :confused:


If you have knowledge, let others light their candles by it

[Syn7]

Now I just add Lucas's 'in bed' comment and it's all good.

Well of course that fixes everything!!!

Yes... if you don't eat the cookie a dragon will eat you! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it'll gitcha!

[Lucas]

BTW, Lucas, why does the TN office think I owe you nachos? :confused:

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha.......hahaha hahahahhahaha

[GoldenBrain]

I used to never eat fortune cookies. I used to just crack them for the fortune and toss the cookie part. One of my old teachers worked in a fortune cookie factory for a while and told me some horror stories. I can only imagine how nasty that must have been. Now I usually eat them. I don't know why. MSG withdrawal maybe? :confused:

Please tell me there's no horse meat in them. :D

Seriously, I used to eat those nasty things until I read bleached wheat flower is the main ingredient. That doesn't even sound like real food to me so now I just crack em, read em and toss em.

[Syn7]

Haha, I wouldn't classify a good portion of what people eat these days as "food". :p

[GeneChing]

...not sure why I eat them nowadays. I think some of it came from this underlying feeling that it might help alleviate my empty wallet by filling my empty stomach. You can tell when I'm low on cash because I'll eat Chinese food a lot more. The neighborhood place is super cheap. I was just pondering this a moment ago when I was there and I got the following fortune:

Perhaps you've been focusing too much on saving

[Syn7]

I had a dream I was eating fortune cookies awhile back because of this thread. It's all your fault Gene! :p

[GeneChing]

...and a little voice there is saying 'be martial art smart, shop MartialArtsMart.com (http://www.martialartsmart.com/)!' ;)

Well alright then. Today's fortune cookie fortune expresses how I've been feeling this week quite succinctly:

If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job.
Of course if the Lucas's 'in bed' addendum is applied, this takes on a considerably different meaning and would be quite subject to debate.

[GeneChing]

Courtesy is one of the best peacemakers. Good advice for the forum here.

[GeneChing]

...must post here.

There are accompanying photos if you follow the link.

Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/dining/16fort.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/15/dining/20fort600.1.jpg
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: January 16, 2008

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil's national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown.

But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.

Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.

Her prime pieces of evidence are the generations-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto. She has also turned up many references to the cookies in Japanese literature and history, including an 1878 image of a man making them in a bakery - decades before the first reports of American fortune cookies.

The idea that fortune cookies come from Japan is counterintuitive, to say the least. "I am surprised," said Derrick Wong, the vice president of the largest fortune cookie manufacturer in the world, Wonton Food, based in Brooklyn. “People see it and think of it as a Chinese food dessert, not a Japanese food dessert,” he said. But, he conceded, “The weakest part of the Chinese menu is dessert.”

Ms. Nakamachi, a folklore and history graduate student at Kanagawa University outside Tokyo, has spent more than six years trying to establish the Japanese origin of the fortune cookie, much of that at National Diet Library (the Japanese equivalent of the Library of Congress). She has sifted through thousands of old documents and drawings. She has also traveled to temples and shrines across the country, conducting interviews to piece together the history of fortune-telling within Japanese desserts.

Ms. Nakamachi, who has long had an interest in the history of sweets and snacks, saw her first fortune cookie in the 1980s in a New York City Chinese restaurant. At that time she was merely impressed with Chinese ingenuity, finding the cookies an amusing and clever idea.

It was only in the late 1990s, outside Kyoto near one of the most popular Shinto shrines in Japan, that she saw that familiar shape at a family bakery called Sohonke Hogyokudo.

“These were exactly like fortune cookies,” she said. “They were shaped exactly the same and there were fortunes.”

The cookies were made by hand by a young man who held black grills over a flame. The grills contain round molds into which batter is poured, something like a small waffle iron. Little pieces of paper were folded into the cookies while they were still warm. With that sighting, Ms. Nakamachi’s long research mission began.

A visit to the Hogyokudo shop revealed that the Japanese fortune cookies Ms. Nakamachi found there and at a handful of nearby bakers differ in some ways from the ones that Americans receive at the end of a meal with the check and a handful of orange wedges. They are bigger and browner, as their batter contains sesame and miso rather than vanilla and butter. The fortunes are not stuffed inside, but are pinched in the cookie’s fold. (Think of the cookie as a Pac-Man: the paper is tucked into Pac-Man’s mouth rather than inside his body.) Still, the family resemblance is undeniable.

“People don’t realize this is the real thing because American fortune cookies are popular right now,” said Takeshi Matsuhisa as he deftly folded the hot wafers into the familiar curved shape.

His family has owned the bakery for three generations, although the local tradition of making the cookies predates their store. Decades ago, many confectioneries and candies came with little fortunes inside, Mr. Matsuhisa said.

“Then, the companies realized it wasn’t such a good idea to put pieces of paper in candy, so then they all disappeared,” he added. The fear that people would accidentally eat the fortune is one reason his family now puts the paper outside the cookie.

The bakery has used the same 23 fortunes for decades. (In contrast, Wonton Food has a database of well over 10,000 fortunes.) Hogyokudo’s fortunes are more poetic than prophetic, although some nearby bakeries use newer fortunes that give advice or make predictions. One from Inariya, a shop across from the Shinto shrine, contains the advice, “To ward off lower back pain or joint problems, undertake some at-home measures like yoga.”

As she researched the cookie’s Japanese origins, among the most persuasive pieces of evidence Ms. Nakamachi found was an illustration from a 19th-century book of stories, “Moshiogusa Kinsei Kidan.”

A character in one of the tales is an apprentice in a senbei store. In Japan, the cookies are called, variously, tsujiura senbei (“fortune crackers”), omikuji senbei (“written fortune crackers”), and suzu senbei (“bell crackers”).

The apprentice appears to be grilling wafers in black irons over coals, the same way they are made in Hogyokudo and other present-day bakeries. A sign above him reads “tsujiura senbei” and next to him are tubs filled with little round shapes — the tsujiura senbei themselves.


continued next post

[GeneChing]

The book, story and illustration are all dated 1878. The families of Japanese or Chinese immigrants in California that claim to have invented or popularized fortune cookies all date the cookie’s appearance between 1907 and 1914.

The illustration was the kind of needle in a haystack discovery academics yearn for. “It’s very rare to see artwork of a thing being made,” Ms. Nakamachi said. “You just don’t see that.”

She found other historical traces of the cookies as well. In a work of fiction by Tamenaga Shunsui, who lived between 1790 and 1843, a woman tries to placate two other women with tsujiura senbei that contain fortunes.

Ms. Nakamachi’s work, originally published in 2004 as part of a Kanagawa University report, has been picked up by some publications in Japan. A few customers have bought senbei from Hogyokudo, the Matsuhisa family said. But otherwise, the paper has drawn limited attention, perhaps because fortune cookies are not well known in Japan.

If fortune cookies are Japanese in origin, how did they become a mainstay of American Chinese restaurants? To understand this, Ms. Nakamachi has made two trips to the United States, focusing on San Francisco and Los Angeles, where she interviewed the descendants of Japanese and Chinese immigrant families who made fortune cookies.

The cookie’s path is relatively easy to trace back to World War II. At that time they were a regional specialty, served in California Chinese restaurants, where they were known as “fortune tea cakes.” There, according to later interviews with fortune cookie makers, they were encountered by military personnel on the way back from the Pacific Theater. When these veterans returned home, they would ask their local Chinese restaurants why they didn’t serve fortune cookies as the San Francisco restaurants did.

The cookies rapidly spread across the country. By the late 1950s, an estimated 250 million fortune cookies were being produced each year by dozens of small Chinese bakeries and fortune cookie companies. One of the larger outfits was Lotus Fortune in San Francisco, whose founder, Edward Louie, invented an automatic fortune cookie machine. By 1960, fortune cookies had become such a mainstay of American culture that they were used in two presidential campaigns: Adlai Stevenson’s and Stuart Symington’s.

But prior to World War II, the history is murky. A number of immigrant families in California, mostly Japanese, have laid claim to introducing or popularizing the fortune cookie. Among them are the descendants of Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who oversaw the Japanese Tea Garden built in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in the 1890s. Visitors to the garden were served fortune cookies made by a San Francisco bakery, Benkyodo.

A few Los Angeles-based businesses also made fortune cookies in the same era: Fugetsudo, a family bakery that has operated in Japantown for over a century, except during World War II; Umeya, one of the earliest mass-producers of fortune cookies in Southern California, and the Hong Kong Noodle company, a Chinese-owned business. Fugetsudo and Benkyodo both have discovered their original “kata” black iron grills, almost identical to the ones that are used today in the Kyoto bakery.

“Maybe the packaging of fortune cookie must say ‘Japanese fortune cookie — made in Japan,’ ” said Gary Ono, whose grandfather founded Benkyodo.

Ms. Nakamachi is still unsure how exactly fortune cookies made the jump to Chinese restaurants. But during the 1920s and 1930s, many Japanese immigrants in California owned chop suey restaurants, which served Americanized Chinese cuisine. The Umeya bakery distributed fortune cookies to well over 100 such restaurants in southern and central California.

“At one point the Japanese must have said, fish head and rice and pickles must not go over well with the American population,” said Mr. Ono, who has made a campaign of documenting the history of the fortune cookie through interviews with his relatives and by publicizing the discovery of the kata grills.

Early on, Chinese-owned restaurants discovered the cookies, too. Ms. Nakamachi speculates that Chinese-owned manufacturers began to take over fortune cookie production during World War II, when Japanese bakeries all over the West Coast closed as Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps.

Mr. Wong pointed out: “The Japanese may have invented the fortune cookie. But the Chinese people really explored the potential of the fortune cookie. It’s Chinese-American culture. It only happens here, not in China.”

That sentiment is echoed among some descendants of the Japanese immigrants who played an early role in fortune cookies. “If the family had decided to sell fortune cookies, they would have never done it as successfully as the Chinese have,” said Douglas Dawkins, the great-great-grandson of Makoto Hagiwara. “I think it’s great. I really don’t think the fortune cookie would have taken off if it hadn’t been popularized in such a wide venue.”

Jennifer 8. Lee wrote “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,” to be published in March by Twelve.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/15/dining/20fort650.3.jpg
Ironic that something so iconically Chinese may have originated in Japan. :p

[Lucas]

pwnd

:eek:

[GeneChing]

I now pocket my fortune cookie fortunes, just to share on this thread.


Pay attention, an opportunity will knock on your door. Pay attention. Bad grammar will come in your cookie.


People are drawn to you and look to you for advice. Most of them are Nigerian bankers.

[GeneChing]

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
So many exceptions - kitchen grease fires, plugged toilets, lice - too many! Stupid fortune.

[Syn7]

Well... I suppose you could wait out a kitchen fire! :p

Maybe they thought that going with "virtue" was over-intellectualizing for a fortune cookie.

I guess that's why they call it "fortune cookie advice".


I like the really weird ones that can be taken a few different ways.

If you got a gig as a fortune cookie writer, what would you slip into the mix?

You could mos def have some fun with that.

[GeneChing]

Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability
Came with a good lunch too. :)

[GeneChing]

All you have is today -- there is no such thing as yesterday or tomorrow. Thank goodness today is Friday. :)

[GeneChing]

I know I'm not the only one cracking fortune cookies here.

A person's character is his destiny.


Fortune Cookie Writer Prepares to Celebrate 10 Years of Sweet Success at Lady Fortunes Inc. (http://www.prweb.com/releases/unusal_jobs/daria_artem/prweb11071339.htm)
Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Daria Artem built a successful business writing fortunes for cookies and prepares to celebrate a milestone with the 10 Year Anniversary of her business.

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2013/08/28/11071339/gI_131506_daria_cookies8.jpg
Fortune Cookie Writer and Entrepreneur Daria Artem
'Pursuing an unusual career takes a lot of courage and persistence and the ability to believe fame and fortune will be yours- even when no one else does.' -Daria Artem, Chief Fortune Cookie Writer, Lady Fortunes Inc.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 31, 2013

"You do what?!" is the question Daria Artem, CEO and Founder of Lady Fortunes Inc gets asked on a regular basis. Everyone knows that doctors, lawyers and executives make good money- so when Daria Artem decided to ditch a high paying career and take a risk on pursuing her passion, it caused many of her friends and family to wonder if she was alright.

Prior to opening up Lady Fortunes Inc back in 2004 with the money she and her then fiance had set aside for their wedding, Daria had a promising career as a marketing executive. Having graduated from a Southern CA University with a triple Bachelor's degree in Business Law, Marketing and Bio Chemistry- she was on track to becoming a sure success.

But in early 2004, Daria saw an opportunity to make some serious dough - with a fortune cookie company. "I thought it would be really clever to create fortune cookies with themed messages- not just the typical good fortunes you get inside the cookies," said Daria Artem, Chief Fortune Cookie Writer. "So we started with sweet sayings for romantic occasions, Happy Birthday messages and eventually merry messages for holidays and even weight loss inspirational quotes.

Today, the company produces an extensive line of ever evolving fortune sayings for different themes and occasions. But it's the custom personalized messages that have really brought the company its "good fortune."

"We have clients calling all the time looking for clever ways to put their message in our cookies," said Carrie Dunlap, a Confectionery Consultant at LadyFortunes.com. "We forward those on to our in house fortune cookie writer Daria- and she always has a perfect way to express a message in our fortune cookies."

The company sells over a million fortune cookies every year- many of those are their personalized giant fortune cookies which are Lady Fortunes' claim to fame and fortune. Daria Artem has created many clever sayings for her smart cookies. While she encourages her customers be their own "Confucius" by writing their own fortunes, many often ask for help in writing their message.

Some of the more popular sayings (which are personalized to the sender) are:

"To my Sweetest Cookie and my Greatest Fortune- you make my heart crumble!"
"I am so "fortune"-ate to have you in my life!"
"A bundle of good fortune is in your future."

The personalized fortune cookies come in three sizes, from "classic" to "baby giant" to a "giant" that is almost the size of a football and contains a 1-ft-long fortune inside. The cookies are popular party favors, unique invitations, novel birth announcements, and are even used as marriage proposals.

In 2012, Daria Artem was a featured guest on the NBC talk show The Jeff Probst Show which highlighted her career as a Fortune Cookie Writer. Daria Artem was also featured on over 25 Ehow videos where she came out as a National Fortune Cookie Expert.

In 2014, Daria Artem will be celebrating 10 years of sweet success in her unusual job as fortune cookie writer. Today, she has proven all those who doubted her wrong in judging her chosen career path. The 34 year old entrepreneur and mother of 2 kids under 5 years old feels very "fortune"-ate to be able to pursue a successful career that gives her the freedom to enjoy her passion of creative writing- although in an unusual way.

Inspiration comes from many places: from her desk to the treadmill, Daria always carries a notebook with her to scribble down her sayings. Each year, her company LadyFortunes.com invites people from around the world to enter their Annual Fortune Cookie Writing Competition. Categories for best fortunes include: "Most Confucius," "Most Inspirational," "Most Happy," and "Most Likely To Make Someone's Heart Crumble." The fortune writers compete for prizes ranging from a free personalized giant fortune cookie to a baking mix that they can create their own fortune cookies from.

About Lady Fortunes:
Since 2004, Lady Fortunes has been a leading manufacturer of Gourmet Cookies, Confections and Gifts. Lady Fortunes’ desserts have been enjoyed in the White House, at events at the Library of Congress, at the Emmy Awards®, during Oscar® after-parties, on the Ellen Degeneres Show, The Today Show, and have been featured in magazines from InStyle to Better Homes and Gardens. Lady Fortunes’ products are available online and through upscale retailers including Dylan’s Candy Bar, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Henri Bendel.

[GeneChing]

I'm leaving to the 1st Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65650) tomorrow, which makes this strangely auspicious:

Devotion is worth the effort at this time.

[Syn7]

A person's character is his destiny.

That's a good one.

[GeneChing]

...also means I'm eating a lot of cheap Chinese food.

...with fortune cookies.


Happiness is not a reward, it's a consequence.

[GeneChing]

If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything. I don't understand this fortune. Does that mean I'm learning something from these stupid cookies? :confused:

[Brule]

' Assistance is next to you whenever you need it'

[GeneChing]

It's important to you that money may not be important. No it isn't. I mean no it isn't important to me. :confused:

[Syn7]

Which important? The first important or the second important? Or is that not important?:o

[Faux Newbie]

It's important to Gene that ninjas may not have poisoned his cookie.

[Faux Newbie]

I don't understand this fortune. Does that mean I'm learning something from these stupid cookies? :confused:

I'm beginning to suspect that MKUltra is writing your fortune cookies.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/fcookie5.jpg

[Faux Newbie]

http://stimpy.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/pole.jpg

[Faux Newbie]

Not sure if this comes in a set with the previous fortune. Context is everything.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-07KCLkO9vSE/T4bqVPxK-GI/AAAAAAAAaxw/eNKAZ1CaNvo/s1600/473%236rectal.jpg

[Faux Newbie]

http://foodnetworkhumor.com/img/bad-fortune-cookie-5.jpg

[Faux Newbie]

http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/fortune-cookie.png

Really?

http://blog.3four3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/fortune-cookie.jpeg

Don't resist.

http://www.lolriot.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/What-have-you-done-550x409.jpg

Think about this one. When the next red scare starts, and they ask how many Canadians you have on staff, what will you do?

[GeneChing]

Can't be too careful when it comes to MKUltra...

Today's fortune:

Live in THIS moment.
Ok, ok, you don't have to shout (although I prefer THAT moment). :p

[GoldenBrain]

I wish I could claim this as my own but alas, it was just a Facebook post. It's still worth sharing though.


8053

[GeneChing]

But here on the forum, it's no-holds-barred, so whatev, right?


No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.
In contrast 'No thinking can stand the assault of sustained problems.'

Dang, I could so write fortune cookies. Does it pay more than publishing a martial arts mag? :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

Education will never be as expensive as ignorance. I'm going to pass this along to all of my friends with outstanding student loans. ;)

[Syn7]

I'm going to pass this along to all of my friends with outstanding student loans. ;)
Massive student debt... CHECK!

[GeneChing]

...with Peter Lorge (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1032). He knew the 'in bed' spin on fortune cookies and referred to them as Japanese temple crackers.


Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling on you

[ShaolinDan]

Cool. :)

I got, "Drink to your health," tonight. So I did. :D

[GeneChing]

This is what I got last time:

Diligence and modesty can raise your social status.
srsly?

[GeneChing]

Courtesy is one habit that never goes out of style.

This is sort of a 'pearls before swine' fortune for our forum here, sad to say.

[GeneChing]

I just drove back from a wedding in L.A. I am tired. It was a lot of partying with good friends, old and new. For that reason, I can't make sense of this.


Good sense is the master of human life.

[GeneChing]

A kiss makes the heart young again and wipe out the years
Should be 'wipes away' not 'wipe out'.

[GeneChing]

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough.

I've been placing my fortunes on my keyboard to post here when I get the chance. This one blew off and I just found it on the floor.

[GeneChing]

Live in THIS moment.

I got this one just this week too:

Give assistance, not advice, in a crisis.

[GeneChing]

Heroism is endurance for one moment more.
Part of this thread experiment is that I'm fascinated by the random synchrony of any fortune telling system. I dabbled in Tarot for a spell, mostly after reading Jung. And of course, I am instrumental in translating our horoscopes from Feng Shui Master Wilson Sun (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/info/horoscope/index.php), which I've been doing for over a decade now. Truth be told, I'm very skeptical of astrology. My scientific training rejects it. But I've made a study of it for our horoscopes column, and am an avid reader of certain astrologers in hopes of cultivating their writing skills. Master Sun has made some amazingly resonate predictions. And I'm a firm believer in the phenomenon of Mercury-in-retrograde, partly for its scientifical absurdity, but mostly for that synchronous resonance. Lately, these silly fortune cookies have become unsettlingly resonate for me too, which I suppose is a mark of success for this experiment here.

[wenshu]

HOUSTON – An investigation is underway in the apparent accidental death of a man found inside an industrial dough mixer at a midtown business, Houston police said.
The 26-year-old victim was an employee of the Wonton Food Corporation located at 2902 Caroline Street.
Police said a fellow employee found the man deceased in the machine at about 12:10 p.m. on Sunday. The victim had been operating the machine.
His identity has not been released.
Investigators said no foul play is suspected in the case and an autopsy will be performed by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/HPD-Man-found-dead-inside-dough-mixer-at-Midtown-business----257017081.html

[Syn7]

Part of this thread experiment is that I'm fascinated by the random synchrony of any fortune telling system...Truth be told, I'm very skeptical of astrology. My scientific training rejects it. ... And I'm a firm believer in the phenomenon of Mercury-in-retrograde, partly for its scientifical absurdity, but mostly for that synchronous resonance. Lately, these silly fortune cookies have become unsettlingly resonate for me too, which I suppose is a mark of success for this experiment here.

Wait... What? Come on now. Care to expand on that?

You're a pretty good writer, BTW. I've always enjoyed how you throw down in that respect. So yeah... Respect.


http://www.khou.com/news/local/HPD-Man-found-dead-inside-dough-mixer-at-Midtown-business----257017081.html


I didn't look for any news of this outside of your link, but I have to wonder how that can even happen. It amazes me how some people come by trouble. I mean, **** happens, right. But not that! Either he's an absolute moron or them be some extraordinary circumstances. Like I don't know what. Like the idiot who gets his tie caught in the paper shredder. We've all done dumb ****, but that's on a different level right there.

[wenshu]

Either he's an absolute moron or them be some extraordinary circumstances.

It was unfortunate.

[GeneChing]

Don't underestimate yourself. Your social skills are needed by others at this time. What an odd fortune. Perhaps it refers to my upcoming trip to the Tai Chi Gala (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56858-The-Tai-Chi-Gala)?

[GeneChing]

Now the curious question is 'what does this apply to?'

Trust is earned by many deeds.

Actually, that's the curious question with all of these. That and 'why is it that I can't afford to eat anywhere else but cheap Chinese so often?' :o

[GeneChing]

Nothing dared, nothing gained.
That's not how it goes. :rolleyes:
I want another fortune. :mad:

[Syn7]

what were you thinkin? "with great risk comes great reward" or something like that?

[GeneChing]

Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid. I like this one because I could use some unseen aiding forces right about now. The odd thing is it is cut poorly, so the first line (Act...forces) is cut in half. Is that inauspicious or am I reading too much into these **** cookies? :p

[David Jamieson]

I like this one because I could use some unseen aiding forces right about now. The odd thing is it is cut poorly, so the first line (Act...forces) is cut in half. Is that inauspicious or am I reading too much into these **** cookies? :p

Remember in BSG when Baltar won the trial and all those chicks put him up, fed him, treated him like some new type of jesus?

I wish that would happen to me next time I complain about something significant... :D

But yeah. I think that as long as you aren't you know... clearly nuts, you will get support for common sense stuff that doesn't get dragged into the light like it should be.
It's a catalyst thing...

[GeneChing]

Night people: "Anybody who goes to bed the same day they got up is a quitter."
I run a night krew at music festivals. This could be our new motto.

[SoCo KungFu]

You will die alone and unmourned

Best fortune cookie ever

[GeneChing]

That doesn't seem all that big, at least, not Guinness world record big.


Los Angeles Company Creates World's Largest Fortune Cookie (http://www.prweb.com/releases/LadyFortunes/Most_Gigantic_Fortune/prweb11916031.htm)
Lady Fortunes Inc announces the launch of its largest creation yet - The Super Giant Fortune Cookie - and prepares to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for its confectionery colossus.

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2014/06/04/11916031/gI_140881_DARIA_SUPER_GIANT1.png
Daria and The Super Giant Fortune Cookie

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 05, 2014

Giant Fortune Cookies have been around for decades, but Lady Fortunes Inc has been the Nation's premier manufacturer and source since 2004. To date, the largest "Giant" Fortune Cookie has boasted a size of 6" wide by 4.5" tall containing an 11" fortune inside and weighing in at under 1 lb once dipped and decorated in chocolates and toppings.

Confectionery Officer and owner Daria Artem has spent hundreds of hours attempting to create the "World's Most Gigantic Fortune Cookie"- a feat which many of her contemporaries were skeptical could ever be accomplished. "We called it 'Project Create The World's Most Gigantic Fortune Cookie'," reminisces Carrie Dunlap, office manager at the company. "Daria was obsessed with the idea of creating a cookie that was truly larger than life. It was her pipe dream! And we all laughed until the day we saw it with our own eyes".

Spanning a whopping 11" in width, over 7" in height and 10" in depth, The Super Giant Fortune Cookie is about to enter the Gourmet Cookie scene in a BIG, BIG way, dwarfing its confectionery sibling, the Giant Fortune Cookie. This heavyweight treat weighs between 1.25 lbs to almost 2lbs depending on how it is dipped and decorated. It is bigger than an average person's head and promises to earn a jaw drop wherever it goes.

It all started when Daria Artem sent a Giant Fortune Cookie to a prominent magazine editor with the hopes of making a GIANT impression. "The editor I sent my cookie to didn't call me back, and when i finally got a hold of her, she chastised me for not having lived up to my promised of sending her a 'true' Giant Fortune Cookie," Daria Artem says. "Since then, I have made it a mission to come up with something that even the most seasoned of editors would find impressive: a SUPER Giant Fortune Cookie." That was 10 years ago when Artem vied for a coveted spot in a major Holiday Gift Guide.

"You fall but learn to get right back up- and my only redemption was to come up with a Fortune Cookie that would be so GIGANTIC it would undeniably live up to its reputation!" Daria said.

After years of trial and error, Daria discovered the secret to folding and forming the enormous cookie without collapsing on itself due to its enormous size and weight. "It was completely by accident and all I heard was her screaming 'I got it! I got it!'" says a factory employee. "We were all so happy for her. And for us too! We could stop eating all her mistakes!"

Daria Artem has submitted an application on behalf of her company Lady Fortunes Inc with the Guinness Book of World Records to enter the World Record for The Most Gigantic Fortune Cookie. Results of her submission will take weeks to months, but Daria Artem and her company feel confident that given the opportunity to set the record, the humble fortune cookie will gain worldwide attention in a truly GIGANTIC way.

[Featherstone]

Hopefully the picture will come up, if not, it said " You will be hungry again in one hour."

8832

[GeneChing]

She didn't know my standard order (mabo tofu, fired rice) but she brought me a special jar of pepper oil from in back. :D


A person's character is his destiny.

[wenshu]

http://i.imgur.com/6GfbHTo.jpg

These giant fortune cookies were given out as favors at a wedding I attended a few years ago. It makes a good home for this bad ass fortune I got last week.

[GeneChing]

Is that a hinged container?

I just got a stupid fortune:

Aspire to be great - then help others. Why must you be 'great' to help? Anyone can help. Besides, it's just aspiring. :rolleyes:

The new waitress messed up my order and gave me white rice instead of fried rice. I like fried rice better because I feel like I get more food (a little egg and onion mixed in).

[Syn7]

The new waitress messed up my order and gave me white rice instead of fried rice. I like fried rice better because I feel like I get more food (a little egg and onion mixed in).

Haha, you do that too!

I will look at a menu and think of weight price ratios. I'm no foodie, nutrition and amount are far more important to me than taste. Within reason, of course.

[GeneChing]

...she doesn't even ask me what I want anymore. She just brings me my food. That saves time.

I'm at odds with the fortune I got today.

A kiss? The renunciation of the heart when one is no longer alone.
That's not really a 'fortune' now, is it? It's more of a declaration or a definition. I feel cheated. :mad:

[wenshu]

Is that a hinged container?

yeah bruh

http://i.imgur.com/kN1Smgv.jpg

[PalmStriker]

:D http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-08-08-untitled283.jpg

[wenshu]

:D http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-08-08-untitled283.jpg

that's not untrue

[Brule]

" You have the power to write your own fortune"

[GeneChing]

Believe it can be done

I do. I do believe. I'm ordering the nacho cheese now. ;)

[GeneChing]

Every fortune out of a cookie is better if you add 'in bed' at the end of any fortune.

Book lovers never go to bed alone.
Wait, that's not a fortune. wth?

[Brule]

Gene,

I agree, these fortune writers are missing the concept lately.

Yesterday's fortune was 'Your organization skills are superior'.

If the food wasn't so good, I'd stop with this altogether, but I cannot put the fork down.

[GeneChing]

Actually, I use a fork at my local place too. It's faster.

At least "Your organization skills are superior in bed" works. The 'in bed' suffix works on the one below too, but not in such a flattering way...:o


Better to beg than to steal, but better to work than to beg.

[Brule]

I'm tighty whitey, so fork it is. I'm not going to suffer with chopsticks while my food gets cold and risk the chance of spilling all over myself.

Today's gem.

"An interesting person wants to talk to you" in bed (****!!!!!)

Interesting by who's standards.......

[GeneChing]

...I mean freak shows are interesting. I mean that both literally and using today's slang. :p

Tighty-whitey, eh? My dad was Hawaiian Chinese. He used to go out to lunch with his 'tighty-whitey' coworkers. They'd all use chopsticks and he'd use a fork. He just thought it was more convenient. It used to amuse the hell out of his coworkers. I use whatever is provided.

Ok, now for today's fortune:

A smile can always overcome the barrier of language.

And yes, the 'in bed' suffix works well here. I'm starting to think our earlier complaints about fortune writers were misguided. It's not whether they write real fortunes or just 'Confucius say' wisdom. It's whether the 'in bed' suffix works or not. :D

[PalmStriker]

:D Who wants an interesting person in bed for discourse? Better a bimbo for bim*basics.

[GeneChing]

For example, I find ScarJo interesting. She's very interesting indeed. ;)


Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
Passes the 'in bed' suffix test. Also works to reiterate my point on this thread. I luv fortune cookies. If only they tasted better....:rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

Money will come to you when you are doing the right thing.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the implications when the 'in bed' suffix is applied...:o

[GeneChing]

Action is worry's worst enemy. When I first read this, I thought for a sec it said 'enema', then I thought this was a perfect example of the 'in bed' suffix. Then of course, I thought of all of you here. :D

[GeneChing]

...that means lots of cheap Chinese for lunch this week until payday. :(


Don't let unexpected situation throw you.

[GeneChing]

Obviously not cut properly so I got two in one. :D


A new outlook brightens your image and brings new friends.

A new romance is in the future.

[GeneChing]

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question
That's not a fortune cookie fortune.

That's a quote from e. e. cummings. :mad:

[GeneChing]

Lies and sorrow may float through the air, but truth and happiness live inside yourself
I just searched this one too, thinking it might be a plagiarized quote like the one above. I found a bunch of fortune cookie wisdom blogs. That has been my intention with this. That and I've always fantasized about being a fortune cookie fortune writer.

[GeneChing]

Face facts with dignity

Eerily ominous given my life right now. It's always a little disturbing when a fortune actually seems to hit the mark.

[GeneChing]

:confused:

i is sad

:(

[GeneChing]

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner!
Actually not many fortunes have exclamation points, so I guess it's permissible.

[David Jamieson]

I got one in my pocket from last week. It says:
"you will always get by with your charm and personality"

Get by what? I wondered.

[fimed]

Fortune cookies is one of my favorite eatable in snacks... I always find a inspirational message from it.. This message is always worth at that situation of time...I think these cookies give me write lesson to handle that situation at that time..

[GeneChing]

Happiness isn't in having what you want but rather in wanting what you have.

My local cheap Chinese place stopped giving me fortune cookies. I think they were only giving them to laowai for while, or at least, this one new waiter was doing that. I wasn't sure if I should be flattered by that or not. Anyway, they started giving them to me again. Haven't seen that new waiter. Maybe he moved on.

[GeneChing]

With TCEC&KFTCD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68165-2015-Tiger-Claw-Elite-(5-16)-amp-KUNG-FU-TAI-CHI-DAY-(5-17)-in-San-Jose-CA) this weekend, I'm short on time for lunch with all that needs to happen in the next few days, so I figured I'd hit up my local Chinese joint as they are super fast. They put in my order as soon as I walk in the door. Plus I figured I'd get a little advice from my fortune cookie. So what did I draw?


It's a good thing that life is not as serious as it seems to the waiter.

:confused:

[-N-]

With TCEC&KFTCD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68165-2015-Tiger-Claw-Elite-(5-16)-amp-KUNG-FU-TAI-CHI-DAY-(5-17)-in-San-Jose-CA) this weekend, I'm short on time for lunch with all that needs to happen in the next few days, so I figured I'd hit up my local Chinese joint as they are super fast. They put in my order as soon as I walk in the door. Plus I figured I'd get a little advice from my fortune cookie. So what did I draw?


It's a good thing that life is not as serious as it seems to the waiter.

:confused:

I think you got this guy's fortune cookie :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTRiUOWC2V0

[GeneChing]

...just waiting for me to get around to posting it here.


It is more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others.

[GeneChing]

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide

That's not a fortune cookie fortune.

That's a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte :mad:

[GeneChing]

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember.

I'm just about to head out to Chicago for the Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well shows (I used to work for the band, remember (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1025)?) so this just doesn't apply right now. Besides, it's a quote that is attributed to Confucius and the fortune dropped the final and most important final sentence. Confucius say "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

[GeneChing]

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it

More Confucius. These aren't fortunes. These are plagiary. :mad:


:rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

...But it works for me right now given some recent tragic events. :(


In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul.

Here's the full quote, from Saul Bellow: In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves."

[PalmStriker]

****. When I open up a fortune cookie I always prepare myself to be influenced in this ever-changing world we live in. Not unlike checking a horoscope or I Ching read. Maybe a new resturant is in your future with cookies that are insightful. :)

[GeneChing]

Maybe a new resturant is in your future with cookies that are insightful. :) Haaaa, yeah maybe. The thing is there's this Chinese place really close to the office here that's super cheap and fast. It's far from gourmet, but the staff is friendly and knows what I want when I walk in the door. So when I'm low on dough and/or time, that's my place. Unfortunately, the fortunes are lame but I don't expect much.

From yesterday:

He who knows himself is enlightened.

"He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." - Lao Tzu :rolleyes:

[PalmStriker]

:) Chinese restaurants are like that. My wife and I haven't found a replacement for the one that closed nearby where we live. Great food for take out, small place. Competition in the food biz makes staying open such a challenge. Seems like a Stephen Chow comedy could spring from fortune cookie carry-out culture. Has he been featured on any KFM covers?

[GeneChing]

Everything originates from the seed of Determination.
I found this in quotes on many sites, but couldn't determine the source from a cursory web search. Even the capped D sticks out. Many of the mentions claim they got it off a fortune cookie. Go figure.


Seems like a Stephen Chow comedy could spring from fortune cookie carry-out culture. Has he been featured on any KFM covers? I feel ya, sort of a God of Cookery sort of thing. No, we've never put Chow on the cover. He'd have to come up with another hit film for us to consider that at this time. And I don't see that coming soon.

[GeneChing]

At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.

And at 50 you're too **** old to make it in a fortune cookie....:(

[GeneChing]

People make plans; Fate makes the plans successful
Found on the web in several places but no reference. Maybe it's there but I only ate Chinese today because it was super fast and I have a shoot coming up, so I have no time to explore this anymore.

[GeneChing]

...because every once in a while, the random synchronicity works. This one really works for me when juxtaposed with last night's Republican presidential debate. It's a quote from journalist Bill Vaughan.


A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.

[GeneChing]

courtesy is a business asset - a gain and never a loss.

Odd advice from a cookie. This one comes up on a variety of websites, but I wasn't able to source it with a cursory search, although it is listed in the Dictionary of American Proverbs.

[GeneChing]

My local Chinese joint must have swapped their fortune cookie supplier.


Confidence of success is almost success.

I rather disagree with this one.

[GeneChing]

Bring something up from the back burner.
Sort of a saying I suppose. Not really a quote.

[GeneChing]

Listen to the wisdom of the old.

I heartily concur with this one. Especially now that I'm getting old. ;)

[GeneChing]

Step aside, fortune cookies! Here come fortune cat rice crackers from Japan! (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/10/24/step-aside-fortune-cookies-here-come-fortune-cat-rice-crackers-from-japan/)
Casey Baseel
21 minutes ago

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-0.png?w=580&h=277

Fortune cookies can be sort of anti-climactic, can’t they? Most of the time, that little slip of paper just reminds you of some pearl of wisdom to help you make yourself a better person, instead of giving you the inside information on the future that you really wanted so that you could succeed in life without all that bothersome self-improvement stuff.

On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine anyone being disappointed if they cracked open their snack to find an adorably chubby cat figurine.

Felissimo, provider of all sorts of cat-based novelty goods, is back again with Dagashi Nyanko Kakurenbo, or Hide-and-Seek Kittie Candies.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-8.png?w=580&h=477

The snack set comes with a pack of cylindrical karinto sweets, and two individually wrapped crispy senbei rice crackers. While most senbei are flat disks, though, these ones are triangle-shaped.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-3.png?w=580

That’s because there’s a surprise waiting inside: a cute, hand-crafted cat figurine!

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-11.png?w=580

While their markings are the same, the two senbei contain slightly different felines.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-2.png?w=580

For other pairs, the difference between their poses is even more pronounced.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-4.png?w=580

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-5.png?w=580

▼ Nap time!

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-6.png?w=580

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/dc-7.png?w=580

As with many of Felissimo’s products, the company will ship a different design each month, so you’ll need to place a new order periodically to get the whole set. The company is selling the Hide-and-Seek Kittie Candies for 2,372 yen (US$20) per bundle through its website here.

Source: Felissimo
Images: Felissimo (edited by RocketNews24)

The FDA would probably ban this as a choking hazard.

[-N-]

The FDA would probably ban this as a choking hazard.

Like the Kinder Surprise Eggs.

They could make the cats out of rice cracker too though.

[GeneChing]

But then would they be collectible?


A lifestyle is what you pay for; a life is what pays you.

A quote from Thomas Leonard, according to the all-knowing interwebz.

[PalmStriker]

:) Sometimes I will find a discsrded fortune from a fortune cookie and will carry it around in my pocket until the fortune comes true. Have one in my top pocket right now that's been there for a few weeks. The previous owner must not have known how the magic universe converses, ha!

[GeneChing]

What does this found fortune-cookie fortune of yours say? And how to you keep from running that through the wash?


Here's mine for lunch today.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.
Attributed to Rush Limbaugh. :p

[GeneChing]

...was meaning to post it but our forum crashed...:(


Lovers come and go, but friends are always there.

[GeneChing]

I'm only posting the relevant one. ;)


Surreal Art By Tony Futura Makes Fun Of Consumerism And Pop Culture (20+ Pics) (http://www.boredpanda.com/surreal-art-modern-culture-tony-futura/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook)
10 days left by Dovas

Tony Futura, a digital artist based in Berlin, creates surreal art that seems to poke fun at the materialism and pop-culture focus of modern Western life. His light-hearted and funny digital art is often charged with sexual energy.
If you like his fun visual puns, be sure to follow him on Instagram!
More info: Instagram | Tumblr (h/t: ufunk)

....

#17
Surreal Digital Art

http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/surreal-art-modern-culture-tony-futura-50__700.jpg
report
Like Dislike 49 points Tony Futura

[GeneChing]

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

It's a quote from Wayne Dyer according the the internetz.

[PalmStriker]

:
What does this found fortune-cookie fortune of yours say? And how to you keep from running that through the wash?


Here's mine for lunch today.

Attributed to Rush Limbaugh. :p :) Hey, Gene ! Didn't see your post until now, Ha! Actually I don't have the fortune anymore, lost in the wash cycle, I tried to find it just now and I can't remember the content or wording but things have changed for the better for me so I can deal with the Cosmic Forces that be. :D I like to read and take seriously the Chinese Astrology forecast at the back section of KFM by Wilson, My horoscope (Aries) WaterDragon was too exacting for me to ignore. I was up against it lately in a suspended state of rough going until the planet shift (Earth Cycle) that has changed everything into a wind in the sails scenario. Whew!

[GeneChing]

As one grows to understand life less and less, one learns to live it more and more.

“As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more” - Jules Renard

I'm impressed that it is a grammatically correct conversion.

[GeneChing]

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 King James Version

[GeneChing]

Each day, compel yourself to do something you would rather not do

When searched, this phrase pops up in the Dictionary of American Proverbs (https://books.google.com/books?id=AbJ1tVGmiTgC&lpg=PA178&ots=1GCxa42p5v&dq=each%20day%20compel%20yourself%20to%20do%20some thing%20you%20would%20rather%20not%20do&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false) and a bunch of fortune cookie websites. :p

[GeneChing]

All the world may not love a lover but they will be watching him.

I plugged this into Goog and got a lot of fortune cookie sites. :p

[GeneChing]

Accept no other definition of your life, accept only your own.
This is sort of a paraphrase of Harvey Fierstein. And the punctuation is off. It shouldn't be a comma; it should be a semi-colon.

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."

[GeneChing]

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.

The interwebz tells me this is a quote by Jonathan Kozol.

[GeneChing]

Baauer & Pusha T's Kung Fu track (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?36569-Kung-Fu-Music&p=1291402#post1291402).

There's a lyric vid if you follow the post, but it might not help...:rolleyes:



Baauer Unveils Lyric Video For "Kung Fu" (http://www.thefader.com/2016/03/11/baauer-kung-fu-lyric-video)
He'll distribute free download codes for the song this weekend.
By ELIAS LEIGHT

Baauer's new clip comes courtesy of Apple Music. "Never really understood lyric videos so this one's in arabic, russian & simplified chinese," the producer explained. "The translator said, 'I'd like to warn you this song would be illegal to release in China.' The visuals are a lil glimpse from the Aa shows we've been working on."
Baauer also decided to hand out free download codes for "Kung Fu" inside fortune cookies. Those special cookies will be available this weekend for fans that live in New York City or London. The NYC supply can be found at Turntable Lab (120 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009), while the U.K. stash will be at Goodhood (151 Curtain Rd, London EC2A 3QE).

[GeneChing]

Blessed is that man who has found his work.

A paraphrasing of the Thomas Carlyle quote "Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness." I must confess that this one gave me pause after my quick Chinese lunch. I do feel blessed in my position. Mine isn't the best paying job there is, but it certainly is enjoyable (for the most part).

[GeneChing]

I gotta cutback on my Chinese food.


A focused mind is one of the most powerful forces. in the universe.
According to the interwebz, this is a fortune cookie quote. :rolleyes:

[bawang]

fortune cookie is such a condescending lame food, is only for appeasing snow people. its just curly pancakes. the only fortune cookie i interested is the hairy kind

when i have to fortune cookie i throw away the fortune paper without looking, i believe it gives u good luck when u dont read that bullsh1t

[mickey]

the only fortune cookie i interested is the hairy kind


STOP THE LYING!!!



mickey

[GeneChing]

It's better to be the beak of a hen than the tail of an ox.

Here's another one that turns up fortune cookie references when googed. I rather like this one.

[GeneChing]

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

Allegedly a quote from Izaak Walton.

With our tournament this weekend (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68985-2016-Tiger-Claw-Elite-amp-Kung-Fu-Tai-Chi-Day-May-21-22-San-Jose-CA), I'm not sure how to take this. I do work for a good company (https://www.tigerclaw.com/home.php), but the way is fraught with challenges right about now. :eek:

[GeneChing]

A small donation is call for. It's the right thing to do.

Should be 'called'. This must be an authentic fortune cookie. I left a good tip.

[GeneChing]

For success today look first to yourself.

This is another fortune that when websearched, brings up mostly fortune cookie oriented sites. I'm amazed there are so many of those. There's also some business motivation sites.

[GeneChing]

A gambler not only will lose what he has, but also will lose what he doesn't have.

That's not a gambler. That's a loser. Some gamblers win, not all, but enough to invalidate this fortune. :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

He who hesitates is last.

My old fencing coach, the late Michael D'saro, used to say 'he who hesitates is lost' a lot. I can still hear him and his Brooklyn accent saying this.

[GeneChing]

There's a short vid too that says pretty much the same thing.



Meet the guy who writes the fortune in your fortune cookie (http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/us/fortune-cookie-writer-wonton-food-company/index.html)
Story by Michelle Kim, CNN
Video by Tawanda Scott, Elias Goodstein, Zahra Haider and Cierra Smith
Updated 5:44 PM ET, Tue August 2, 2016

The man who writes your fortune 01:04

Story highlights
Writer Donald Lau has been writing cookie fortunes for decades
"I am the most read author in the United States," he says
(CNN)Crack open a fortune cookie, and you may find a strange message from the universe or a wise piece of advice. Whatever your interpretation of that slip of paper, fortune cookie writer Donald Lau only hopes it leaves you happy.

"I don't think I'm a fortuneteller," Lau says. "I don't think fortune cookies are meant to be like a horoscope. It's a way to end a meal in a Chinese restaurant and be happy when you leave."
Lau works as the chief financial officer at Wonton Food Company, the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies in the world. But he has also become the unofficial CFW, or chief fortune writer. Lau has been the sole hired fortune writer since the company acquired fortune cookie factories more than 30 years ago.
Finding inspiration from all aspects of life, from taking the subway to participating in business meetings, Lau used to write two or three axioms a day. Due to writer's block and the company's expansion, Lau now writes two or three fortunes a month.
"I feel that I will never be able to write the great American novel, but I can write the fortunes," he says. "I am the most read author in the United States."
This slowdown of fortune writing hasn't affected production. Wonton Foods has a database of thousands of fortunes, gathered from the ones Lau has written over the years, open submissions and the Internet.
Lau says the job was given to him by default, because he spoke the best English when the company was founded. But current Wonton Food CEO Norman Wong believes the job carries deep responsibilities in upholding Chinese tradition.
"We are a Chinese-American company," Wong said. "We see it as our mission to spread Chinese culture and philosophy around the world."
The origin of fortune cookies is much debated. Some say they're actually an American invention, originating from either a Chinese or Japanese restaurant on the West Coast in the early 1900s. Wong says they are rooted in Chinese history, when Chinese patriots rebelling against the Ching dynasty passed messages hidden in pastries.
Despite the company's fortune cookie distribution around the globe -- in the Middle East, Europe and South America -- the cookies still remain widely unknown in China. In the 1990s, Wonton Food opened a factory in Guangzhou, China, only to close it after a few years when the cookies failed to pick up steam in the country.
Wonton Food started as a noodle factory in Manhattan's Chinatown in 1973 and expanded into the fortune cookie business in the 1980s. Passed down from a father, Ching Sun Wong, to son Norman Wong, the business now produces 4 million cookies a day out of its factories in Queens, New York, and Houston.
In the early 1990s, Wonton Food was responsible for adding the Chinese lesson and the lucky numbers on the back of the fortune. The database of fortunes itself continues to be updated to make sure messages are kept modern while still being infused with traditional Chinese principles. An element of Chinese tradition Wong said he hopes the fortune cookies emphasize is taking time during a meal to have meaningful discussion with friends and family.
Throughout the years, the company has considered getting other writers, even reaching the interview stage, but Wong says they have not been able to find anyone who has the same cleverness and humor as Lau.
"It's a search that we have the luxury of doing slowly, making sure we find the right person," Wong says.
He's likely turning to one of Lau's fortunes for solace: "The opposite of stressed is desserts, need relief, order some more."

[GeneChing]

Pat yourself on the back for making that right choice.

I'll choose to pat myself where I please, thank you. ;)

[GeneChing]

...but the parking lot was full, so I hit up my quick little Chinese joint again. It's bad when I eat there more than once in a week. :o


Optimists believe we live in the best of worlds and pessimist fear this is true.

[GeneChing]

You will love/hate Cards Against Humanity's new fortune cookies (http://mashable.com/2016/08/26/horrible-fortune-cookies/#wxUvbXSHmGqJ)
BY SOPHIE HIRSH
AUG 26, 2016

If you've ever ordered Cards Against Humanity from the delightfully corrupt board game's website, you may have noticed how ridiculously simple their interface is.

So, the company behind the game launched Blackbox, a super easy-to-use shipping company for independent artists. To prove just how uncomplicated Blackbox is, the team put together OK Cookie Co, where you can fulfill all your horrible fortune cookie needs.

The fortune cookies each nestle a pessimistic or backhanded message on a slip of paper. For example, "Your wildest dreams will come true, assuming those dreams are about the extinction of honeybees." And, "You are perfect just the way you are. Maybe a nose job."

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/9O4Q899WHL2WuaUsA2IdOzEX3Dg=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fima ge%2F191366%2Fbf1f26a965704b738a83b5620113a6a3.png
IMAGE: OK COOKIE CO.

OK Cookie Co's website is indeed very simple. It's just one page with some info about the product, an order button and an interactive slideshow of a few possible fortunes.

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/VxmAjPfh_5NW71X0rS3SfvvN2uo=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fima ge%2F191361%2F559f5bd4ab42456c84220ad05a3d7f57.png
IMAGE: OK COOKIE CO.

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/G0PyILIi_KYPio7lSsAZE5pLuls=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fima ge%2F191363%2F82ae891d95d64d8d996dbc2d581afea5.png
IMAGE: OK COOKIE CO.

Blackbox has a detailed FAQ section on its website for interested businesses. According to the site, Blackbox’s tools helped get OK Cookie Co. up and running within days.

But the best part? The website is www.blackbox.cool. Not .com, but .cool. Cool.

We wonder if the technology also supports businesses that are for humanity.

Awesome. I should order some for the office. ;)

[GeneChing]

From Cyborg (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?62823-Christiane-quot-Cyborg-quot-Justino). Now who might this be directed at (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?63565-Ronda-Rousey)? ;)


Cris Cyborg (https://twitter.com/criscyborg/status/784148330787983361/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) Verified account
‏@criscyborg
Who's watching @SFY on @FS1 I'm going live after the commercial #teamcyborg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuHav1zVUAAEjRe.jpg

RETWEETS 10 LIKES 39
2:48 PM - 6 Oct 2016

[GeneChing]

Chinese Fortune Cookies Aren’t Actually Chinese (https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/chinese-fortune-cookies-arent-actually-chinese)
January 28, 2017 / 2:00 pm
BY BARCLAY BRAM

http://munchies-images.vice.com/wp_upload/145564942_3a40fcc2a7_o.jpg
Photo via Flickr user Tim Ellis

By now, this being 2017 and the Internet existing and all, I think most people know that fortune cookies aren’t the most authentic of Chinese customs.

But what you probably don’t know is that fortune cookies come from a small town outside of Kyoto, that they reveal the history of how Chinese food came to dominate the American palate (there are more Chinese restaurants in the US than there are McDonald’s), and can paint a ****ing critique of the American psyche.

Pretty impressive for a tasteless cookie almost exclusively produced by a single company in Brooklyn.

Let me paint a picture for you. Fukakusa is the home of the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, one of the most prominent in Japan. Pilgrims come from all over the country to ring a pair of large bells while praying for health and good fortune. Around the shrine, a series of family bakeries sprang up, selling omikuji senbei (“fortune crackers”) or tsujiura suzu (“bells with fortunes.”) Their shape is supposed to evoke that of the temple bells and the fortunes acted as souvenirs for travellers.

The cookies were not widespread throughout Japan and remain very much a regional specialty. However, as the former New York Times journalist Jennifer 8. Lee discovered in her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, in the late 19th century, an enterprising Japanese immigrant named Harigawa introduced the cookies to San Francisco.

He came to run the Japanese Tea Garden in the city’s Golden Gate Park and as a way to entice customers, decided to bring over these senbei, which he sold as Japanese fortune teacakes. Not a baker, Hagiwara outsourced their production to Benkyodo, a small Japanese bakery in San Francisco’s Japantown.

http://munchies-images.vice.com/wp_upload/fortune-cookie-history-japan.jpg
Modern-day Japantown, San Francisco. Photo via Flickr user Karl Baron

As time went on, the cookies became more popular and a few Chinese restaurants started to buy from Benkyodo, hoping to pass the cookies off as a pan-Asian delicacy. However, it was only in the 1940s that the cookie made the jump and became firmly associated with the Chinese.

In 1942, as the US began to fight Japan in the Pacific, the staff at Benkyodo was interned. Within the space of a year, the entire Japanese community in San Francisco was rounded up and bussed to camps. The same happened to Japanese communities throughout the US.

Benkyodo was taken over by enterprising Chinese businessmen, whose fortunes had suddenly turned. During the Second World War, the Chinese—the only immigrant community in the US to be explicitly excluded (unless Trump gets his way)—went from being marginalised and shunted into Chinatown ghettos to being allies in the fight against fascism.

More importantly, Chinese food, which made a little meat go a long way with dishes like chop suey, suddenly became an attractive alternative to American staples, suffering heavily at the time due to wartime rationing (meat-and-two-veg looks pretty **** with no meat). This is how Chinese food, which had previously only been eaten by Chinese locals or avant garde bohemians willing to venture into Chinatown, began to reach the mainstream palate. The economy in San Francisco Chinatown quadrupled between 1941 and 1943.

Rationing and a desire to appeal to the mass market also pushed Chinese restaurateurs to innovate at this time, creating a cuisine sufficiently Westernised to not offend the American palate, but different enough to remain “exotic.”

The fortune cookie’s profile was on the up, too. American soldiers sent to fight in the Pacific Theatre in the Second World War arrived in cities with large Chinatowns such as LA and San Francisco, where they discovered the cookies. When the War ended and the soldiers returned to their hometowns and went to local Chinese restaurants, they demanded fortune cookies with their meals, believing them to be a common part of the cuisine. Perplexed, the Chinese owners called relatives and friends based on the West Coast and sourced the cookies. Large-scale factories sprang up to service the demand.

But to call them “fortune cookies” is slightly misleading. As Lee discovered when she interviewed the writers of the fortunes inside the cookies, your creativity hits a wall pretty quickly in this job. After all, as she noted, there are only so many things you can predict—love, business, or health.

http://munchies-images.vice.com/wp_upload/fortune-cookies-chinese-new-year.jpg
Photo via Flickr user Steve Harwood

Fortune cookie writers are also limited by the fact that Americans expect good fortunes. Customers complain to restaurants when they get a bad fortune and as such, companies peddling fortunes that are negative or ambiguous enough to be construed negatively quickly discover there is no demand for their product. It is ironic, therefore, that despite coining the phrase “that’s the way the cookie crumbles,” fortune cookies can also work as a metaphor for the fragility of the American ego.

In China, where fortunes and the concept of fortune-telling is more prevalent, it would be unthinkable to give only positive fortunes. There has to be balance and a negative fortune can be seen as giving a warning that forces preventative action. Without negative fortunes, there is no critical feedback.

Pushed into a corner by having to be universally positive and by the overall lack of things you can speculate on, American fortune cookie writers quickly struck on the idea of using proverbs, often translated directly from the Chinese. When these ran dry, pithy but non-offensive cliches came to rule the day, which can explain why a lot of “fortunes” don’t sound like fortunes at all. “Happiness is a full belly,” for example, isn’t going to do much for that situation with your boss or help you navigate Brexit.

Another unique feature of the American psyche that complicates fortune-writing is the fact that Americans always need new things. Diners at Chinese restaurants in the US don’t want to receive the same fortune twice and as such, they must be cranked out at a ridiculous rate.

Donald Lau has been the sole fortune cookie writer at Wonton Foods Inc, the world’s largest manufacturer of the cookies, for more than 30 years. At the height of his career, he was writing two or three fortunes a day—a target so high it caused him to suffer writer’s block and downscale his output to just three fortunes a month.

This could go some way in explaining why it is that no one has managed to re-engineer the fortune cookie on a mass scale and sell it back to the Chinese. It’s just far too American.

I want Donald Lau's job. As I've said here before, I've always dreamed of being a fortune cookie writer. Ironically, I have a cousin named Don Lau, but this is not him.

[GeneChing]

Welcome James Wong. I want your job.


https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/170124-fortune-cookie-factory-01.jpg?quality=85&w=838

Inside the fortune cookie manufacturing plant of Wonton Food Inc. Queens, N.Y. Jan. 18, 2017. An Rong Xu for TIME

FOOD & DRINK
Go Behind the Scenes as Fortune Cookie History Gets Made (http://time.com/4645242/chinese-lunar-new-year-rooster-2017-chief-fortune-writer-wonton-food-cookie-factory/)
Olivia B. Waxman
Jan 27, 2017

To ring in the year of the Rooster, which begins with Chinese New Year on Saturday, tradition holds that celebrants should feast on foods like dumplings, tangerines, fish, noodles and rice cakes because some of the Chinese words for these foods also sound like the words for fortune, good luck and abundance.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., those who celebrate by enjoying Chinese food will likely end their meals with another take on fortune: the fortune cookie.
That sweet treat is the product of more than a century of complicated—and not always pleasant—history. And that history is now changing, as the Chief Fortune Writer at Wonton Food Inc., which identifies itself as America's largest manufacturer of noodles, wrappers and fortune cookies, hands the reins to someone new. During this transition, Wonton Food gave TIME a look behind the scenes at its Queens, N.Y. factory, which churns out 4.5 million fortune cookies a day, to see fortune-cookie history in the making.
"I have writer's block," says Donald Lau, a former corporate banker who has for the last three decades been Chief Financial Officer and Chief Fortune Writer at Wonton Food. "I used to write 100 a year, but I've only written two or three a month over the past year."
So for the past six months, he's been training his successor: James Wong, 43, a nephew of the original founder of Wonton Food. Wong is now officially the Chief Fortune Writer.
"I passed the pen to him," says Lau. "It’s his responsibility now."

Crumby Origins

Wong and Lau are part of a long American tale that, ironically for a product that often bares uplifting messages, has a depressing backstory.
The fortune-cookie origins story that Lau chooses to believe is one that dates back to the Ming Dynasty, when people would give each other mooncakes containing secret messages. But research by Yasuko Nakamachi, a Japanese folklore specialist, has pinpointed the precursors of fortune cookies to small bakeries around a popular Shinto shrine outside of Kyoto, Japan, that had been making crackers in the shape of fortune cookies. The treat's journey to the U.S.—and to being perceived as a Chinese dessert—starts in the late 19th century, during the California Gold Rush, when a different kind of fortune could be made.
American Protestant missionaries stationed in the south of China spread word of what was happening on the other side of the Pacific, and adventurous Chinese men were lured to America by the prospect of gold. By 1870, they represented almost 10% of the population in the state of California and about 20% of the state's labor force, according to Yong Chen, a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Chop Suey USA. Chinese immigrants began to work on farms as agriculture ramped up after the Civil War, and also worked building railroads. Despite their positions in critical jobs for the nation's growth, many white Americans looked down on them. In 1882, Congress passed the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act, which basically banned Chinese manual labor, Chinese immigration and prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming U.S citizens.
Kept from lucrative jobs and banned from becoming legal residents if they were manual laborers, many of those who had come over before 1882 turned to the service sector, according to Anne Mendelson, author of Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey. They started laundry businesses and restaurants.
Meanwhile, the racism and stereotyping that Chinese immigrants suffered also extended to Japanese people. But—perhaps because Japanese immigration was taking place at a slower pace—the initial 1882 law did not keep them from manual labor jobs. There was a racist perception that "the Chinese were really cunning and malevolent and would take any opportunity to take over this country," Mendelson says. "And somehow, because the Japanese had not immigrated in as large numbers, people didn’t form the same idea of them as being filthy and malicious."
As that population of Japanese Californians grew, they began to get into the service sector too. In the early 20th century, realizing that their native cuisine was too exotic for many American palates, they instead opened Chinese restaurants, which by that point had become familiar to Californian diners of all backgrounds. But, in doing so, they brought some of their own traditions to the Chinese-American table. Though it is not known exactly who invented the fortune cookie, the American version was a product of this amalgamation, says Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
Things changed after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Feb. 1942 Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to designate certain regions as "military areas," which enabled them to force the relocation of many Japanese-Americans to internment camps. Many of the Japanese-American people who owned the restaurants where fortune cookies were served were locked up. Lee says it was during this era that fortune cookies "mysteriously jumped from being basically something that was clearly defined as Japanese to something that is Chinese."
At the same time, during World War II, the demand for fortune cookies increased as soldiers who were passing through California visited Chinese restaurants that served the treats, and brought that taste home with them to middle America. And so the fortune cookie spread across the U.S., becoming a symbol of the Chinese presence in America—a thriving presence these days, as people of Chinese descent are the most widely represented group of Asian-Americans, the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., according to a Pew study.
And that tasty ending is appropriate, in a way: There is a type of Chinese fortunetelling, says Min Zhou, professor of Sociology and Asian-American Studies at the University of California Los Angeles, that holds that "there is always a way to turn your bad fortune into a good one."
continued next post

[GeneChing]

Catering to Different Tastes

But fortune cookies have remained a distinctly American phenomenon. In the early 1990s, Wonton Food Inc. attempted to expand its business in China, but found that the idea didn't quite translate. Chinese diners, unfamiliar with the idea, kept accidentally eating the fortunes, Lau says. (Americans have sometimes gone the opposite way: a survey in the late '80s found that nearly a quarter of diners don't actually eat the cookie.)
"The company spent a lot of money to explain what a fortune cookie is," says Lau. "It took too much time. And at that time, about 30 years ago, I think the government was not encouraging. If someone found a fortune, the government may have considered it superstitious."
In general, the idea that modern Chinese history would have made the nation less receptive to something like fortune cookies makes sense, says Herb Tam, director of exhibitions at the Museum of Chinese in America, which is currently hosting an exhibit about Chinese food in America. Reform efforts by the Communist government in the 1950s and '60s trickled down to how people ate and which ingredients were available. "People had problems just getting enough rice and basic staples to go around," says Tam, "so by the time fortune cookies came around, I don’t think there was much of a place for such a weird, luxury item."
Today, though the Chinese economy has changed significantly, fortune cookies are still not widely consumed there—and in fact, just as the economic and political history of the 19th and early 20th centuries helped create the fortune cookie, new global forces are at work. Thanks to globalization, it's easier for American consumers to access real Chinese food and other goods, so the climate that produced something like the fortune cookie is disappearing.

https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/170124-wonton-food-inc.jpg?w=280
The new Chief Fortune Writer, James Wong, at his desk working. Wonton Food Inc. Brooklyn, New York. Jan. 18th, 2017 An Rong Xu for TIME

Leaving a Sweet Impression

In Japan, the older the fortune, the more valuable it is, as Nakamachi has put it. Yet in the U.S., fortune-cookie fortune writers are pressured to come up with new, unique, inspirational messages all of the time.
And the fortunes they come up with today are the product of very recent history.
Lau says that when he became Chief Fortune Writer in the '80s, the yellowed stack of fortunes presented to him sounded like vague horoscopes ("You will meet a new friend tomorrow"). Nowadays, they contain fewer predictions and more sayings that could help people be happier. He has also attempted to use U.S. politics as an inspiration for fortunes—"Watching the debates on TV during the primaries last year, when everyone was accusing everyone of being a liar, I came up with a fortune that said, 'Don’t run for president, you’re not a good liar,'" he says. But those fortunes are less likely to be approved by the committee of Wonton Food employees who pick the final fortunes, and he also worries that such fortunes will lose their punch as the news evolves.
The company has explored fortune-writing contests and soliciting fortunes online, and they also keep track of diner reactions. A run of brutally honest fortunes about a decade ago didn't go over well, and authorities briefly investigated the company in 2005, after 110 Powerball lottery players won about $19 million after using the "lucky numbers" on the back of fortunes. Once a jilted wife wrote in to complain that her husband had gotten a fortune promising him romance on his next business trip, and a satisfied customer wrote to say he got a new job after reading a fortune about a new opportunity coming his way.
For Wong, who has a 10-year-old daughter, his new gig is personal.
"I think about what I need to talk to her about," he said during TIME's Jan. 18 visit to the factory's corporate headquarters in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. "One thing that came to me fairly recently is based on an old Chinese proverb: failure is the mother of success. That's something that I really want my daughter to embrace — that it's okay to fail, but if you learn from every failure, you will become successful. Maybe the things I want to say to my daughter will be useful for other people."
And in the end, Lau believes happy messages make happy customers, while speaking like a practical businessman."When they eat their fortune cookie, I want the customers to open the fortune, read it, maybe laugh, and leave the restaurant happy," he says, "so that they come back again next week."

I'm looking forward to more proverb-based fortune cookie fortunes, but I seldom get them nowadays. I've had to cut back on white rice, so I've not been eating at Chinese restaurants as much, so not as many fortunes to post here. Besides, no one else was playing really. :o

[GeneChing]

AUG. 3, 2017 AT 10:36 AM
We Analyzed 1,000 Fortune Cookies To Unlock Their Secrets (http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fortune-cookie-math/)
By Walt Hickey
Filed under Food

To Analyze Fortune Cookie Data, You Have To Break Open A Few Cookies

I’m a bit obsessed with fortune cookies. I, an otherwise non-superstitious person, have no fewer than five incidentally meaningful ones stashed away in special places. I know I shouldn’t take them seriously — they’re not even Chinese! — but breaking open a cookie and attempting to find a higher truth is an inexplicably satisfying way to end a takeout meal. But just eating them wasn’t enough. I wanted to unlock their mysteries.

Sure, we know how fortune cookies are made, but I wanted to break inside the dough and find out what could be learned from the wisdom within: the fortunes, the “lucky numbers” and even the lessons in Mandarin. So in the spirit of this earlier experiment with tarot cards, I set out on a data-driven mission.

I bought 1,050 fortune cookies from an internet wholesaler. A week later, the FiveThirtyEight offices welcomed three bulk boxes of the purportedly portentous pastries; within yet another week, after assiduous disassembly, categorization, alphabetization and digitization, I was able to say with resounding confidence: Those jerks only sent 1,035 cookies. Despite the 15-cookie deficit, I had an intimidating sample size to crack wide open. Here’s what I found.

How many fortunes are there?

I bought the bulk cookies — Panda brand, with fortunes at times directing me to Wonton Food Inc.’s web page — expecting a random sample, but it turns out that buying in bulk gives you an entire slice of a production run. I bought enough that we got fortunes beginning with the letters “A” through “I,” and letters “W” through “Y.” There were 676 unique fortunes in the 1,035-cookie sample. The obverse side of the fortunes repeat more often; there were just 556 unique combinations of lucky numbers on the back of those fortunes, and 173 individual Mandarin vocabulary words and phrases.

We can estimate a few things with this information. We know the general distribution of letters in the English language, but we also know the approximate distribution of first letters in sentences, thanks to cryptographers who need to keep such information handy. About 46 percent of sentences begin with the letters “A” through “I,” and about 8 percent begin with “W” through “Y.” And while the fortune cookie distribution differs from most English in a number of ways — for instance, way more sentences beginning with “You” — I’d venture, given our 54 percent coverage, that there could be roughly 1,200 to 1,600 fortunes in the overall corpus. So we’re far from a census here, but we have a decent sample.

Are fortune cookie “lucky numbers” actually lucky?
Lucky? Don’t be ridiculous, of course they’re —

It’s complicated.

In order to figure out if one set of six numbers was legitimately luckier than a random set of six numbers, we would need some sort of highly transparent, public-facing random number generation system carried out over years and years at organized intervals with specific monetary amounts allocated to specific chance outcomes. The logistics alone would be breathtaking. Such a study of luck could easily require a multi-state body to organize the venture and ensure that the game remained solvent.

We only worked on this story for about a month, so instead of setting all that up, we let Powerball do the work for us. I took all the lucky numbers from the fortunes and compared them to the Powerball numbers stretching from Nov. 1, 1997, to May 27, 2017, and calculated what the winnings would be1 if a degenerate gambler bought one Powerball ticket for every single one of the allegedly lucky number combinations over all 2,043 drawings. Such an individual — buying one ticket for each batch of numbers, including repeats — would make $4.4 million2 on $4.2 million in ticket purchases. The expected value of that investment using “unlucky” randomized digits and assuming an average jackpot at each drawing? $1.7 million in winnings on $4.2 million in ticket purchases, based on multiplying the current probabilities of each event by the current prizes for each event across 2,043 drawings.

It would appear that the lucky numbers are legit lucky:
http://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/hickey-fortunecookies-0731-1.png?w=575&h=528&quality=90&strip=info

Obviously, this is weird as hell. It’s mainly thanks to several $1 million prize-winning jackpots with the numbers 19, 30, 55, 18 and 53 with the Powerball number 21. There are certainly logical explanations for this. Maybe the lucky numbers were added into the fortune cookies after those Powerball wins. Or, according to Occam’s razor, play several thousand lotteries with several thousand combinations, and you’ll hit a winner eventually. Plenty of people have won lotteries, even the Powerball, with fortune cookie insight.

So I can’t say they’re lucky, but I’m pretty confident we can’t claim the numbers are unlucky .

How much of the language can one learn from the backs of fortunes alone?

Anyone who tried to pick up Mandarin from our 1,035 fortunes in some bootleg flashcard stratagem would be in decent luck. At 173 words, we’re talking the vocabulary of a highly precocious 2-year-old or a late-blooming toddler. You won’t be carrying on any particularly insightful conversations; with 21 verbs at your disposal — mostly exercise-, eating- and illness-based — an adept student could eat, find a doctor and roller-skate (assuming tenses are no object). Intensifiers and modifiers are very much in the cards; with 21 adjectives in your arsenal, you could order that food cheap, delicious or even blue. It’s with the 124 nouns that your vocabulary range sings — assuming you’re hungry.

Seventy-four of the 173 words you’d learn pertain primarily to food, so the cookie has educated you just enough to keep you trapped in a restaurant. We’re talking lesson two, maybe three of the Mandarin Rosetta Stone set. If you can’t bear the course cost, downing 1,035 snacks with the approximate nutritional value of Froot Loops3 could do the trick.

But what are the fortunes telling us?
Only about a fifth of fortunes had predictive or forward-looking statements about what may or will occur in the misty future, but a majority hit the most delightful topic of all: you. Based on some laborious topical tagging, more than half of the unique fortunes mentioned “you,” your character, your strengths, your weaknesses. Outside of those two main themes, there was not a ton of consensus in terms of topics covered (again, I coded these by hand).

Fortune cookies aren’t really about the future; they’re all about you


THEME SHARE OF FORTUNES
Mentions “you” 52.9%
–
Predicts the future 22.3
–
Success, failure and happiness 10.0
–
Work, education and doing things 8.1
–
Intellect, curiosity and creativity 7.6
–
Character traits 7.3
–
Journeys, beginnings and change 6.9
–
Friends and people 4.8
–
Love, beauty and romance 4.0
–
Chance, fortune and fate 3.7
–
Based on an analysis of 676 unique fortunes from 1,035 Panda brand fortune cookies, which were not quite sampled randomly. All fortunes begin with the first letter “A” through “I” or “W” through “Y” because of the way the cookies were packaged for bulk purchasing.

Are all the fortunes innovative and unique? Of course not. I have qualms about “Everyone agrees you are the best.” Perhaps “Dance like nobody’s watching,” and “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” feel a bit glib for “wisdom.” It’s a bold move to crib from Yoda and write, “Do or do not, there is no try,” but good god It’s an extremely bold move to straight-up rip off Jesus with, “Do onto others as you wish others do onto you” and try to pass it off as an original fortune.

Beyond this, we can perhaps look at the words that appear disproportionately in fortunes compared with the standard English corpus — lots of action words and positivity, like “good,” “life,” “go,” “never,” “make” and “always” — but, of course, the real fun comes in when smashing them together and creating brand-new tokens of wisdom with bots like this one. Even though I equipped my bot with hundreds of fortunes to draw on — it builds a fortune by randomly selecting subsequent words based on how often they succeed the previous pair of words — it may not be perfect, and all the Markov-bot-generated fortunes may not be winners. Some of the algorithmically generated advice that can now be found at @FortuneBot538 is terrible.

But I’ll never forget when, wrist-deep in a box of shattered shortbreads sometime around fortune number 863, a wise cookie told me, “You may be disappointed if you fail. But you are doomed if you don’t try.”

Walt Hickey is FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

Brilliant piece. Kudos to Mr. Hickey.

[GeneChing]

At first I was all 'dang. missed it.' but then a little web search spit out this curiosity.


Fortune Cookie Day (http://holidayinsights.com/other/fortunecookie.htm)

http://holidayinsights.com/other/fortunecookie.jpg

Date When Celebrated : Always on September 13 th

This day celebrates the creation of the Fortune Cookie. What a great cookie. A little slip of paper inside of it brings you good luck, a whimsical saying, or a philosophical thought. (we favor good luck...we can use all we can get).

Its pretty clear that the Fortune Cookie did not originate in China. Rather, it was invented in California. There appears to be some uncertainty over who invented it. Some historical references suggest it was Makoto Hagiwara who invented the fortune cookie at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco in 1914. Others believe that David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company, was the first to make fortune cookies in Los Angeles in the 1920s.

To celebrate this day, go grab a handful of fortune cookies. Or, get your fill online. Online cookies are no calorie, no carb.

Origin of Fortune Cookie Day
We are not certain of the origin of this day. From our research, it most likely was created by someone who wanted to recognize the good feeling this cookie brings to people. Our extensive research research did uncover lots of information about the origin of the fortune cookies (as described above).

Documentation for the date of this day is all over the map. A large majority of sources declare Fortune Cookie Day as September 13th. We did find one reference to this day in April, June, July, and August.


Fortune cookies are life's cryptic little treats (https://twitter.com/i/moments/755776265207119872)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnzvLBVWIAA0F08.jpg

Today July 20, 2016
July 20th is National Fortune Cookie Day, a day to celebrate all the weird, creepy ways folded cookies have tried to predict your future at Chinese food joints over the years.

[GeneChing]

Nowhere is safe: Fortune cookies now have ads, starting with Capital One (https://digiday.com/marketing/nowhere-safe-fortune-cookies-now-ads-starting-capital-one/)
August 24, 2018 by Kerry Flynn

https://i0.wp.com/digiday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/IMG_20180821_102009-e1535050251555.jpg?zoom=2&resize=1440%2C738

If Shawn Porat realizes his dream, every fortune cookie will have an ad inside of it.

The startup founder of OpenFortune — he goes by “chief fortune officer” — has spent the last eight years building a business — much of which involved logistics within the supply chain of cookie factories and Chinese restaurants — to place ads on those tiny paper slips. On Aug. 19, Porat had one of his first big breaks when BuzzFeed’s Ben Kaufman tweeted to his nearly 12,000 followers about one of those ads, featuring Capital One:


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk_uU2iX4AAKkBC.jpg
Ben Kaufman (https://twitter.com/benkaufman/status/1031304886200283136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1031304886200283136&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigiday.com%2Fmarketing%2Fno where-safe-fortune-cookies-now-ads-starting-capital-one%2F)
@benkaufman

Ad blockers ain’t got nothing on the nyc take out market.

3:20 PM - 19 Aug 2018
2,048 Retweets 10,203 Likes haley!🤠Justin7885LexiBrittany Dreon민주 (minju) 🏳️*🌈sad jonespsyduckeglė | 426Babsi
46 replies 2,048 retweets 10,203 likes
Reply 46 Retweet 2.0K Like 10K


Capital One has bought promotions in 10 million fortune cookies to be distributed across about 5,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S. Porat’s company, OpenFortune, has sold half of its 2019 monthly campaigns, he said. Porat declined to share names due to non-disclosure agreements but said upcoming campaigns include CPG, dating, auto manufacturers, wireless, financial services, tech and travel companies.

To some media buyers, fortune cookie ads may be creative and underutilized or expensive and potentially untrackable. Porat and his counterpart Matt Williams, chief cookie officer of OpenFortune, said those brands don’t have to get onboard. As for ROI, they’re hoping to prove its value through promotions written on the fortunes and social media posts. Beyond Kaufman’s viral tweet, there are more than 1.2 million posts on Instagram with the hashtag #fortunecookie.

“The emotions we value are prosperity, compassion, growth and luck. We always work to maintain the integrity [of the cookie]. We keep the lucky numbers, keep the fortune and work with brands to drive emotion. We won’t pitch a brand that we feel like is a stretch,” Williams said.

The idea for selling ads in fortune cookies came to Porat in 2010, unsurprisingly, when he was dining at a Chinese restaurant, specifically China Kettle in Brooklyn. Brands weren’t interested in ads in Chinese restaurants at the time, but they were curious about branded fortune cookies. Porat worked with TJ Maxx, Salesforce and Bloomingdales on promotional cookies, he said. In 2014, he worked with the Missouri Lottery for a version of his original concept.

OpenFortune, previously Fortune Cookie Advertising, has since embraced that original idea of ads in cookies and distributed through Chinese restaurants. They work with about 50 percent of the 44,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., which took a lot of phone calls.

“It should have been a reality TV show, calling restaurants and they’re like, ‘Hi, what’s your order?’ and me saying, ‘Hi, I’m giving you free cookies,’” Porat said.

As for making the ads and the cookies, OpenFortune works with printers in Florida, North California and California. They use soy-based ink, so the cookies stay edible. They print in multi-colors rather than the typical black font on white paper. The wrappers and cookies are made in Chicago and New York.

Now, with years of experience and the logistics understood, it costs about 10 cents to produce every cookie. That cost decreases based on volume and other variables, going as low as a penny for nationwide campaigns.

Part of the ROI and tracking mimics subway ads and other out-of-home advertising for some brands. Williams said they can use the lucky numbers as something to enter on a brand’s website to potentially win something. They hope to “gamify” the experience, taking cues from McDonald’s Monopoly game.

“This is our dream: You’re never going to get a cookie without an ad,” Porat said.


Fortune Cookie Day 2018 is coming up.

[GeneChing]

Sometimes I get sent the oddest news. I'm glad of the forum because it's someplace for me to dump it.


Sex and the City's Candace Bushnell has made racy fortune 'cookies' for Chinese New Year (https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/living/sex-and-the-city-author-candace-bushnell-writing-hakkasan-fortune-cookies-a4051156.html)
I couldn't help but wonder... how many calories are there in these?
by Margaret Abrams
New York
5 hours ago

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/10/04/10/sexandxity0410g.jpg

If you’re tired of adding “in bed” to the end of fortune cookies, consider trying out one of Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s racy new alternatives.

Unfortunately, Bushnell isn’t penning a modern-day version of SATC - but she is the woman behind Hakkasan’s new 'fortune macarons.' Chicer and tastier than the average cookie, each is filled with words from the original Carrie Bradshaw.

The cookies are on offer at Hakkasan New York (unfortunately, they haven’t made their way to the London location - Will Self is doing those) and have been created to celebrate Chinese New Year.

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2019/01/28/15/20181214-hakkasan-18.jpg?w600
Candace Bushnell's new Sex and the City macarons (Hakkasan)

Luckily, Hakkasan is a see-and-be-seen spot, far from the infamous Chinese restaurant featured in Sex and the City’s “Secret Sex” episode, when Mr. Big takes Carrie Bradshaw to a top-secret Szechuan restaurant.

Some standout lines on the cookies include “Your Mr. Big will turn out to be not so big” (vintage Samantha) and the far more optimistic “Your awkward one-night stand will turn out to be your soulmate” (perhaps Charlotte wrote that one).

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2019/01/28/15/20181214-hakkasan-candace-bushnell-6.jpg?w600
Candace Bushnell reading her bespoke macarons at Hakkasan (Hakkasan)

And in a nod to what the SATC superstars got up to after filming wrapped, an omniscient macaron warns “You’ll witness Cynthia Nixon on the subway eating her cinnamon raisin bagel with lox,” as an ode to Nixon’s major bagel faux pas during her Gubernatorial run.

The limited edition macarons are available through February 19 at Hakkasan in New York City. Pair with a Cosmopolitan to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Sex and the City style.

[GeneChing]

SF now has the highest rent (https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/05/median-1-bedroom-rent-sf-3690-month-zumper/) in the nation. yay.


Amid rent increase, San Francisco's only fortune cookie factory faces uncertain future (https://www.sfgate.com/insidescoop/article/golden-gate-fortune-cookie-factory-open-rent-china-13664957.php)
By Michelle Robertson, SFGATE Updated 2:19 pm PST, Tuesday, March 5, 2019

https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/00/74/46/17025451/3/920x920.jpg
San Francisco Mayor London Breed at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory with co-owner Kevin Chan.

For 57 years, tourists, schoolchildren and locals have squeezed into the small storefront of the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory for a free sample and a sight of nimble-fingered workers folding fortune cookies the old-fashioned way.

But the future is uncertain for the last remaining fortune cookie factory in San Francisco, which the city granted legacy business status in 2016. Facing frequent rent and wage increases and fewer visitors, co-owner Kevin Chan is unsure how long he'll be able to keep the company his mother co-founded in 1962 running.

"I'm worried about the future right now," Chan told SFGATE Tuesday. "I don't know what to do."

Chan said monthly rent for the tiny store on Ross Alley is "nearing $6,000." Three years ago, it was about $1,400. The BBC first reported the rent increases in a Monday story.

"We're still alive because I can manage [the rent] right now," Chan said, but with the next lease renewal coming up in two or three years, it's not clear how long the business can stay afloat.

Besides the rent, Chan faces increased overhead costs in other areas of the business, including paying employees the city's mandated $15-an-hour minimum wage and the rising price of sugar and flour.

The factory — open seven days a week — produces up to 15,000 cookie products a day, all of which are made by hand by two to three part-time employees. Some nights, Chan and his mother work until 2 a.m. just to finish orders.

There's also the issue of factory-made cookies, which just don't taste the same.

"They've devalued the quality of the fortune cookie," Chan explained. Golden Gate's cookies are made from a secret recipe know only by Chan's mother. They're folded and baked on machinery dating back to 1952.

Chan views the cookie factory as a business and museum, a place where visitors can come to learn about the history and people of Chinatown, a neighborhood that continues to undergo rapid change and gentrification.

Joining San Francisco's Legacy Business Program three years ago hasn't helped ease the pressure, Chan said. The program gives registered businesses grants of $500 per full-time employee each year, but Chan's employees work part-time. The city officially declared June 8 as "Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company Day" last year.

"Being a legacy is no pride at all, because I don't get any benefits from it," he said. "I don't just want money. Promote me so I can stay alive."

With three antique machines, moving locations isn't an option, either. "Where could I move?" Chan asked. "Anywhere I'd go, it's the same price for rent."

Chan promised the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory isn't going anywhere just yet. Despite the changes the factory and its neighborhood have faced in recent years, Golden Gate's mission remains the same: Give folks a taste of real fortune cookies.

At the end of the day, "fortunes are supposed to make people happy," he said.

"My pride is to be open as long as I can. I don't want to disappoint."

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfgate.com.

[GeneChing]

His fortune cookie said it was his lucky day, so he bought a lottery ticket. He ended up winning $100,000 (https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/07/us/fortune-cookie-lottery-trnd/index.html)
By Michelle Lou and Saeed Ahmed, CNN
Updated 12:00 PM ET, Thu March 7, 2019

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190307111008-lottery-fortune-cookie-exlarge-169.jpg
Diego Caceres, left, with his brother Domingo, won $100,000 after following a fortune cookie's advice.

(CNN)Fortune cookie messages are usually quickly brushed off.
But for a Maryland man, it paid off to listen to his -- to the tune of $100,000.
Diego Caceres and his brother Domingo were wrapping up a meal at a Chinese restaurant last month when a fortune cookie informed Caceres it was his lucky day.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind until he was checking out at a 7-Eleven later that day. Remembering his fortune, Caceres decided to borrow money from his brother to buy a Power 8s scratch-off ticket.
Caceres quickly received more than enough money to pay his brother back: The scratch-off awarded him a $100,000 prize.
The winner had only tried his luck at the lottery once before, but it hadn't panned out. He said he decided to try the Power 8s ticket this time because 8 is a lucky number for him, and it's the jersey number of his favorite soccer player.
The brothers plan to put the money toward a multi-destination vacation and possibly some professional soccer game tickets.
"We'll live a little," Caceres, 25, said in a statement to the Maryland Lottery. "We are young!"

Young indeed.

[GeneChing]

NEWS
Fortune cookie lucky numbers scored lottery players more than $400 million in winnings (https://www.audacy.com/news/fortune-cookie-lucky-numbers-scored-usd400-million-in-winnings?fbclid=IwAR3fV6ccnuHG0BrFT9GAnJMJp1XWl_Id KqCBvXiYjOy_8DUxDot5SB7JUF0)
https://images.radio.com/aiu-media/GettyImages1252521269-c018b361-4cae-499d-aa21-3dd82835cdde.jpg?width=800
Photo credit Getty Images
By Johnny Lopez, Audacy
May 21, 20213:30 am

That cookie could really be worth a fortune.

A new study has revealed that nearly 150 people in 40 states have played the numbers inside fortune cookies and made bank.

According to OpenFortune, a media company that distributes fortune cookies throughout the US, 146 lottery winners between 2004 and 2021 have scored more than $400 million by playing the numbers on the strip of paper in their treat.

In total, the winners accumulated $406,657,618 from Powerball, Mega Millions, Daily Draw and Scratch-Off Games.

https://images.radio.com/aiu-media/LOTTERYINFOGRAPHIC514Infographic-da0f3d6d-9237-430f-beb4-b6fbb6d33ba8.jpg?width=800
Photo credit Open Fortune

More surprising, the bulk of winners actually took home at least six figures. According to the survey, 93% earned more than $100,000 each.

If you’re looking for a tip, the “luckiest” numbers have been 4, 14, 15, 22, 26 and 28. And of the 40 states in the survey, South Carolina produced the most winning tickets with 15.

“It’s obvious — fortune cookies instill feelings of luck and prosperity. But we were shocked by the sheer number of people who played, and actually won, using the motivation from their fortune,” said OpenFortune's Chief Cookie Officer Matt Williams in a press release.

“That small slip of paper is powerful and [elicits] emotions that can ultimately lead people to make life-changing decisions.”

If you want to attempt to be the next fortune cookie winner, order some takeout and get ready to play as Friday’s Mega Millions drawing has an estimated jackpot of $515 million.

No really. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt?

[GeneChing]

The Free Cookie in Your Chinese Takeout Is Actually Japanese (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-are-fortune-cookies-from)
Fortune cookies emerged from one of America’s darkest moments.

BY SELENA TAKIGAWA HOY
OCTOBER 11, 2019

https://img.atlasobscura.com/06ebHRQmPRu9hVGw6cstb-Sk_MgJObagJoJ8vv5UXnQ/rt:fit/w:1280/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8yMjk2ZTYwNmI1/NzI4NGI2ZDBfNzUy/NDc2Y2U1ZjY3MGIw/MzJiX19ob2d5b2t1/ZG8wMDAxOS5qcGc.jpg
A baker makes fortune cookies at Hougyokudo in Kyoto, Japan. SELENA HOY
In This Story
PERMANENTLY CLOSED

PLACE
Benkyodo

DESTINATION GUIDE
San Francisco, California

DESTINATION GUIDE
Kyoto, Japan

THE STREETS LEADING TO THE vermillion gates of Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine are filled with mom and pop shops. Vendors sell shaved ice, grilled eels on skewers, lacquered chopsticks, and sweet potatoes baked over red-hot coals. But one man in a crisp white cap is making and selling cookies that don’t look Japanese at all.

Inside his shop, Hougyokudo, Takeshi Matsuhisa presides over a dozen or so round iron molds with long thin handles. Opening one, he peels off a brown disc of dough, then deftly folds it and tucks a slip of paper inside. The finished product is a bit bigger and browner, but otherwise it looks exactly like something most often found atop the check after a meal of spring rolls and chow mein: a fortune cookie.

Fortune cookies—that sweet treat served with a side of pithy wisdom—are such a staple in Chinese-American restaurants that many diners are surprised to learn they are not from China. Often described as an invention of immigrants in California, they can in fact be traced back to Japan, where bakers such as Matsuhisa still make the original version, known as tsujiura senbei or omikuji senbei. “These have been around since the Edo period,” Matsuhisa says.

Fortune-telling culture is strong in Japan. The custom of getting an omikuji, or a fortune printed on a slip of paper at a temple or shrine, stretches back at least a millennium. Worshippers still tie them to sacred trees on the way out. It’s also not uncommon to see palm readers on street corners, and the rokuyo calendar, which predicts lucky and unlucky days, is routinely used when planning weddings and funerals.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/_JHPUQoLzF9UMmMxPeuDzHKrd2br-cRTkjCKp4EWEtw/rt:fill/w:1200/el:1/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8yMjk2ZTYwNmI1/NzI4NGI2ZDBfNzUy/NDc2Y2U1ZjY3MGIw/MzJiX19ob2d5b2t1/ZG8wMDAwMi5qcGc.jpg
Note the red and green fortunes sticking out. SELENA HOY

Tsujiura is a kind of fortune telling done by interpreting the conversations and characteristics of random people in crowds, especially in sacred places. In the Edo period, this kind of fortune telling became a populist form of entertainment, says Satsuki Matsuhisa of the Matsuya bakery in Kyoto. “In the middle of the Edo period, tsujiura was sold to the common people,” she says. “There were various types of poems written in the 7, 7, 7, 5 [syllable] style, playful poems about love between men and women.” They were sold on street corners and plied by geisha in teahouses.

This ancestry is still apparent in Kyoto’s shops. One fortune from Hougyokudo is a 7, 7, 7, 5 style poem that roughly translates to: “Until becoming a mother / Is not being a mother / Because of an argument at Izumo?” Since Izumo is a part of Japan where gods are said to reside, the implication is that having a child is up to the gods.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/IZvmDtbOt9TBohhXJC_aSDPeKWJzFzJFiLYg9X_DKEQ/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8wZmFhYzUxNC0w/ZGU5LTQwNzEtYTU1/Yi05MDU2MDg1N2Yy/MWRlZTU0ZjkwZGNk/MzRkNTVlOThfRm9y/dHVuZV9Db29raWVf/MTg3OC5qcGc.jpg
This print from 1878 shows people making the cookies in exactly the manner the Kyoto makers still make them today—by hand with iron molds.
References to Japan’s fortune cookies go back centuries. One of the earliest is a passage in Tamenaga Shunsui’s “The Young Grass of Spring,” which describes brittle cookies containing fortunes. A woodblock print from 1878 depicts a character named Kinnosuke making tsujiura senbei in an Osaka shop using the same method followed by bakers in Kyoto today. And the zoologist Edward Morse memorialized them with a sketch in his 1883 book, Japan Day by Day Vol. II. He writes that the cookie was “pinched up in a triangular form” and “was made of molasses and was brittle, and tasted like a gingersnap without the ginger.” The message inside the cookie, Morse wrote, was a motto: “Determination will go through rocks, why then can we not be united?”

When the fortune cookie appeared across the Pacific, in the United States, it did so in California, the home of fast-growing Chinese-American and Japanese-American populations.* Immigrants from China began arriving in large numbers in the 1800s, drawn by the Gold Rush and the need for agricultural, factory, and railroad laborers. Japanese immigrants came soon after, in later decades.

White Americans described their growing presence as a “yellow peril” and passed xenophobic laws in response. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted all immigration from China. When industrialists recruited Japanese workers to fill the gap, similar laws soon blocked their arrival, including, eventually, the 1924 Immigration Act that prevented all new immigrants from Asia.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/aguBHozXXm8GgnfF9Q3oProJNUpIX2KVKgl-5_ItjQI/rt:fill/w:1200/el:1/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8yMjk2ZTYwNmI1/NzI4NGI2ZDBfNzUy/NDc2Y2U1ZjY3MGIw/MzJiX19tYXRzdXlh/MDAwMTQuanBn.jpg
A Japanese baker folds a fortune cookie by hand while attending to a dozen that are baking in a kata. SELENA HOY
As the Gold Rush waned, those in cities were shunted into low-wage jobs such as restaurant and laundry work, often congregating in enclaves due to policies limiting where they could live. It was in these enclaves that several people—of both Chinese and Japanese ancestry—claimed to have originated the American fortune cookie. But the best and earliest evidence points to San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden.

Established in 1894 by Makoto Hagiwara, who came to the U.S. in the 1870s and started several businesses, the Japanese Tea Garden still serves fortune cookies in Golden Gate Park. “There’s been several references to the Hagiwara [Japanese] Tea Garden ‘tea cakes,’” says Rosalyn Tonai, executive director of the National Japanese-American Historical Society, in reference to the earliest accounts of American fortune cookies. Served with tea, the cakes contained thank-you notes, which, Tonai says, “evolved into the fortune cookie we know today.”

“The idea of writing something inside began with a party Hagiwara held for his vendors and other guests,” says Benh Nakajo, who has worked at the Japanese Tea Garden for 10 years and for nearly 50 at Benkyo-do, a confectionary in San Francisco’s Japantown that was founded in 1906. After the cookies were popular with visitors, he adds, Hagiwara replaced the thank-you note with a fortune.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://img.atlasobscura.com/vv7kEyOKdTwPEBsczntsOQCxGK2lVQB5qPDMWdpafUw/rt:fill/w:1200/el:1/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy84OGQyZjY1OC05/YjE5LTQyYzQtODM3/My1lMDQyYTNkM2Q1/NGQ5YjVmMmMxYjJj/YTc1OTg1YmZfR2V0/dHlJbWFnZXMtNjM5/MjM1NzU2LmpwZw.jpg
San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, 1978. SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES
The Hagiwaras introduced the cookie between 1910 and 1914, and outsourced it to Benkyo-do in 1918, when they could no longer handle the volume, writes Gary Ono, the grandson of Benkyo-do’s founder, Suyeichi Okamura. The cookie had a savory flavor from miso or soy that wasn’t as popular in America, so Okamura suggested they sweeten and lighten it by adding vanilla flavor.

As the cookies gained popularity, more Japanese bakeries in San Francisco and Los Angeles began making them. In addition to selling them to the public, the bakeries also supplied them to Chinese restaurants, many of which were owned by Japanese people, as Japanese food wouldn’t become popular for at least 50 years.

Pearl Harbor accelerated the fortune cookie’s cross-culture journey. When the United States entered World War II, the government rounded up Japanese Americans across the West Coast and interned them in camps. Their businesses and homes were shuttered, including Japanese-owned Chinese restaurants and most of the bakeries that made fortune cookies. Both the Hagiwaras and the Okamuras were imprisoned. The Japanese Tea Garden was renamed The Oriental Tea Garden, the Hagiwaras were replaced by Chinese staff, and the Hagiwara home and the Garden’s Shinto shrine were destroyed. Benkyo-do closed as well.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/iQRXB-4Zd76z-yntXN-NP8kPwFSyP0akaxtRml7vWBo/rt:fill/w:1200/el:1/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8yMjk2ZTYwNmI1/NzI4NGI2ZDBfNzUy/NDc2Y2U1ZjY3MGIw/MzJiX19ob2d5b2t1/ZG8wMDAyNy5qcGc.jpg
Peeking inside Hougyokudo. SELENA HOY
In the vacuum, Chinese businesses thrived. “San Francisco’s Chinatown quadrupled its businesses between 1941 and 1943,” writes Jennifer 8. Lee in her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. “A sharp rise in the demand at Chinese restaurants combined with a lack of Japanese bakers gave Chinese entrepreneurs an opportunity to step in. One of America’s beloved confections emerged from one of the nation’s darkest moments.”

Chinese restaurant by Chinese restaurant, fortune cookies spread from San Francisco and Los Angeles across the country. Eventually, they became vastly more popular and well known than their Japanese ancestors, and so associated with American-Chinese food that Gary Ono had to rediscover the role his family, and Benkyo-do, played in bringing fortune cookies to America.

Today, you can still find fortune cookies being made traditionally in a few places in Japan. In the precinct around Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine, a handful of family-run shop owners are emphatic that tsujiura senbei are homegrown. “This kind of senbei has existed since the end of the Edo period,” says Masakiyo Go of Souhonke Inariya, whose grandfather founded the shop because he liked the area’s cheerful mood and spiritual atmosphere.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/DQvjZXAJXfdvfNDFEapxDY7D77K1dV-9lzE_Q3JAphg/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy83NTI0NzZjZTVm/NjcwYjAzMmJfX0dh/cnlfT25vX1RLLkpQ/Rw.jpg
Souhonke Inariya, a Kyoto confectionary that makes fortune cookies, has English-language articles that mention it and San Francisco’s Benkyo-do on its walls. COURTESY OF GARY ONO
Along with nearby Hougyokudo and Matsuya, Souhonke Inariya’s’s cookies, says Go, are modeled on miso senbei from Ogaki City, which is about 70 miles away. There, a company called Tanakaya Senbei, whose process and product look just like the ones at Fushimi Inari, has been making cookies for 160 years. The one key difference is that Tanakaya Senbei’s cookies are flat, lacking the distinctive suzu, or “bell,” shape.

At Matsuya, you can watch the baker pour batter made from flour, sugar, miso, water, and sesame onto a hot iron-grill mold called a kata. Ten minutes later, as the batter starts to brown, the baker peels it from the mold and folds it in half, then again, tucking in a fortune while it’s still warm. Working a dozen or more kata at a time, he’ll rotate them as they bake. “They get shiny, which is different from regular rice crackers,” says shop proprietor Satsuki Matsuhisa. “They become glossy, which takes special technique and is not easy to do. I’m proud of these.”

To anyone familiar with American fortune cookies, the end result is both instantly familiar and clearly distinct. The brown, crispy cookies are nearly double the size of the typical American specimen. They’re thicker, too, more hearty and less sweet than their counterparts. The miso adds an underlying note of savory tang, and the sesame lends a nuttiness. The fortunes themselves are reminiscent of a shrine’s omikuji: great luck, middle luck, small luck, and future luck, accompanied by a cryptic line or two.

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Cookies and molds at Souhonke Inariya in Kyoto. SELENA HOY
Japanese bakers are well aware of the fame of American fortune cookies. “Hagiwara is not the one that made the cookies originally,” says Go. “He just brought the technology from Japan.” Still, English-language articles mentioning Souhonke Inariya and Benkyo-do hang on the walls. Gary Ono, who visited in 2017, says he was struck by their similarities. At this point, both families have been making a version of these cookies for several generations.

For his part, Takeshi Matsuhisa reckons that sales of tsujiura senbei—to both foreign and domestic tourists—has picked up since people started to realize that fortune cookies originated in Japan.

Fortune cookies may have traveled from Japan to the United States, but you won’t find them on restaurant tables in Japan. Instead, people travel to these specialty shops and take them home to enjoy with tea or coffee. They might be harder to find, but the reward is even sweeter.

*Correction: This post previously described fortune cookies appearing “across the Atlantic, in the United States.” It has been corrected to say that the United States is across the Pacific from Japan.

Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink. When I dropped in on this site, it asked me if I would accept cookies. :p

[wuxiaman]

Never thought I'd say this, but I sure would like to try fortune cookies in Japan.

[GeneChing]

Fortune cookie writing is one of my dream jobs. Feckn A.I. :mad:


Fortune Cookie Writers May Be Losing Their Jobs to A.I. (https://www.foodandwine.com/fortune-cookie-written-by-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-7377964)
ChatGPT is already being deployed to write the bits of wisdom found on those little slips of paper.

By Sabrina Medora Published on April 11, 2023

https://www.foodandwine.com/thmb/wrMpMNfYv7exbY9AEvttMtFf5cQ=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/AI-is-coming-for-your-fortune-cooki-FT-BLOG0423--2e4bcd7b993d45b5884e3dcf364dd8b0.jpg
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Even the fortune cookie — with its crisp texture, subtly sweet taste, distinctive semi-circular shape, and concealed message — isn't immune to the new reality of artificial intelligence.

Despite not being a real Chinese tradition, an entire industry is dedicated to the fortune cookie, with approximately three billion manufactured each year. From predicting lottery numbers to telling jokes and repurposing ancient proverbs, manufacturers have written millions of fortunes, hoping that customers will never get the same one twice. Now, some of them are turning to A.I. to carry on the copywriting tradition.

OpenFortune, a company that combined advertising with fortune cookies, is one of the first to invest in ChatGPT tech to create fortune cookie messages. Co-founder Shawn Porat tells The Wall Street Journal that the robot-generated messages are virtually “indistinguishable” from those written by industry veterans.

Charles Li, owner and CEO of fortune cookie factory Winfair Foods Inc., has already begun using OpenFortune’s cookie-writing software as a timesaver. Li previously employed freelance writers to create fortunes for the 11,000 restaurants his company supplies nationwide and often spent hours writing fortunes himself. While the chatbot can spit out fortunes in mere seconds, other manufacturers don’t have as much faith in A.I. when it comes to quality of the fortunes.

I Asked ChatGPT if It Could Run a Restaurant. It Said Yes
Wonton Food Inc., supplier to more than 40,000 restaurants nationwide, has a database of over 15,000 fortunes that it cycles through in order to prevent customers from opening repeats. VP of Sales, Derrick Wong, admits the task of fortune writing can be challenging, but worries that bot-generated fortunes might be either offensive or boring. For now, Wonton Food continues to rely on the creativity of freelance writers and their existing fortune database.

Mr. Chan, co-owner of family-run Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, tells WSJ that computer-generated fortunes are “a sign that society is moving too fast.” Golden Gate makes about 10,000 fortune cookies by hand daily. Chan and his mother have written more than 5,000 fortunes themselves. To Chan, turning to computers would mean losing the humanity and meditative nature behind the fortunes.

While OpenFortune is investing in the future of artificial intelligence, they’re also not writing off humans just yet. A recent press release from OpenFortune states their copywriting team “will remain intact as creative thinking ultimately drives the success of this innovative media format.”

[GeneChing]

The surprising Japanese origins of the ‘Chinese’ fortune cookie (https://nextshark.com/modern-fortune-cookies-japanese-origins)
The surprising Japanese origins of the ‘Chinese’ fortune cookievia Jennifer 8. Lee, Pexels
By Carl Samson
6 days ago

https://nextshark.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FORTUNE-COOKIES.jpg?width=640&auto_optimize=medium

WHILE THE FORTUNE cookie — a beloved staple in Chinese American dining — is commonly linked to China, the auspicious treat surprisingly traces its roots to a completely different country, according to researchers on the subject.
Where it started: Evidence uncovered by folklorist Yasuko Nakamachi in the early 2000s point to late 19th century Japan as seeing the origins of the fortune cookie. An illustration from a book of stories published in 1878, which depicts an apprentice at a “senbei” (“cracker”) store making “tsujiura senbei” (“fortune crackers”), currently stands as one of the most convincing pieces of proof.
Journalist Jennifer 8. Lee detailed Nakamachi’s discoveries in her 2008 book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.” Aside from finding the persuasive illustration, Nakamachi in the late 1990s was able to visit a family bakery — Sohonke Hogyokudo — near a Shinto shrine in Kyoto that sold similarly-shaped cookies with written fortunes for decades.
Those cookies, however, were larger, darker and made with sesame and miso instead of vanilla and butter (as with modern fortune cookies), Lee noted. Meanwhile, the fortunes were pinched in the cookie’s folds instead of being stuffed inside them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZEZ5BjpvQ

How they reached America: Japanese immigrants, according to Lee, likely brought the cookies to Hawaii and California between the 1880s and early 1900s, a period when the Chinese Exclusion Act ousted Chinese nationals and sparked a new demand for cheap labor. The first restaurant known to serve the cookies was the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, which sourced them from a local confectionery called Benkyodo and offered them until the outbreak of World War II.
Benkyodo, which closed in 2022, claimed to have pioneered the cookie’s use of vanilla and butter, as well as a machine for its mass production in 1911. However, there are other businesses reportedly asserting their invention of the cookies, such as family bakery Fugetsu-do, snack maker Umeya in Los Angeles and the Chinese-owned Hong Kong Noodle Company.
Being associated with Chinese restaurants: The journey of the fortune cookie from Japanese American bakeries to Chinese American restaurants can be traced back to World War II. The wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in U.S. concentration camps prompted Chinese business owners to seize the opportunity to produce their own cookies.
Chinese restaurants also addressed a demand from veterans returning from the Pacific Theater, where they encountered the cookies. The treats were initially sold in California restaurants but quickly spread in many Chinese establishments across the country, with some 250 million cookies being made each year by the late 1950s.
Since then, modern fortune cookies have been a distinctly American treat. A video Lee had posted in 2008 shows Chinese people being absolutely clueless about them.
“What is this?” many asked. At least one was surprised by the written fortune inside.
Today, Brooklyn-based Wonton Food Inc. is the world’s biggest producer of fortune cookies. The company, which also runs facilities in Houston and Nashville, churns out 4.5 million cookies per day, or a whopping 1.6 billion cookies each year.
“You have the number of people who have been engaged through fortune cookies, you have fortune cookie little baby booties, fortune cookie jewelry,” Lee noted. “It really speaks to Americans in a very profound way.”
Still aspiring to be a fortune cookie fortune writer...;)