Fortune cookies, while a fun novelty, don’t always register for me. Most of the time that YA and I have Chinese food, it is at home, delivered by our favorite place, Fresh Wok. YA loves cream cheese wontons, which I consider dessert; this combined with the fact that the fortune cookies are always at the bottom of the bag, they are usually overlooked until after we’re full.
I have some good friends who are moving this week, so this past weekend, I took Chinese take-out over to them so they would have one night when they didn’t have to cook. I decided to make it an early Chinese New Year party so brought lucky money envelopes, red paper plates/cups, the works. When I was setting things out, the fortune cookies were actually on the top of the bag so I put them each of our place settings.
Here is what mine said:
“Because of your melodic nature, the moonlight never misses an appointment.”
Lovely, although in terms of it being a fortune, all I can figure is I’d better keep being melodic or the moonlight will miss an appointment?
What fortune would YOU like to crack open?
I’d like a fortune cookie to reassure me that “Everything is going to be OK.” But the fortune cookies I get are usually stranger and more mundane. I once got a cookie that advised me, “Don’t spread your cold. Cover your mouth when you cough.” That was odd enough but another time my fortune was, “You will find one missing sock.” The cookie didn’t even say whether it would be one of my socks.
There was a time when I was working at an ad agency but quietly interviewing at other agencies. I went out to lunch with some colleagues at a Chinese restaurant. My cookie that day informed me, “A new position will soon be yours.” Later that day I got a job offer.
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I don’t like the taste or the texture of fortune cookies, so I never eat them. I just read the fortunes. I would like to see “This will be a mild winter” for my next fortune .
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Me too. I might nibble a bite but it’s never gotten better than stale tagboard. Just the fortune for me too please.
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then she took a job in hawaii
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I’ve had great fortune lately and have only one major issue that I badly need to see resolved. I’d love a fortune cookie that promises “the bilious narcissist will go down this year.”
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Billious. What a great word!!
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Your fortunes are good with the exception of the broccoli you described the other day.
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Glad to hear of the good fortune, lately. Something you haven’t told us about?
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I have saved a few fortunes over the years… thought I had one on my bulletin board here at the college but no. Must be at the home office. I’d say my best ones had something to do with ‘Good Friendship’ or ‘Today’s the Day!’…that sort of thing.
All the ones we get lately have ‘Lucky Numbers’ and ‘Learn Chinese’ on them too. Do yours? I can never remember any of the Chinese words but if the numbers are somehow significant I take that as a stroke of luck.
There’s a little farming town of Plainview about 20 miles NE of Rochester. Used to be a nice theater there named the ‘Jon Hassler’.
I go to Plainview often for farm things. There’s a Chinese Restaurant in town where we would eat. Soon as you walked in a woman would yell at you “HOW MANY?” We called it the ‘How Many Chinese restaurant.’ They had a pretty good buffet. If there was 8 pieces of Sweet and Sour pork and I took 5, she’d put 5 more back in. Same with all the food in the buffet. it was good, but her limit on the food made us chuckle.
Kelly and I stopped in there for lunch last summer. It was kinda late, No one yelled HOW MANY at us, and there was no buffet anymore. Two young kids, maybe 8 and 10 behind the counter who went and got Dad so we could order.
While eating, Mom and Dad seemed to be having a pretty heated discussion back in the kitchen. Kids kept watch out front. We don’t speak Chinese so I don’t know what they were talking about, but it sure did sound like an argument.
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My lucky numbers were 28, 13, 19, 56, 10 and 23
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At one of the holiday potlucks, someone had brought home-made fortune cookies, which were at least better than the restaurant ones, and she said she looks all year for what to use for the fortunes. Unfortunately, mine was something about a looming medical mishap, that was (I think) supposed to be funny.
I actually started keeping a collection of my favorite fortunes over the years:
You appeal to a small, select group of confused people.
Not to decide is a decision.
Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
You make God sick.
Worry is praying for things you don’t want to happen.
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I assume you have heard about the practice of adding “in bed” to the end of every fortune…
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“You appeal to a small, select group of confused people in bed”…
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You make God sick in bed?
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LOL – if I’ve ever heard that, Bill, I’d forgotten it… Oh dear!
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
I went back to work today, so my leisurely mornings on work days are over. Barbara, those fortunes are something. Thanks for putting them up. I have never had a favorite or one I paid much attention to them, but I have always wondered what would happen if they put a fortune in a cookie that said, “Sorry, no future in this cookie.”
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…or half a fortune continued on the next cookie.
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…or “Oops, wrong cookie.”
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Uffda, what a scrambled sentence.
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Some fortune cookies are better than others, and so are some fortunes!
I usually nibble at the cookies, and don’t pay much attention to the fortune inside, although I have seen some good ones. Here are a few I remember: ” Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort,” “Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow,” and “It could be better, but it’s good enough.”
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Getting the whole almond in the rice pudding at Christmas is also good luck.
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Kind a like getting the baby in the piece of Christ cake during Mardi Gras
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Or King cake, depending upon how you learned it
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My niece has a picture frame with fortunes decoupaged all around the picture. She saved her favorites over a number of years. The picture frame had a wide enough surface to accommodate quite a few. A fun little craft project.
I sometimes eat the cookies, but I’ve also brought them home and put them in the squirrel feeder. Minus the fortunes.
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The squirrel feeder?
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I have a tray feeder for the squirrels. Sometimes I get some cracked corn or sunflower seeds at the bird store for it, but mostly I just put in leftover bread and crackers and chips that have gone a bit stale.
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I can report from our squirrel feeding experience that they love peanuts.
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Wise crack?
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