10/15/03’s illustrious band:

Good Cookie

Brought to you by a couple of encouraging fortune cookies I’ve gotten recently.

Fortune cookies originated as a way to pass secret messages. When the people of Peking wanted to plan an uprising against the invading Mongols during the 13th and 14th century, they replaced the egg yolks in the middle of their New Year’s moon cakes with plans for the revolt. They succeeded; these were the instructions that coordinated the uprising that formed the basis of the Ming Dynasty.

Pretty cool, huh? What’s even cooler is the great variety of online fortune-cookie fortune generators available online. Here are two I like:

http://www.badcookie.com

http://www.meiwahrestaurant.com/fortune.htm

But why settle for an e-cookie when you can have the real thing? I hit the buffet at the Lucky Inn yesterday and was rewarded with a cookie that said, “Wish you a good health!” I’m glad my dessert wants me to be well, but just one good health? Isn’t that a bit stingy? And which one is it? Am I getting good mental health here, or good physical health, or good fingernail health, or what? This isn’t much of a fortune when you think about it; it’s not forecasting the future for me. Still, my wishes concur with my food’s on this one. I wish myself a good health, too.

Today’s cookie (yes, I went out for Chinese food for lunch two days in a row) said, “Your determination will lead to success.” Now that’s more like it: a truly predictive pastry. Again, I wish it had been more specific about how much determination we’re talking about here, and when and where and in what form the success will materialize. But that might be asking too much from a strip of paper that small.

I think I’ll give out fortune cookies on Halloween this year. They’re more diet-friendly than Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and better conversation starters.

What’s the best cookie you ever got? And what does it mean when you receive an empty cookie?

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