At the end of the meal, I put down my chopsticks and picked up the fortune cookie.

Fortune cookies are not Chinese or Japanese.

Much debate surrounds the location of emergence of the first small folded golden-brown cookie with the saying inside. Some say San Francisco. Some say Los Angeles. No one says Beijing or Tokyo. The Chinese and Japanese words for the crisp little treat are the English words: “Fortune Cookie.” Sometimes the name speaks for itself.

There is common agreement that around 1900 fortune cookies started to be served as a hand-made novelty and complimentary finish-to-the-meal at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco and the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles. The cookie craze captivated the culinary community and continues to this day.

Today, some three billion fortune cookies are automatically filled, baked and sent with fortunes intact around the world each year. One manufacturer in Brooklyn is reported to create over 4.5 million cookies each and every day. That’s a lot of fortunes to fill.

I yawned and cracked my cookie.

The white slip of paper fell to the tabletop.

There was the “LEARN CHINESE” symbols for “Pear” (with a pronunciation guide) above my “Lucky Numbers.” I did get a “7!” I always like the numbers and I always find a lucky one. Fortune cookies are reliably good for good fortune.

I turned the slip over.

“All generalities are false.”

I laughed aloud, glanced down and stole a look at the surrounding tables to see if I’d been noticed.

Good, my fortune was secure from spies.

I returned to the small piece of paper.

This fortune was unusual for not directly predicting something pleasingly good, positively uncertain or encouragingly unsure. It was not bad, of course – none I’ve experienced have been. But what this short statement said started a surprising slide into seeking and saying suspense.

If all generalities are false, then this generality is itself false. So, all generalities are not false. But, that in itself is another generality. So, the next logical step in the progression is that all generalities are not not false, which I think brings us back to all generalities are false (two negatives make a positive), which is where we started, which is funny, like the 1993 movie “Ground Hog Day” (Bill Murray) is funny to watch for his repeats, but not to experience over and over again. I laughed again (softly) and decided not to try to figure further for fear of hurting my head.

This was a worthy fortune.

I like these cookies.

On August 21, 2013, the Japanese idol girl group AKB48 released its successful single “Koi suru Fortune Cookie,” which can be read to mean “I Love Fortune Cookie.” I like the following excerpted parts of the translated lyrics:

 

Love Fortune Cookie

The future ain’t that bad

Hey! Hey! Hey!

You gotta show your smile to get some of that luck

Heart-shaped Fortune Cookie

Let’s start making our luck better

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Life ain’t all that bad

A surprising miracle will come in a surprising way.

 

Now, that’s not all bad.

Listen closely, Hey!

You may catch

A smile and

Surprise.

 

 

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAPUyEqcMrY[/embedyt]

 

 

Grandpa Jim