Last week I ordered Chinese takeout and we were discussing how lame some of the fortune cookie fortunes can be. In fact, I recently got one that said, "Eat more Chinese food." THAT'S NOT A FORTUNE. It's a statement- no, a COMMAND. I'll eat whatever I want, you bossy cookie.A friend shared with me this article from the New York Times about some fortune cookies in NYC that aren't so vague, and definitely aren't as positive as the usual ones you find at the end of dinner. Apparently the company that produces most of these fortunes says its writers have burnt out on the typical sayings and fortunes and have been forced to add more "realistic" responses. Here's a excerpt from the piece:
"Wonton Food, the largest fortune cookie maker in the country, produces about 4.5 million cookies a day. The company made headlines in 2005 when 110 people won about $19 million in the Powerball lottery after playing a “lucky number” sequence from the back of a Wonton fortune.Wonton has a catalog of 10,000 fortunes, and about a quarter of them are in rotation at any given time. It introduced 600 new ones several months ago, including about 150 in the popular “fortune-telling” category. Other message categories are humor, motivational sayings, riddles and translated Chinese idioms. “They can’t be offensive, got to be positive, and rated G,” said Derrick Wong, vice president for sales at Wonton.
But, he added, as customers requested more fortunes with actual predictions rather than cryptic sayings, the writers removed their rose-colored glasses."
I have to say that I'm glad the fortunes have been given an update. Granted, I'm not one to bank my life on what I read on a piece of paper that I might accidentally eat, but it's something to think about. At least these new fortunes are a little more fun than learning how to say words like "girl" and "hungry" in Chinese.
What do you think?