An Unfortunate Tale

Today at work, we had a company meeting. This was followed by an assortment of Chinese food that was delivered. It was oh so delicious.

To me, one of the best things about Chinese food is when the meal is over, and it is time to read your "fortune." I put the word fortune in parentheses because over the years, the word has lost its meaning in these once delightful cookies.

When I was a kid, before I could read, my mother used to make up fortunes like "Your daughter will be a good girl today." I was always amazed that the great fortune cookie people always catered to me (or my mothers) fortunes.

As I got older, I of course realized that these fortunes were not catered directly to me. But, it was still fun to read the fortunes nonetheless. Lately though, I have noticed that I rarely ever get an actual fortune inside the cookie. Instead I have received stupid philosophical sayings that no one in their right mind would describe as actual fortunes.

Today at the company lunch, the customer service department (all five of us) sat together and read our fortunes. I was shocked (SHOCKED!) to see that not one of us (after opening many fortunes each) had a real fortune.

I am saddened by the sad state of fortune cookies. I wish we could return to the glory days of when fortune cookies were actually FORTUNE cookies. But since this is obviously not to be, I will go back to the classic game of adding "in bed" to the end of the fortune. I have to find some ways to have fortune cookies continue to be fun.

An example of the pitiful state of the fortune cookie industry.