(yikes. maybe this is some kind of sign, like maybe it’s time for me to switch back to a Mac.)
There was a great vignette a couple of years ago in the New Yorker, about a guy who writes the fortune messages for the world’s largest manufacturer of fortune cookies (“Cookie Master” by Jeremy Olshan, 6/6/2005). The article discusses some of the changes that this mini-industry/profession has had in the past few decades. Actually, I’ve noticed in recent years that the fortunes I’ve gotten have moved away from vague predictions and tend more towards general advice. A recent one I got was “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.” Although I know that fortune cookies are a 20th century American invention, I felt like that particular quote, taken from the pantheon of famous Western quotations, kinda killed the whole ‘Ancient Chinese Secret’ mystique of the experience. On the other hand, “Fourtune Not Found: Abort, Retry, Ignore?“ did feel more appropriate, in a contemporary global economy sort of way.
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