Fortune cookie

If you can read French, you'll notice that's a bit of a crap fortune.^{[note 1]}

Potentially edible! Food woo

Fabulous food!
Fast food French paradox Hydrogen water Bacon Tom Naughton
Delectable diets!
French paradox Gerson Therapy Pro-ana Mediterranean diet
Bodacious bods!
Ephedrine Bodybuilding woo Shawn Baker v - t - e

“”'Funny thing, that,' said Nobby. 'You never get bad fortunes in cookies, ever noticed that? They never say stuff like: "Oh dear, things're going to be really bad." I mean, they're never misfortune cookies.'

Vimes lit a cigar and shook the match to put it out. 'That, Corporal, is because of one of the fundamental driving forces of the universe.'
'What? Like, people who read fortune cookies are the lucky ones?' said Nobby.

'No. Because people who sell fortune cookies want to go on selling them.'

—Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century, basing their recipe on a traditional Japanese cracker.

"Sacred lots"

The fortune aspect of the cookie derives from the Japanese practice of O-mikuji (御御籤, お神籤, or おみくじ o-mikuji?), which are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. The word translates as "sacred lot." The o-mikuji predicts the person's chances of his or her hopes coming true, of finding a good match, or generally matters of health, fortune, life, etc.

Unlike fortune cookies, O-Mikuji have just as many bad fortunes. When the prediction is bad, it is a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine grounds. A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree (松 matsu) and the verb 'to wait' (待つ matsu), the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer.

Fortune selling

Fortune cookies sell much better when they don't have negative fortunes. They also use a wide variety of vaguely Confucian sounding proverbs, just to add just a pinch of truth to the recipe. ^[1] Fortune cookies are often considered to be jokes, unlike similar fortune-predicting methods, like horoscopes.

In other media

Fortune is a program present on Unix-like systems that displays a (pseudo)random quote chosen from a database, some like those found on fortune cookies (hence the name).

Other semi-random forms of divination

Notes

↑ And if you can't read French, it says, "Happy New Year."

References

↑ A History of Fugetsu-Do, www.fugetsu-do.com

v - t - e Articles about food woo
Food woo:		Nutritionist • Kymatika test • Superfoods • Haggis • Green tea • Bovine growth hormone • Microwave oven • Cat food • Raspberry ketone • Juicing • Orthorexia • Cayenne pepper • Soylent • Kopi luwak • Pete Evans • Raw honey • Apitherapy • Germ theory denialism • Omega-3 • Burusho • Chris Beat Cancer • Turmeric • Salt • Tripe • Vegetarianism • Pork • Water woo • Chocolate • Magnetic water treatment • In vitro meat • Agaricus • Locavore • Cyclamate • Freedom fries • Fast food • RationalWiki diet • Spot reduction • Breastfeeding • Sugar • Bottled water • Forks Over Knives • Pseudovitamin • Coffee • Dietary cholesterol • Humans are herbivores • Veganism • Hydrogen water • New Eden School of Natural Health • Irina Ermakova • Airborne • William Li • Center for Science in the Public Interest • Baby eating • Cannibalism • Super Size Me • Wine • Sandwich • Fish farming • The miracle of honey as an alternative medicine • Food irradiation • Soy boy • Heart Attack Grill • Probiotics • Obesity • Udo Pollmer • Bacon • Food woo • Insect • Jilly Juice • Spam •
	Promoters:	American Association of Nutritional Consultants • John Fagan • Food Babe • GreenMedInfo • Organic Consumers Association • Vandana Shiva • Anti-Gym • Bulletproof diet • Joel Fuhrman • Harmonized H2O • Errol Denton • Gerson Therapy • MonaVie • Purity Products • Robert Young • Matt Cahill • Life Extension Foundation • Rick Scott • David Wolfe • Whole Foods Market • PETA • THINCS • Abd ul-Rahman Lomax • Jeffrey Smith • Jim Bakker • Mehmet Oz • Essene Gospel of Peace • John Heinerman • Institute for Natural Healing • Aseem Malhotra • Konstantin Monastyrsky • Marika Sboros • Malcolm Kendrick • Gary Taubes • Consumer Health Digest • Joel D. Wallach • James DiNicolantonio • Dwight Lundell • Chris Kresser • Frank Lipman • Carolyn Dean • William Davis • Anthony William • Josh Axe • Nasha Winters • H. L. Newbold • Tim Noakes • Zoë Harcombe • Annee de Mamiel • Sarah Palin • Weston A. Price Foundation • Michael Savage • Gary Null • H2Om • Nancy Appleton • Vinnie Tortorich • MeMe Roth • Environmental Working Group • Eric Berg • Varg Vikernes • Shawn Baker • Hunter Avallone • David Perlmutter • Jake Angeli • Church of Scientology • Kevin Trudeau • Kurt Saxon • Jack Dorsey • Steve Pavlina • TruthWiki • Lew Rockwell • Steve Jobs • NaturalNews • Jethro Kloss • Jordan Peterson • Jason Fung • Vegan Artbook • Paul Saladino • Ray Peat • Truthstream Media • Richard A. Passwater • Jimmy Moore • Max Lugavere • Vegan Gains • Tom Naughton • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. •
	Diet woo:	Blood type diet • Breatharianism • Jesus diet • Lemonade diet • Ephedrine • Fasting • Inedia • Macrobiotics • Organic food • Raw foodism • Doughism • Alkaline diet • Self help • Paleo diet • French paradox • Nutritional supplement • Gerson Therapy • Herbalife • Vitamin D • Creatine • Raw milk movement • Gluten-free • Anti-oxidants • Squirrel diet • Vitamin and mineral supplements • Soy • Trans fat • Errol Denton • Coconut oil • Glycemic index • Isagenix • Subway diet • Agave nectar • Sweeteners • High-fructose corn syrup • Neti pot • Milk • Bulletproof diet • Pro-ana • Carnivora • Geophagia • Holland & Barrett • Weigh down diet • Clean living movement • Edward Howell • Bone broth • Palm oil • Jack Dorsey • Carrot • Diet soda • Food dye • Low-carb diet • Carnivore diet • Vitamin C • Steve Pavlina • Lew Rockwell • Steve Jobs • Jeanette Winterson • Onion • Helminthic therapy • Mediterranean diet • Fad diet •
	Supplement woo:	Ellagic acid • Apple cider vinegar • Canola oil • Aspartame • Chlorella • Chlorophyll • Coconut oil • Creatine • E number • Rooibos tea • Açaí berry • Vitamin D • Salt woo • Matt Cahill • Vitamin and mineral supplements • Soylent Green • Rick Scott • Dietary supplements • Herbal supplement • Consumer Health Digest • Activated charcoal • CEASE therapy • Vitamin C •
	Toxin woo:	Aspartame • Canola oil • Microwave • Broccoli • Cleanse • Chemophobia • Candida • Nitrites • Lead • Mercury • Trans fat • E number • Monosodium glutamate • Food allergy • DDT • Colloidal silver • Arsenic • Aristolochia • Alcohol • Median lethal dose • Ayahuasca • Activated charcoal • Water • Polonium • Botox • Radium • Uranium • Real Water • Toxin •
	Bodybuilding woo:	ECA stack • Creatine • Ephedrine • Fad diet • Urban caveman movement • Anti-Gym • Human chorionic gonadotrophin • Bodybuilding woo • Broscience • Bold and Determined • Human growth hormone • The Golden One • Joe Rogan • Shawn Baker • Carnivore diet •
	GMO:	March Against Monsanto • Monsanto • GMO A Go Go • Seeds of Death • Mark Lynas • Michael Pollan • GreenMedInfo • Judy Carman • Vandana Shiva • Bill Maher • Liberty Beacon • Food, Inc • Food Babe • Gilles-Eric Séralini • Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Glyphosate • AlterNet • FAQ on genetically modified food • Kevin Folta • Beppe Grillo • Jill Stein • TruthWiki • Genetically modified food • Golden Rice • Kyle Kulinski • The Non-GMO Project • Environmental Working Group • Fair trade • The Young Turks • Frank Lipman • American Academy of Environmental Medicine • Chidambaram Subramaniam • M.S. Swaminathan • Norman Borlaug • Percy Schmeiser • Jimmy Dore • Immortal Technique • David Dees • NaturalNews • Truthstream Media • Zachary K. Hubbard • Matt Walsh •