The Tough Life of the Fortune Cookie Writer

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

From the New Yorker magazine:

As a vice-president at Wonton Food, Inc., in Long Island City, Donald Lau manages the company’s accounts payable and receivable, negotiates with insurers, and, somewhat incidentally, composes the fortunes that go inside the fortune cookies, of which Wonton is the world’s largest manufacturer. Each day, Wonton’s factory churns out four million Golden Bowl-brand cookies, which are sold to several hundred venders, who, in turn, sell them to most of the forty thousand Chinese restaurants across the country.
Full (but brief) article here (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050606ta_talk_olshan). Just in case you ever wanted to know who writes those fortunes you're getting, at least if your cookie is from Wonton Food. Amusing bits are the fortune from the 40's whose meaning has shifted a TINY bit since it was written, and the bit where Lau admits having fortune cookie writer's block.

-- Ed/Ace

[Kurtman]

Hmmmmm. Very interesting. So now I know who writes all the fortune cookies!

[Czar Gato]

Heh, I know someone who got a fortune that read, "If you're eating this cookie and are a vegan, you're screwed." He posted a pic of it on the 'net, too. :p

[Shnay]

He's gotta write the fortunes and do all the other managerial stuff? That's rough, and very different from how I pictured it working. I imagined a guy sitting at a type writer whose boss would come in and say "I want 100 fortunes on my desk by Friday at five, and they better be good ones! If you try to get by with more of that half-assed 'You will have financial success' stuff from last week then you will never work in the cookie industry again!"

An interesting little read, Ace. Thanks.

[SSJPabs]

He's gotta write the fortunes and do all the other managerial stuff? That's rough, and very different from how I pictured it working. I imagined a guy sitting at a type writer whose boss would come in and say "I want 100 fortunes on my desk by Friday at five, and they better be good ones! If you try to get by with more of that half-assed 'You will have financial success' stuff from last week then you will never work in the cookie industry again!"

An interesting little read, Ace. Thanks.I think being the guy who gets to threaten stuff like that would be a hoot!

Do you guys remember a few weeks ago when some fortune cookie company printed out cookies that had lucky numbers that turned out to be real? They had like 100 2nd place winners. If the last number on the cookie had been 42 instead of 40, they would have had 100 first place winners!

I once got a fortune cookie that read:

" :) You're Pretty :) "

Yes, with the smileys printed on it. WTF, mate!?

[PressureCooker]

My favorites... but fake:

"That wasn't chicken"

"HELP! I'm trapped in a Chinese bakery!"

[Beguiled]

My brother got one (a real one) that said 'a good bee never takes pollen from a fallen flower'. :confused: We never did figure out what it meant.

[Turtle25]

Hmm... while this is here, does anyone actually want to write fortunes? If you're in the NYC area, please let me know. We need more writers... I'm even thinking of chipping in a few myself. =)

[Karl Olson]

My brother got one (a real one) that said 'a good bee never takes pollen from a fallen flower'. :confused: We never did figure out what it meant.

Don't exploit those who are already down. Tada.

Meanwhile, most recent Fortune I got said "You'll make someone laugh today."

[Jave]

"Bad luck and disgrace will invade your pathetic soul for the rest of eternity."

HAD to say that. :D

[Youko Recca]

I have this idea that fortune cookies were a way for the government to play with our heads. They got tabs on each of us, so by making sure we get these it's like a extravagent way of taunting. I haven't figured out exactly why they'd go through all the trouble to poke fun, but with the PRR running things I'm not surprised. I got one that said: "You'll meet someone special.". Now how did it know I would run into her? They're on to all of us man.

[RD!]

"Bad luck and disgrace will invade your pathetic soul for the rest of eternity."

HAD to say that. :D
*cough*

Bad luck and misfortune will infest your pathetical soul for all eternity.

[Kury Wagner]

I have this idea that fortune cookies were a way for the government to play with our heads. They got tabs on each of us, so by making sure we get these it's like a extravagent way of taunting. I haven't figured out exactly why they'd go through all the trouble to poke fun, but with the PRR running things I'm not surprised. I got one that said: "You'll meet someone special.". Now how did it know I would run into her? They're on to all of us man.You will find true love on flag day.


I'm always so saddened when I get fortune cookies... I want something that's going to make me think, but I get something dumb like "love is the key to happiness" or whatever.

[Tenku]

"Someone is looking up to you."


I quite don't see myself as a role model or anything; not to be negative.

[Rover_Wow]

Do you guys remember a few weeks ago when some fortune cookie company printed out cookies that had lucky numbers that turned out to be real? They had like 100 2nd place winners. If the last number on the cookie had been 42 instead of 40, they would have had 100 first place winners!

And for those of you who missed it the first time, The New York Daily News reported on it.

Real fortunes in the cookies
BY ADAM NICHOLS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The fortune cookie crumbled right for 110 lucky lottery winners.

Investigators discovered the $19.4 million prize wasn't the only thing they shared - they all had faith in fortune cookies made in Queens.

Lucky numbers printed inside millions of cookies matched five of the six drawn in the Powerball Lottery last month.

"We are so excited," said Ho Sing Lee, president of cookie manufacturer Wonton Food Inc., of Long Island City.

"I knew people took our lucky numbers seriously. It shows that they really do tell fortunes, and we are happy so many people have benefited."

Lucky numbers are chosen randomly by computer, he said. They are inside 4 millions cookies distributed daily across the U.S.

The lucky numbers in the fortune cookies were 22, 28, 32, 33, 39 and 40. The only one that was wrong was 40 - 42 was drawn.

A Powerball player in Tennessee picked all six correctly - apparently without the help of a fortune cookie - to notch the $25.5 million top prize.

Second-place prizes ranged from $100,000 to $500,000, depending on how much was bet in the game, which is played in 29 states, but not in New York.

"We would normally have had just four or five [second-place] winners," said Charles Strutt, Powerball Lottery's organization director. "Of course we were suspicious," said Strutt. "But then we started talking to winners and they told us they'd taken the numbers from a fortune cookie.

"It's good to see people win," he added. "But I'm hoping the cookie predictions aren't this good very often."

Lee, however, was predicting more fortunes would be made from his cookies. "I don't play the lottery, but I'm starting right now," he said. "Next time we're going to get all six numbers."

Originally published on May 12, 2005

And CNN explained how, with their spin on the story.

Cookies contain fortunes for Powerball winners
From Mary Snow, CNN
Thursday, May 12, 2005 Posted: 2116 GMT (0516 HKT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The odds to win were one in 2.9 million. But, suddenly, a surge of people came forward with winning Powerball tickets, claiming at least $100,000.

Officials realized that in a pile of cookies, there was a fortune.

Consider this the case of the fortune cookie cracked.

Beneath proverbs such as "Don't be hasty ... prosperity will knock on your door soon," are so-called lucky numbers.

And for some who used those lucky numbers to play the lottery in late March, prosperity did come knocking.

"One hundred ten people -- they all hit it at the same time!" says Sing Lee, president of Wonton Food.

Marjorie and Donald Cobbs of Arizona used their fortune cookie figures to pick five of six winning numbers.

"I just thought, 'Heck, I'll just try it. If it wins, well, fine. If it doesn't, well, fine too,'" says Marjorie.

At first, lottery officials were at a loss.

They scoured the possibilities, starting with the ABC show "Lost."

"We knew there had been inquiries to use a Powerball drawing in one of the scripts for a TV show. We thought maybe it had something to do with that," says Powerball Group Chairman Randy Davis.

They also thought it may have something to do with a Powerball plot on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless."

That didn't pan out either.

"When some of the winners started coming in from around the country, they said they chose the winning numbers from fortune cookies," says Davis.

Seeking to unlock the mystery of the cookie "dough," lottery investigators traveled the country, visiting Chinese restaurants and stores.

It led them to Wonton Food in Long Island City, New York, maker of 4 million fortune cookies a day.

And how by chance did Wonton Food come up with the numbers?

"We handpick them randomly. We write a number on a piece of paper, fold them, put them in a basket and pick them up," says Derrick Wong of Wonton Food.

Wonton has phased in computer picked numbers to go along with their proverbs these days. The company says it hopes to spread more good fortune in the future by getting all six numbers right.

[Turtle25]

Another heads-up- did you know you can order custom fortune cookies? 25 cents each, minimum order of 100 pieces. The RNC did it when they were in New York- it's something worth considering.

[Carolina Red]

There can only be so many things you can write on a fortune cookie. There has to be some kind of rule saying that you can't write anything negative on it, so I guess that limits creativity. Some of those aren't going to make much sense!

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Do you guys remember a few weeks ago when some fortune cookie company printed out cookies that had lucky numbers that turned out to be real? They had like 100 2nd place winners. If the last number on the cookie had been 42 instead of 40, they would have had 100 first place winners!
Just in case you missed it, the company profiled in the article I linked to was the one that printed the winning Powerball numbers. They mention it (very) briefly in the article.

You guys see the "learn Chinese" bits they put on the backs of the fortunes sometimes? I love how they manage to pick things that are almost, but not quite, entirely useless in average Chinese conversation. Then again, maybe seeing a fortune that tells you how to say "where's the bathroom?" right after you've eaten may not be the best idea in the world :p.

-- Ed/Ace