The Luck of the Fortune Cookie

The telling of interesting stories must come with the territory when your middle name is the number 8 (Chinese for prosperity) instead of a word, as Jennifer 8. Lee proves in her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. The chronicles begin with the symbolic item that all ends all meals in a Chinese restaurant – the simple, yet venerable, fortune cookie. Lee writes: “For people who don’t have time to contemplate the life well lived or read Confucius, Immanuel Kant, or Aristotle, fortune cookies provide the Cliffs Notes version of wisdom.” Along with pithy bits of insight, the slips of paper inside the cookies also offer a set of lucky numbers for lottery players. On a fortuitous day in 2005, beyond all statistical probability, the Powerball lottery was won by 110 people across the United States – all playing the same numbers “spoken” to them by fortune cookies. This intriguing story sets Lee off on a cross-country spree to the Chinese restaurants that had unwittingly passed on the lucky numbers to the jackpot winners. Read more