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4月8日 That Fortune CookieOn very rare occasions, I will order take-out from my neighborhood Chinese restaurant and with my order will come that nice fortune cookie. I'm not sure of how it came about because it isn't a Chinese tradition, rather an post-dinner item in the US. Wikipedia has little story to tell about the origin of the fortune cookie.
Over the years, I've observed that the quality of the fortune cookie has improved. Of course, you will have to take my word for it, given that I'm such a fortune cookie connoisseur. Anyways, that statement applies to both the cookie and the message. When I was in college, I was always keen on making sure I got a fortune cookie at the end of my meal at the Chinese restaurants. Once, I got a fortune cookie without a message and requested for another fortune cookie from the server. The second fortune cookie again didn't have a message either! All this time, everyone on my table had a cookie with a message and I was feeling rather left out. When I told the manager on my way out of the restaurant about the missing message, he poffered me to pick a fortune from a plastic jar full of fortunes sans cookie. I was not amused...I like them neatly folded in a cookie. Perhaps someone in the fortune cookie factory have been taking one too many coffee breaks.
I wonder what the job interview process is like for the fortune message writers. What kind of phrases/quotes do they pick from and how you could possible get promoted/fired from such a position? I also know people, myself included, who keep the interesting/good fortunes for posterity. Maybe we could do that job on the side, when have deep moments of personal enlightenment to share? All that work for people to read that message, add "in bed" at the end of the convoluted sentence, chuckle, and casually toss aside. 3月11日 Cafés as Daytime Hang Out SpotsI am just not getting why cafés seem to be so popular and is quite a social phenomenon. I remember in college I used to go to cafés to study instead of staying in my dorm or the quiet library. For some odd reason, I needed some noise but not too much of it in order to focus. I got a cup of coffee/tea and was set for the next two hours. When I graduated into the professional world, I didn't have much use of the cafés anymore. It turned into a venue for me to catch up with friends in the afternoon, where we would be free from the clutches of alcohol and loud music, typically reserved for the evening.
What baffles me all the time is how busy some of these places can get. Here's the general breakdown of the typical café frequenters:
1. Students: Minimum noise levels enhances the focus
2. Laptop Users: Free internet access, I guess that's good enough
3. Dating Folks: Don't sign up for dinner until they clear the coffee date
4. People Watchers: Do they realize they're as much the observer as they are the observed?
5. Newspaper/Book readers: I don't get this group...
What I didn't get and still don't get is #5, the newspaper/book readers. Why do they need to leave the comfort of their home in order to read the newspaper/book? Is it because they can't focus at home? But even if you can't focus at home, how critical is that? It's not like you have an exam to take after reading that paperback fiction. Of course, it's a different story if you don't want to be homebound or just plain bored out of your mind in your apartment. Stopping by the café as you go out for some fresh air on the weekends makes some sense.
Anyways, this weekend, I was one of those strange newspaper readers in the café. My excuse was that I was a bit early (2 hours) for a dinner with some friends in the City. I decided to park myself at a café with a large espresso until dinnertime rolled by. My Saturday newspaper kept me excellent company. Maybe the other newspaper/book readers have a story of their own to tell, of how and why they arrived at the café. |
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