Sunday, April 22, 2012

Something Old, Something New

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Not long after April Fools Day, I decided to delve into the bag of fortune cookies -- something I haven't done for a while.  Actually, I grabbed a couple of cookies on two different days, and I just haven't written about the fortunes until now.

I have had the fortunes with me for over a week now.  Make that over two weeks, now that I think about it.  Today was the first time I haven't let myself get distracted from writing.

Once I dug the fortunes out of the dark corner into which they had retreated, I compared them to some of my previous entries.  I thought had seen one of them once before.  As it turns out, I had seen it before -- not once, but twice:

"You have a deep interest in all that is artistic."

For the record, this is my second triplicate fortune.  And as was the case with the previous encounters with this fortune, the "lucky numbers" and Chinese phrase were identical.

The other fortune was one that I had not seen before.  At least, I hadn't seen it on a fortune cookie before.  I have seen the same idea expressed elsewhere, although possibly in slightly different wording:

"Success is a journey, not a destination."

In an earlier entry, I wondered how many duplicates I would encounter while going through this bag.  Now, I'm finding myself wondering how may triplicates (or more) are still lurking in the bag.

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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Guess What Today Is?

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In case you haven't noticed it yet, today is April Fools Day. The one day where, even if I have discovered the most amazing fortune ever, I have decided not to share it with you until the following day, because I want people to believe what I'm writing.

There's a good reason I've have taken this stance. I am something of a practical joker, and I have managed to pull off more than a few spectacular jokes on this date. And I thought that this year, I might share what I thought was one of my best jokes. It was certainly one of my most successful.

This happened many, many years ago. The victim was a friend of mine who I will call Bob (because that happened to be his name). Bob was the proprietor of a comic store, and among the other things he sold were back issues of Playboy (to those over 18, of course). He was also a collector of Playboy, and I seem to remember him mentioning that he had quite a few early issues.

Well, one April 1, I went into his store, and after the usual greetings, I said, "Hey, Bob, I heard something that I though would interest you." (Keep in mind that this was several years before the Internet.)

"Oh, what's that?" he asked.

"I heard something interesting about an upcoming centerfold in Playboy. I heard that this Playmate Of The Month is a former nun, and I heard that in at least part of her layout, she's going to be wearing part of her old habit."

I must admit, I was surprised that Bob was falling for this, but I had sucked him in completely with my story. I then added, "Oh, Bob, one other thing."

"What's that?"

"April Fools."

Now I think you may understand why I choose not to post any fortunes on April 1. If I'm writing about something completely absurd, I want you to know that I'm not making it up.

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