Something Old, Something New

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0200 . . . OPEN:


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.

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0200 . . .CLOSE

MoreThan A Pattern

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0188 . . . OPEN:


I decided to pull another couple of cookies out of the bag from GFS today. I've been on the road over the weekend visiting my family, and for whatever reason, I decided that I was in the mood for a fortune cookie.

This time, I finally pulled my first triplicate fortune from the bag. I had a feeling it would happen eventually; I was just curious as to when. On the other hand, the other cookie was a fortune I had not seen before now.

The duplicate -- excuse me, triplicate -- fortune was:

"All your hard work will soon pay off."

And the numbers and mini-Chinese lesson was the same on this one as it was on the other two bearing the fortune.

The fortune I was seeing for the first time read as follows:

"You have a friendly heart and are well admired."

This is where I want to start borrowing a line from Bugs Bunny: "He don't know me very well, do he?"

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0188 . . . CLOSE