I knew this would happen

As predicted, as 2012 marches along I know I am going to keep thinking of pieces I should have done or the 2011 Project. This morning I was enjoying the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park and realized I missed this. I did a fortune cookie piece (see above). Legend is the cookies were invented at the Japanese Tea Garden. I need to do some piece about the garden anyway, even if 2011 is over.

January 27, 2011 – Fortune Cookie

Today I reached blindly into one of the collage boxes today and pulled out a postcard from San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden. Perfect as our “winter” is fooling us again with a warm 66° sunny day. Pink blossoms are already popping out on trees all around town.

One of our local mythologies is about the invention of the fortune cookie. It was invented sometime after 1890 at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. Apparently influenced by a similar confection in Japan. History and the timing of inventions often can be a bit muddled. And there is the irony that a dessert invented at a Japanese Tea Garden became a staple of American Chinese restaurants. Details aside, in the U.S., the fortune cookie surely got its start here in San Francisco.

I have a habit of hanging onto those fortunes. They get buried in the recesses of my wallet, find themselves between the pages of books and scattered in a messy desk drawer. If we hang on to the fortunes they come true, right?