Fortunate One

I had Chinese food for dinner last night, and my fortune cookie said “The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. Good quote, and obviously true, I guess. However, I don’t know if they make platitude cookies, but if they did, I’d expect to find a quote like the one above there. I understand it might be hard to keep cranking out generic fortunes that could essentially apply to anyone, but what’s next, “A politician will stand for what he thinks people will fall for?” My solution: Negative fortunes. Something like “You will die sometime.” Everyone is going to do that, so there’s no problem in terms of audience appeal. Or how about “Whatever successes you have recently encountered will be promptly mitigated by the failures of the coming week.” See, that’s a fortune.