Coming to a blog near you>....

Coming Attractions:
- essays that I have written including:
-Proactive vs. Reactive
- poetry and songs that I have written
- Bubble gum

Fortune Cookies

While the Chinese have no tradition of dessert, one theory of the origin of the fortune cookie is that it was introduced inthe Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco and the idea was pirated by a local Chinese restraunt owner. Most claima Japanese American heritage. The Chinese believe the fortune cookie to be a modern Chinese American interpretation of the moon cake. The most plausible story is from 1918- David Jung, founder of Hong Kong Noodle, invented the fortune cookie as a sweet treat. The process of making them was origianlly done with chopsticks, but Edward Louie made a folding machine for his Lotus Fortune Cookie Company, which is still in existence. Now the fortune cookie is mass prodcuced and widely distributed and exported to China and Hong Kong with fortunes that are written in English. They are however, most popular in the US, with promises of sucess, love, and good fortune.

See pic at bottom of page.

Tootsie Rolls

The Tootsie Roll company began in 1896 when Leo Hirshfield opened a tiny candy shop in NYC. Armed with a confectioner's background, he made a variety of products, including individually wrapped, oblong, chewy, chocolate candy that quickly became a favorite. They were sold for a penny a piece and named after Leo's five year old daughter, Clara, nicknamed, "tootsie". Tootsie Rolls changed Leo's modest corner store a burgeoning, multinational candy corporation. Now, The Tootsie Roll Industries still strictly adhere to Leo's original recipe and they produce more than 62 million Tootsie Rolls a day. Building on the Tootsie Roll's success, the company has expanded to include 22 of the world's favorite candy brands. Their annual sales are nearly a half billion. They are recongnized as one of the world's largest candy producers. Now they have a whole bunch of brands including:

Andes, Candy Carnival, Carmel Apple Pops, Cella Cherries, Charleston Chews, Charms, Cry Baby, Dots, Dubble Bubble, Fluffy Stuff, Junior Mints, Nik-l-nip, Razzles, Sugar Daddy, and of course, TOOTSIE ROLLS!!!!

Fenghuang

This is a fenghuang.
The Fenghuang are birds of myth in East Asia that are kind of like the "emporer of birds". The boys are called Feng and the girls and called Huang. Now days, the distinction of gender isnt called Feng and Huang very often. Instead, they are blurred into a single feminine entity so the bird can be paired with the Chinese dragon which has male connotations. The Fenghuang can also be called an August Rooster. In the west, it is sometimes referred to as the Chinese phoenix.
The fenghuang is usually depicted of it attacking snakes with it's talons and its wings outspread. According to Erya, the Fenghuang is said to have the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the breast of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag, and the tail of a fish. However, today, it is described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow. Chinese tradition says that it lives on top of the Kunlun Mountains in nothern China.
The fenhuang symbolizes high virtue and grace. It symbolizes the union of yin and yang. It is peaceful and proseperous but hides when trouble is near.
The Fenghuang has very positive connotations. It is a symbol of high virtue and grace. The fenghuang sybolizes the union of yin and yang.

The Phoenix

A phoenix is a mythical bird. It is supposed to have a gold tail and red plumage. It has a 500 to 1,000 year life cycle. When it is dying, it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that they ignite and both the bird and the next burn and reduce to ashes. From which, a baby phoenix comes to life. The new phoenxi embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in Heliopolis. The bird is suppossed to regenerate when hurt of wounded by a foe. It also can heal a person with a tear from its eyes and make them temporarily immune to death. It is a symbol of fire and divinity.
According to Physiologus, the phoenix orriginated in India. The Grecian author, Flavius Philostratus, refers to teh phoenix as living in India, but sometimes migrating to Egypt every half century. He considered the bird to be much like an eagle in appearence and size. Originally, the phoenix was said by the Egyptians to be a stork or heron like bird called a benu, which is known from the Book of the Dead and other Egyptian writings as one of the sacred worship symbols of Heliopolis. The Greeks identified the bird with their own word, phoenix, meaning the crimson. THey and the Romans pictured the bird more like apeacock of an eagle. According to them, the bird lived in Phoenicia next to a well. "Phoenix" is also the English- language name for the most important bird in Chinese mythology, the fenghuang, which has its own set of characteristicas and symbolic meanings, which I will try to research and tell you about tomorrow.

I"M BACK

I bet you guys thought I was gone for good. Well, you were wrong. I'm here again to bore you with my random information.