12/19/07

We were baffled by the fortune cookie yesterday. As a refresher, it read, “Here we go. ‘Mu Shu Cereal’ for breakfast with duck sauce.” I took it to a colleague here who collects odd fortune cookie sayings and he was equally stumped. While I stood in his cube he did a Google search for the words “mu shu cereal” and we found that there are a few other people on the internot wondering about the enigmatic quote. There are a few items in this fortune that need addressing. First off, what is with the “Here we go” opening? Even if the rest of the fortune was comprehensible, why would they feel the need to preface it with such a statement? It’s like they want you to make sure and note the importance of the following bit. But the following bit makes no sense. Therefore, I wonder if we’re secretly spreading the code words to activate “sleeper cells” all over the country, or even the world. This might be the vanguard of a massive invasion! Watch out how people react when you mention mu shu cereal with duck sauce. A foreign, or perhaps alien, agent might just up and kill you when you utter these seemingly harmless words. Juan never knows. Then again, he might since he might be one of the sleeper agents! But I digress. Now, the second thing that bears addressing is the use of quotation marks around the words, “Mu Shu Cereal.” They are singled out as significant with the quotes. Also, they are capitalized. What could that mean? It does further stress the significance of the words. A brief, very brief, survey of the Google search told me that “mu shu” literally means “wood chips” in Chinese. Ok, so maybe “literally” is a bit strong when talking translations of this sort but I don’t remember what the actual article actually said, actually. Anyhoo, it basically means shredded, chopped, or chipped things. Therefore, might “Mu Shu Cereal” refer to some sort of shredded wheat? I don’t know. If it did, what would that mean? I still don’t know. Now, about the word order in the fortune, is it significant that the “duck sauce” is left ambiguously at the end? Does the “duck sauce” go on the “Mu Shu Cereal” as a flavor additive or could it perhaps be linked to the word “breakfast” somehow? The sentence, which Tiny and Flaccid’s Word program insists on pointing out is a fragment, doesn’t give any indication. Sure, the most obvious choice is that Juan is to put the “duck sauce” on the “Mu Shu Cereal” then have it for breakfast. But couldn’t it also be saying that someone NAMED “Mu Shu Cereal” is perhaps coming over to have “duck sauce” for “breakfast?” If so, what does that mean? I don’t know. Wait, “Here we go” could indicate that “we” are to join “Mu Shu Cereal” somewhere to have “duck sauce” for “breakfast.” Ok, so the “duck sauce” as the main “breakfast” fare is a bit of a stretch. If the “duck sauce” had been capitalized as well, I might assume it were also a person joining “Mu Shu Cereal” for a “breakfast” rendezvous. But it isn't so I won’t. Well, it is noon so I think I'm going to take this discussion up with the desktop support guys over lunch. I may be back and I may not. We came up with nothing new. Larry, the shuttle bus driver, espouses the theory that it is something that just doesn’t translate from Chinese. He keeps saying, “It has to be some phrase or something that loses something in translation.” I agree that that theory holds just as much water as, if not more than, my “sleeper cell” theory but it just isn't as much fun. Of course it could be that someone was dictating his daily quota of fortune cookie sayings and forgot to edit out an offhand comment as his morning meal was delivered. I can’t seem to get as excited about it now that I'm all full of lunch though. I guess I'm through analyzing “Here we go. ‘Mu Shu Cereal’ for breakfast with duck sauce.” I may revisit it one day if anything else comes up. We’ll see.