The other day I ran into one of my favorite shows on TV, the Discovery Channel’s “How It’s Made”.  This particular episode was of special interest to me because they showed how fortune cookies are made, and I’m somewhat fond of them.  The production of fortune cookies was about what I expected it would be: ingredients mixed; cookies baked; fortunes inserted and cookies folded; cookies wrapped, boxed and shipped.

During the segment, they gave out two interesting statistics that I was hoping they would.  This particular fortune cookie factory produces 4 million cookies per day, and uses 5,000 different fortunes, which means that each fortune printed is going to be duplicated 800 times per day.  Afterward, the number 4 million got stuck in my head, and danced around in there as I tried to sleep.  I’m not sure why, but it just seems like a very large number to me.

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