came from going to a Chinese dinner with Norman Spinrad and three or four other friends. Norman picked up a fortune cookie, said “I can’t believe this,” and handed it to me. I said, “Norman, it says ‘No way.’” He said, “Take this one,” and passed it to me. I read it out: “Forget about it.” I made it all up, of course. Then I sat down and wrote the story. It sold for $49.50 to Amazing Stories in 1956. Years later, I thought I could do it better. Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts Tuesday. Henry Leclair did a double-take. His eyes racked and reracked between the Chinese fortune cookie in his right hand and the Chinese fortune cookie fortune in his left. He read it again: Tuesday. Then again, querulously, “Tuesday?” That was all. Nothing more; no aphorism about meeting one’s true love on Tuesday; no saccharine cliché denoting Tuesday as the advent of good fortune; no Tuesday-themed accompanying notation warning of investing in hi-tech stocks on Tuesday.
