Chinese take-out meals will never be the same:

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil’s national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown.

But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.

Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.

Who could have known? Balance of the story here.

Congressman William Jefferson appeared in court yesterday:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Louisiana congressman accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes told a judge Thursday that FBI agents who interviewed him back in 2005 were so overbearing that they followed him inside the bathroom of his own home.

Testifying under oath for the first time in his bribery case, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., contradicted the testimony of multiple FBI agents who said the Aug. 2005 interview was cordial and friendly.

Poor man graduated from Harvard Law School and had no knowledge of basic Miranda Rights:

But under cross-examination, Jefferson acknowledged that he spoke to the agents voluntarily, out of a desire to cooperate. Prosecutor Mark Lytle also pointed out that Jefferson, a congressman since 1991 and a graduate of Harvard law school, presumably well understood the right to remain silent.

Jefferson disagreed, and said his experience was primarily in business and tax law and that his grasp of criminal law is fleeting.

[Emphasis, mine]

As they say..Rrrrrright.

This is very, very good news indeed:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq’s army and police could be ready to take over security in all 18 provinces by the end of this year as the U.S. military moves toward a less prominent role in the country, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

“We look at it every month. We make recommendations. I think that if we continue along the path we’re on now, we’ll be able to do that by the end of 2008,” Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said when asked when Iraqi forces could take the lead in all provinces.

He said that a joint operation under way led by Iraqi troops and supported by U.S. troops against al Qaeda militants in the northern city of Mosul was a model for the future.

“That’s how I see our role frankly in the future here,” he told Pentagon reporters via videolink from Baghdad.

Fingers crossed.

Finally, a few posts from around the sphere which either had humor, human elements and emotions or just plain common sense.

Even when it has not been considered wise by many, or the President has made decisions which make me go, “geez, why did you do (or not) do that,” I have remained a steadfast supporter of both him and his administration.

DJ Drummond has too.

You might enjoy this post at Winds of Change which incorporates the following,

One of my best friends spent years as a community organizer for parks in New York City. She is a fountain of funny stories and ‘on-the-ground’ political wisdom, and one of her truisms is: dog doo ends all meetings.

into a wonderful post on the issue of race in America.

Jules Crittenden has designed a“Playoff” system of his own. Good stuff.

All together now..TGIF.