Draw something

Sometimes what helps is not a passage to read but a small thing to open. These are here for that. Each one says what it is above the result.

• NoveltyFor amusement

  Ask the orbA toy that answers yes-or-no questions at random. You think of a question, you turn it over, and a reply surfaces. The replies below were written for this collection.

• NoveltyFor amusement

  Fortune cookieA folded cookie with a slip of paper inside, handed out after a meal. The custom began in Japanese-American bakeries in California in the early twentieth century and spread through Chinese restaurants across the United States.

• DivinationA divination practice

  HoroscopeA short reading for each of the twelve sun signs of Western astrology, written for the current season. Sun-sign columns are the most widely read form of astrology and address the sign as a whole rather than an individual chart.

• NoveltyFor amusement

  Paper fortune fishA thin cellophane fish laid on the palm, where the warmth and moisture of the hand make it curl. Which part moves is read against a printed key. The fish has been sold as a party novelty since the middle of the twentieth century.