The fortune cookie messages were supposed to boost the borough of Brooklyn. But instead guests at a politician's charity fundraiser at a Chinese restaurant were shocked to find raunchy "triple X-rated" messages inside their cookies.
A box of 350 cookies stuffed with "the most graphically lurid" fortunes somehow got mixed up with a batch of 1,750 cookies ordered for the fundraiser, Borough President Marty Markowitz said on Friday.
Some guests "were stunned, to say the least," said Markowitz.
The annual event, to send dozens of children from low-income families to summer camps,at the Ming Gee restaurant in Brooklyn was attended by some 700 guests on Tuesday evening. Fortunately, many had started to leave by the time the lurid cookies were served and only about 80 were witness to the inappropriate messages, Markowitz said.
The borough president was on the second floor of the two-level restaurant when a guest -- Daniel Ricciardi, chief of rheumatology at Long Island College Hospital -- "yelled to me from the first floor: `Marty, did you order these cookies? Did you see what's inside them?'" Markowitz said in a telephone interview.
Markowitz, who wasn't wearing his eyeglasses, had the "fortunes" read to him by some of the guests, and "I finally realized what happened," he said.
"I'm sure they were meant for a raunchy bachelor party," said Markowitz. "They were not cutesy. Triple X to say the least."
He said his office had given the restaurant 10 slogans about Brooklyn to insert into the fortune cookies, and 1,400 had the correct messages boosting the borough with such slogans as: "Brooklyn -- The 10th Planet," and "Brooklyn -- it's like an everything bagel."
The restaurant manager was informed on the spot that the error was "reprehensible," and asked to write a formal letter of apology, which he agreed to do, Markowitz said.
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