"Old Ned" for Ice Carnival King

A bit of whimsy and good fortune for the holidays!

  Recently on a trip home to Louisiana, my dad shared a story from his fraternity days in upstate New York. It was the Ice Carnival Festival, a huge prom or homecoming-like event with a fancy dance, a king and queen chosen for the big night, and ice sculptures were created around campus. That year's theme was Greek myths and they'd carved Poseidon out of the ice. One of dad's fraternity brothers was up for king, a guy they all called Old Ned.
  In the weeks leading up to the Ice Carnival, the elections were under way and dad's fraternity was pulling out all the stops. They had flown weather balloons over the campus with Old Ned painted on the sides. Their campaign got its break from another fraternity brother's family business, Kee Key Key Fortune Cookie Company in New York City's Chinatown. They secured a special run of fortune cookies and spent all night typing on mimeographs. It was more than just luck that Old Ned took the crown that year, it was destined in their fortunes.

  Dad's story gave me a bit of inspiration back in the studio and I crafted these little ceramic fortune cookie ornaments. You don't have to break open the cookies to get to the fortune which pokes instead out the top, and they do not predict a king of the ice carnival. Each cookie offers a different bit of destiny and good cheer straight from favorite carols, in one of ten variations....

"Let your heart be light, from now on your trouble will be out of sight"

"Repeat the sounding joy!"

"Dance merrily, in a new old fashioned way"

"You better watch out, you better not cry"

**For historical accuracy some details have been amended from previous version. Next time I'll fact check with dad before publishing!