As do cool naval / military leaders.  Only someone very uncool would say that.  That's a very dorky thing to say.

Yeah.  I do too.  I was just prodding.  This goes back to the dichotomy of cool, and what I see as its nebulous definition.  I find plenty of things immensely cool that really aren't.  I think I got beat up a little once for posting a picture of Lyndon B. Johnson as an example of a cool American.

This would make a nice study because I am sure that there are more than just the two mainstream types (British and Afro-American) and also the notion ranges into fictional characters (Bond and Steed are already mentioned).

Brummell's cool (remember the fat friend; the damp stranger, and the pea anecdotes?) was of quite a different type from that of the Scarlet Pimpernel, who must be the most perfect British, action hero; something of a template for all the later ones - and given to us by an East European aristocrat too! The greatest thing about the Scarlet Pimpernel is that he hid his identity and his daring even from his wife. That's very cool; especially given that, consequently, she mildly despised him for being a fop.

On that score, our sons will all conspire to say that they want to be Jason Statham's Parker (who wears excellent suits and wears them well) and very effectively deals with up to six thugs at once, but I am sure that romance is not so dead that, if our sons were cajoled and bribed into watching Leslie Howard's 1934 impersonation of the Pimpernel, they would not all secretly want to be him; at least for the rest of the day.

Last edited by NJS (2014-06-01 12:07:49)

I believe cool, or keeping a cool head did come from the battlefield Formby. There was another term prior to WW2 where slaves would remain quitely dignified during beatings etc. Hence my mention of it above.

Cool is a matter of individual perception.  Sure, by virtue of the fact that we congregate here, there will likely be a common understanding or definition of what we may define as cool, or the objects, attitudes, aesthetics, etc., worthy of that label.  Not sure a bunch of race fans at a NASCAR race in Alabama would have the same perception.

So Bop, allow me to try to put your definition in succinct terms...

Cool = Keeping calm and maintaining dignity and pride in the face of adversity

HAHA.  I've got all day.  Let's do this.

Btw Im not saying I want to be cool, Im just saying it looks pretty fucking sad when a pretentious bunch of people try to.

I champion lack of pretense.

What's the distinction between a dork and a numpty?

Last edited by Dudley Clarke (2014-06-01 14:17:43)