The Fonz. Do you remember Arthur Fonzarelli? He lived in a little apartment above the garage of the Cunninghams....on Happy Days. Anyhow, the Fonz was cool - that was his thing. It's interesting how many things have been labeled "cool" by myself or others. When the Fonz was cool, he wore the same clothes every day, had his hair in a pompadour, and gave the thumbs up for everything he thought was cool.
Is it possible to both be cool,and to also give something the thumbs up? I submit that it is not. If I'm mocking something (oh yeah, I've done it before) one of my go to moves is to give the double thumbs up...making sure my elbows are higher than my shoulders (you're trying it now...aren't you?)
Today if you want to be cool, you'd do well to observe the people that are deemed cool in this day and age (because the Fonz aint cutting it these days). So this begs the question: Who is cool now? Sean Combs, a.k.a. Sean "puffy" Combs, a.k.a. "Puff Daddy" Combs, a.k.a. "P-Diddy", a.k.a. "Diddy" - my friend Kevin recently pointed out that you can't be cool and give yourself a nickname.
If someone calls you "C.Z." because you cra-zee....you can live with that...but if you start calling yourself C.Z. - well that's kind of lame.
So Diddy is out.
Is someone cool if they're "cool under pressure" - they don't let things get to them? That's kind of the textbook answer...but there's a fine line between cool and just plain old fashioned apathetic. I think there's gotta be a little Pro-Activeness in being cool. Not a ton...but they've got to do something. Snoop Dog...he's laid back...but he wouldn't be considered as cool if he wasn't also rapping.
Here's one thing I've noticed. No one can be cool while at the sme time raising the roof. I used to see these white guys raise the roof, and think to myself, "man that is the opposite of cool...as far as East is from West, that's how far they are from cool. If cool was a P.H.D., they're still in the first grade. If cool was playing football in the Pro-Bowl, they just got cut from their 7th grade team." or something like that. But just like with wrestling, it doesn't matter if you're black or white. I've seen some pretty cool non-Caucasian friends of mine "raise the roof" and they all end up looking like some dad showing up at his son's high school dance nd trying to show the kids that he's still groovy.
So who was amazingly cool under pressure...while also accomplishing something?
I did hear about this one guy who was on a boat full of fishermen. The boat is about to flip....or go under...and the firshermen are crying like they're in the front row of a Clay Aiken concert. So this guy (we'll call him J.C., because anybody with a J initial for their first name can have a nickname with their initials sound pretty cool) is asleep. The guys who are on boats every day are freaking out...and this carpenter who spends more time making boats than being on them....is napping! This is the definition of calm, cool and collected. If it ended there, then he's just the stoner guy who says, "whatever" to anything he doesn't want to get involved in. But this guy gets woken (it's a word) up, snaps his fingers...and the storm that was wrecking their boat just stops. It stops. Little ducks paddle by...kids are allowed by their moms to go back in the water....all because this guy STOPPED THE STORM!
that's pretty cool...you almost wonder what else this guy could do.
