What was "Cool" in your generation?

Nice to touch?

1. Sweet
2. Awesome
3. Bad

That's cool

Cool has pride of place, of course.

Solid
Gone
Rockin'

and the ever popular
Pissah

Found a passage that explains cool pretty well:

"A hipster's "cool" is often spoken of as a possession -- perhaps a hipster's most cherished possession. One's "cool" enables one to face life as it is and to accept graciously what it has to offer. "Cool" has several subsidiary meanings.

Cool it: Stop it, behave normally, change the subject, leave. "Cool it" is an urgent warning.
Cool yourself, or cool your brains: Relax, stop "coming on".
It's cool: It's all right, or okay. "Thats cool with me".
Be cool: Be careful.
Cool that stud: Get rid of him, shut him up.
Is he cool(?): Does he know whats happening? Will anything we do upset or shock him? Is he a cop?

"Uncool" refers to actions which are socially inappropriate, gauche, foolhardy, or dangerous. The following list may prove useful.


It is uncool to claim you used to room with Bird.
It is uncool to claim you have Bird's axe.
It is even less cool to ask, "Who is Bird?"
It is uncool to nod on the street waiting for the light to change.
It is uncool to let anybody know that your uncle is a registered pharmacist.
It is uncool to buddy with a know fink.
It is uncool to ask, "Where'd you get it?"
It is uncool to let anybody use your place as a forwarding address for packages from Mexico.
It is uncool to wear shades after sunset -- unless you should be wearing shades after sunset, in which case it is uncool to take them off."

Forgot about 'bad' as cool. "That is sooo bad!" Real big back in junior high circa 1968.

Didn't "sick" use to mean "cool"? I've never actually heard anyone use it that way, but...

Lately, the expression 'fu**ed up" is used to mean the same as "awesome" in some circles, especially if pronounced with the right tone of awe and respect.

The ESPN announcer Stuart Scott uses "sick" to describe a great play.

Yeah, "ill" is also quite au courant on the street. If someone says to you, "That's an ill shirt you're wearing, man," it's not a put-down; it's a compliment.

I feel sorry for people from the 70s.

Nobody was cool in that decade.

Even John Travolta got famous then, but only really got cool later.

Farrah Fawcett was kinda cool...I guess

Don't even start with all those country rock bands and what not. They were not cool.

How about: WHO was cool in your generation?

That changed month to month. My generation was a busy time..

Who here used 'Wicked' I think that is a Pensylvania thing...

As in 'That is wicked bad.' It is a superlative connoting adjective I think.

TTF

Admit it Extra Medium - Farrah only became cool when she was doing nude body painting.

TTF

It was quite a common expression in the New England states in the 1980s and '90s, maybe still is in rural areas; haven't heard it used in Boston in quite a while.

Ill, in old school rap jargon, was always wack. Not cool. The famous song by Run DMC was 'You Be Illin."

Not a compliment in my world.

Weak, Wack, Ill probably the top three antonyms of my world in this thread.

TF

All I can say, thinkfactory, is that your world ain't the urban street world. Ill is a compliment today, trust me. Whack means silly, ridiculous.

Synonymph,
As for as I'm concerned, you're still "cool in the game'. :wink:

i dont think cool has evah gone out of style...

booman2, did you participate in the cool threads on abuzz?

extra medium

You are right. In the 70 we would think that Che Guevara, Castro, Sartre, Simon and Garfunkel and Robert Redford were cool (!!!!).

Worst than this ... well only the 80 and the 90.

And who is cool in this decade of 2000? Bush? Brad Pitt? Bin Laden?
Man, things are really, really bad.


By the way: Travolta made only a great movie. One great movie. I don't remember the title, but he was fat, stupid, and never performed better (it was with that pretentious actor, Dustin Hoffman).