Cool Speak

The other day, I received an interesting email from an officer with the National Heritage Board asking for permission to quote a line from my earlier article, Blogging For Seniors, for one of their publications. The line in question says … "Blogging is cool. It helps us to connect with the younger generation."

Re-reading my article, I began to see why they should be amused at the unusual language used by this 54-year old. I realize that at the time I wrote the article, the adjective ‘cool’ came naturally to me. I guess it is due to my frequent interaction with my teenage children and their cousins. For example, my 14-year old daughter’s verbal vocabulary of adjectives virtually consists of two words only – cool and lame.

I remember a remark she once made when she heard that I had more than 100 hits a day in blog: “Wah, so cool.”


While on the subject of being 'cool', I think what one of the so-called P65 MP’s, Mr. Hri Kumar said in parliament makes a lot of sense

“We do not need to dress down or dance to a younger beat – younger and older Singaporeans did not elect us because of our fashion sense or the fact that we can party at Zouk. We are and must always be the party with the broader mind, the better argument, the creative solution, the inclusive policies and the bigger heart. Let others pretend they are cool and hip. Let us show the difference between smart and not. Between qualified and not. Between honest and not. We may not be cool in the eyes of the youth, and we should not act like we are. But I believe that if they see us as determined, intelligent and sincere people, little else will matter. “

If that's the case, I hope they, the post65 MP’s are ‘intelligent’ enough not to go ahead with that foolish idea to dance the hip-hop in Chingay 2007.

Photo courtesy of : young grasshopper