The Coolhunter

by

Let us now praise cool things.

This, for example, is cool. Nahh, I didn’t find it. I’m the coolhunter, not the coolfinder or coolgatherer.

(This is your cool things open thread.)

von

25 thoughts on “The Coolhunter”

  1. Here’s a cool thing. Go to Grand Central Station in New York. Venture off the main floor. Find a place where two walkway tunnels intersect, there will be a fairly low vaulted ceiling above the intersection. Now tell your friend, preferably someone you’re taking out for the first time, to go stand against the far corner. Now you turn and face the nearest corner. Tell her or him to get very close to the corner. Now tell them to make a wish in a whisper.
    The whisper, for acoustical reasons I do not understand, will travel to the opposite corner where you will hear it with surprising clarity. Answer as you would like. Grant the wish if possible.

  3. The Wayback Machine is a current favorite. A must-use for those nostalgic for the days when the Internet was clunky, unprofitable, and wacky. Actually, I remember very early MTV in the same way. If you are enough of a geek to feel a flutter in your heart at the sight of an incomplete* 1997 vintage Altavista home page (back before Digital (back before Compaq gobbled it up, then merged with HP) got the rights to altavista.com and instead had to settle for altavista.digital.com), go back and wonder.
    *Yep, pages and images only partially stored. Finding something and getting it to complete is almost impossible, just like the old days.

  4. I’ve tried Harley’s trick. It works. It also works on the rotunda of St.Paul’s in London. Accoustics is a strange phenomenon.
    The Japanese bullet train that went 361 MPH today certainly sounds cool.
    Sort of off-topic, but Richard Hoffer has a must read profile of George Foreman in this week’s Sports Illustrated. It focuses on his personal transformation and the human capacity for change through wisdom and determination. Wonderful.
    Oh yeah, George Foreman is cool.

  5. That St. Paul’s/Grand Central trick is cool. A not cool variation: my dad standing in my college entryway humming at different pitches until he finds that resonant frequency. But I suppose that should be a different thread.
    The Brick Testament is cool, though perhaps somewhat sacriligeous:
    http://www.thereverend.com/brick_testament/

  6. Harley’s trick appears in an erotic and then a heartbreaking way in John Crowley’s _Little, Big_, surely one of the great American novels, and pretty cool as well.

  12. Wondering about ‘cool’
    on the net is interesting but not cool.
    an experience as described is cool.
    there’s clever then there’s cool.
    there’s a bar in williamsburg called union pool that’s cool cause my buddy run’s it.
    osx is cool…

  14. does anyone wonder what type of music has actually been labeled “rare groove” – seems odd to me and I am a pretentious, chin scratching clubber.

  15. That St. Paul’s/Grand Central trick is cool.
    I gotta try that/those. And I like Moe’s D&D die from prehistory. (With my Long Sword +II, My fighter’s got a THAC0 of IX!)
    Sonotheque is indeed cool. Plus they serve PBR!
    And attracts a laid-back crowd. ‘Least, it did the last time I was there (which was too long ago . . .).
    And, for the record, I got no idea what “rare groove” is, Ironic Jyhad. (Wonder where you got that name . . . .)

  16. on the net is interesting but not cool…osx is cool
    Having trouble bending my mind around how an operating system can exceed a network stuffed to the gills with, well, stuff, in coolness. 🙂
    (And I use and program on the OS X platform.)

  19. “Wonder where you got that name …”
    von, I think that ironic jihad got the name “Ironic Jyhad” from you.
    I’ll now stop persecuting you about this.

  20. I’m sorry, but Pabst Blue Ribbon is not cool.
    It is when it’s served in cans.
    I’ll now stop persecuting you about this.
    You’re persecuting me?

  21. pbr in a can is very cool though starting to become a tad too trendy.
    honorable mention – oldstyle bottles
    von knows I lifted his handle – though I didnt realize he spelled it jyhad. I am taking a stroll down memory lane since I wont be in chicago this weekend to say hello.

  22. von knows I lifted his handle – though I didnt realize he spelled it jyhad. I am taking a stroll down memory lane since I wont be in chicago this weekend to say hello.
    Yeah, gave it up after 9/11. It ceased to be funny. Excellent LeGuin work, though.

  23. von -re “persecuting” – I take it that you used “ironic jyhad” at some point, unbeknownst to me – I was feebly joking that you had mistyped the guy’s handle hence giving him that epithet. Oh well.

  24. von -re “persecuting” – I take it that you used “ironic jyhad” at some point, unbeknownst to me – I was feebly joking that you had mistyped the guy’s handle hence giving him that epithet. Oh well.
    Oh, gotcha. Sorry — I’m a little dense today.

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