It's hard to imagine the English language without the word
cool as a colloquial description of someone or something first-rate. Over the past half-century of usage, the word has become so omnipresent that it has lost much of its slangy patina. Slang-watcher Connie Eble noted
here that when she asks her students at the University of North Carolina to list items of slang, they don't even think of
cool, since "it's just ordinary vocabulary for them." How did
cool first break through to the mainstream?
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One of the qualities of New York Times writing is that it not only informs clearly (almost all the time), concisely (almost all the time), and gracefully (almost all the time) — but that it delights. On almost every page, well-turned phrases, alliterations, similes and word play amuse and delight readers. My favorite Times verbal delight, though, is the headline that contains an allusion to a song.
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