Too Cool

An informal survey reveals that Jian Ghomeshi is an important Canadian for the following reasons:

he maintained his composure during Billy Bob Thornton’s on-air meltdown;

he is nice;

ladies think he is sexy and smart, having the perfect mix of vulnerability and confidence;

through Q, he made CBC cool again.

Readers of Ghomeshi’s memoir, 1982, learn very quickly that being cool is paramount to the young New Wave Iranian Canadian from Thornhill. Lengthy sections of text are devoted to musings about what was cool in the 1980s, what is cool now and how cool can change: “Cool can be fleeting. And what is cool in your head this minute might not be cool in a couple of years from now. It will stop being cool if it lacks substance, or if it has too much substance or if it is a substance.”

In case readers miss this description of cool, it occurs again, and again...