Stuff
If the van Hemmens can't think of a place to keep something, they can keep it here.
THE TRULY COOL CROWD
Right now we figure this is a good place to make a list of the coolest people that ever lived.
Due to defects in Dutch genetics, the van Hemmen are very picky about which people are actually cool and it it is an issue of much debate among the US van Hemmens.
The following qualities rank high:
Live a life that is always cool. One bad move can easily drop you out of the list. Sorry, Colin Powell.
You have to be dead to be on this list because we aim to make this a permanent list.
Some self promotion by a candidate is allowed, but mostly to achieve their cool aim, not for self glorification.
Cool relies on real historical data not myth. Sorry, Buddha, Jesus, etc.
Cool people put community before self, but martyrdom is rarely truly cool.
Look for cool in the not so famous.
Heroics can raise a cool score, but it requires true heroics. Bold steely eyed courage, not blind faith.
The coolest people are not one trick ponies. The coolest people are cool on multiple fronts.
Truth, loyalty and honesty are core cool qualities. Hound dogs and liars do not need apply.
The coolest people do not have to be perfect, but they have to address their weaknesses in a cool fashion.
THE COOL LIST:
1. John Lewis
Incredible courage, faithfulness, modesty, balance, and even fun. Hard to ask think for anything else to hit top cool.
2. Neil Armstrong
A cool list needs an astronaut, and many were really cool. But Neil Armstrong was cooler than the others because he was not just a great pilot and engineer he was also a great human who was not driven by glorification. He became the most famous human on earth (and may quite possibly be one of the most famous people in history for the rest of human history), but just decided to teach after he landed on the moon.
3. Pete Seeger (and Toshi)
After a little shaky start (flirting with communism, but for the right reasons at the time) Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi, always supported the truth and humanity regardless of what others thought and always did it before anybody else had figurted out what the right course was. Steely eyed clear vision in a touchy feely tree hugger folk singer package. An interesting case of self-glorification for the right reasons, without giving a damn about making money from it. They were the type of communists we should all aspire to be.
4. Susie King Taylor
Smart, versatile, balanced, modest and persistent, the core of cool. A sterling example of a not terribly famous famous human, who did what she needed to do and just kept on doing on it.
5. Ulysses S. Grant
Maybe a little controverial, but his extremely capable leadership, and low key character makes him inherently super cool. He made mistakes but owed up to them. In his life he did many things that were just the right thing to do without reward. He inherited a slave and just set him free even though he was broke himself. He cared othign about a perosns race or background. All he cared about was a person's ability to do their job. Taking into account that he was so much less of an asshole than his contemporaries he has to be on the list.
6. Colonel Parker, Hasanoandah
You may have never heard of him, but he wrote General Lee's surrender terms and that was actually a minor moment in his quite amazing career.
7. Harriet Tubman
Here is cool in a complex package. She actually might have lived with a brain injury, which resulted in visions and possibly a martyr complex, but she was just so tough and fearless it just did not matter.
8. Abe Lincoln
Played as clean as anybody can be expected to play in the dirty business of law and politics.
9.
THE "SO FAR SO GOOD; KEEP IT UP" LIST:
1. Michelle Obama
2. Angela Merkel
3. Ted Turner
THE "WISH YOU WERE ON IT" LIST:
1. Jane Fonda
2. Benjamin Franklin
Ben is a topic of discussion in the family. Maybe he belongs on the super cool list, but maybe he was just a little too much of a self promotor.
Science Cool
Humanitarian Cool
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Political Cool