‘We didn’t invent fun, but we invented cool.’

That line is from the splendid Lileks Athwart column in the latest National Review. Forgive me if it's paywalled, I'm a subscriber, but it'll make it to the main page eventually. It's a masterful takedown of the whiny people who are proclaiming that America's 250th isn't worth celebrating.

It got me thinking about "cool" and the good ol' USA. "Cool" is something I never achieved until I was too old to care. But if you look at other countries, it's pretty clear that James is onto something.

My daughter spoke Japanese in elementary school and was an exchange student there for a few months. That means we have a family interest in Japan. Mom and Son traveled there and spent a week in Tokyo after Valerie's school stint — I didn't go, partly to save money and partly because I'm incapable of sitting on the floor. But we have maintained lots of friendships with both actual Japanese and gaijin like ourselves.

I strongly recommend an excellent analysis of how Japan tries (and fails) to do "cool." Dave Barry Does Japan, splendidly narrated by the late Arte Johnson. I love this book, partly because Dave Barry is predictably hilarious and partly because his skewed view has enough reality in it to really zing. His wonderment at corn-topped pizza, his efforts to find food without actual tentacles squirming about the ingredients, and his exploration of the phenomenon of The Unintentionally Hilarious T-Shirt will repay your listening time. He points out something I realized early on: the Japanese love English, but they don't really understand it. They just like the way the words look. Not surprising for a culture with four alphabets, all pictographic.

Dave also enjoyed the sensation of his relative tallness. ("Hey! I'm the tallest person in this shrine or museum!") As I spent most of my life at 6 foot 5 before spinal curvature set in, I am accustomed to feeling like an ambling lighthouse. Once upon a time we all went to the Corning Glass Works, a venue I highly recommend. Wife, Daughter and Son were exploring the gift shop, and I was hanging about outside. I suddenly realized that a group of about 20 Japanese tourists was staring at me, trying unobtrusively to take pictures. I sent them a friendly smile, and a couple of them came over, introduced themselves, and asked to take more pictures. Six or eight of them would cluster around me and wave at the cameras, as I stood there feeling like I should be holding a torch and trying to smile in as friendly a way as possible. Then Valerie came out of the shop, came over, and started talking to them in Japanese. This completely floored the group, and we spent another 20 minutes taking group pictures of me (6 foot 5), Valerie (just under 6 foot) and the crowd. Then they piled onto their tour bus and departed with many a wave, smile and camera flash out of the windows. I said to Valerie, "We won't have that many pictures taken of us until your wedding day."