The Ancient Anorak
So what is an anorak? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an anorak is British slang for a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and interested in something that other people find boring. On my website, I will share things that I find interesting and other topics that are very nostalgic. As a retired educator, I have never lost my love of learning and will always continue to share knowledge and information with others who love to learn as well. Please keep checking back as new content will be added regularly.
Word of the Day (May 17)
Sklent (Verb)
Definition: - to deviate from a straight course.
In a Sentence: The driver swerved off the asphalt rather than answer an uncomfortable question, sklenting from both the road and the truth in one fell swoop.
Word Origin: Sklent, “to deviate from a straight course,” is a Scots variant of Middle English slenten “to slant.” Sklent was first recorded in English circa 1510.
On this Date (May 17)
On this date in 1965, based on outcry from parents who bought into what may have started as an idle rumor, the FBI launched a formal investigation in 1964 into the supposedly pornographic lyrics of the song “Louie, Louie.” That investigation finally neared its conclusion when the FBI Laboratory declared the lyrics of “Louie Louie” to be officially unintelligible.
No one will ever know who started the rumor that “Louie Louie” was dirty. As written by Richard Berry in 1955, the lyrics revolve around a sailor from the Caribbean lamenting to a bartender named Louie about missing his far-away love. As recorded in crummy conditions and in a single take by the Kingsmen in 1963, lyrics like “A fine little girl, she wait for me…” came out sounding like “A phlg mlmrl hlurl, duh vvvr me” Perhaps it was some clever middle-schooler who started the rumor by trying to convince a classmate that those lyrics contained some words that are as unprintable today as they were back in 1963. Whatever the case, the story spread like wildfire, until the United States Department of Justice began receiving letters like the one addressed to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and dated January 30, 1964. “Who do you turn to when your teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold…in every City, Village and Record shop in this Nation?” that letter began, before going on to make the specific assertion that the lyrics of “Louie Louie” were “so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter.”
Over the course of the next two years, the FBI gathered many versions of the putative lyrics to Louie Louie. They interviewed the man who wrote the song and officials of the record label that released the Kingsmen’s smash-hit single. They turned the record over to the audio experts in the FBI laboratory, who played and re-played “Louie Louie” at 78 rpm, 45 rpm, 33 1/3 rpm and even slower speeds in an effort to determine whether it was pornographic and, therefore, whether its sale was a violation of the federal Interstate Transportation of Obscene Material law. “Unintelligible at any speed” was the conclusion the FBI Laboratory relayed to the investigators in charge on this day in 1965, not quite exonerating “Louie Louie,” but also not damning the tune that would go on to become one of the most-covered songs in rock-and-roll history.
For more more events that happened on today's date, visit the website On This Day. This website shares important events in history, music, sport, film and television. You can browse historical events, famous birthdays, weddings and people from 6000 years of history.
Daily Trivia
What does the name of the Buddhist temple Angkor Wat mean?
Yesterday's Question and Answer
What surprising skill do groundhogs have?
They can climb trees. The also can swim. The name means “temple city” in the Khmer language, referencing its start as the political center of Emperor Suryavarman.