Pretty Mild hair By Today's Standards

It’s not the worst thing to have a Louis Jordan song stuck in your head  

At the very least, Louis Jordan music is better than the usual crap you get stuck in your head.  

Exactly!  If I had to pick an earworm to have rattling around my brain for several days at a time, catchy old jazz music is a better idea than most.  

Of course, why I have a Louis Jordan song stuck in my head is the more important part of today's story. 

Obviously, you're wondering if somebody Is Or Is Ain't Your Baby.    

Not quite.  Like many of the best things, I learned of Louis Jordan through cartoons.  Specifically, an episode of the classic "Tom and Jerry" called "Solid Serenade.  In that cartoon, Tom sings the classic Louis Jordan chart "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)."  At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but shortly after learning that it was a real song, I became a Louis Jordan fan.  In addition to this piece of brilliance, Jordan has created such catchy jazz charts as "Safe, Sane, and Single", "Jack You're Dead", and "Five Guys Named Moe."  It may sound like I'm being sarcastic, since these song titles seem a bit silly, but I'm actually being genuine here...those songs are fun and catchy charts from their time. 

So another song he recorded back in 1951 was the equally catchy "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse."  It's a fun little jazz chart about the immorality of changing your hair color to an unconventional shade.  Moreso, the immoral behaviors that are stereotypically associated with loud hair colors and styles.  It was probably more relevant in the 1950s than it is today, but that's beside the point.  

What's important is that the color Chartreuse isn't what you think it is.  

For whatever reason, everyone I've asked (for the record, I've asked nobody) has believed Chartreuse to be a shade of blue or possibly maroon.  Needless to say, this is not the case.  Chartreuse is a yellowish green color.  Now you know.  

What you will also know after you finish this paragraph is that the color's name comes from a French liqueur.  The spirit is made in the region of France that I was in recently, produced exclusively by the Carthusian Monks in the Chartreuse Mountains.  The recipe of distilled alcohol aged with some 130 herbs and spices is an incredibly closely guarded secret known at any given time by only two monks kept to a vow of silence.  There are any number of estimations and knock-off brands trying to imitate the unique flavor, but the original Chartreuse (There are actually two varieties...Yellow and Green) is exclusive to that single distiller.  The color Chartreuse was named after the monastery and is referring to the same color as the original green liqueur.  

Since I happened to have been traveling to the region where this spirit is produced, I saw references to it quite often...perhaps most noticeably in my hotel.  Every time I saw the name, my mind immediately sprang into the chorus of the Louis Jordan Chart.  It's far from the worst thing that could happen.