In Praise of the Anorak

Today, my Guardian Newspaper’s Quick Crossword tells me that an anorak is a boring obsessive. 20 years ago we only used the term for train spotters and stamp collector types. An “anorak” is someone who is either very knowledgeable or interested in a subject,  usually one which would not interest other people – e.g. trainspotting, science fiction etc. The term comes from the deeply unfashionable plastic anoraks of the 70s and 80s, which supposedly people who obsess about such subjects would wear. (Since they’re into “sensible” clothes and not fashion).(definitions)

In the US an ‘Anorak’ would be a bit the the same as the Nerd.

The feeling is,  that since the  dawning of the age of the computer, the anorak or nerd has become slightly less of a point of ridicule, and actually a bit of a badge of honour, maybe even   a person of special talents…look at Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates. Since I had a computer, my life has  certainly changed and my interests have too…. I mean blogging is a bit anoraky, as is music technology and spending hours arranging acapella on a computer in a room on my own.  I have also acquired a pension for the sensible clothes too.  Yes! I am a bit of an anorak in some areas of my life. I can be quite unsociable sometimes, very boring about my specialist subjects, which are completely uninteresting to most of the universe, and relish sitting in a room on my own for hours at a time.  I won’t get a full badge as I can be fairly gregarious and  am too disorganised with my filing to get any type of proper entrance into true anoraky world..but a on my way-hey!

Having said that, the anorak can be a really funky bit of kit now. Uniqlo is awash with them in all sorts of mad colours and you would not look out of place in any hip hop band with your Uniqlo anorak. So today we are praising the ‘anorak’ in all it’s glory.

SONG OF THE DAY – Teenage Dirtbag -Wheatus