EL LOCO LOUIE: “Louie Louie” may be...

EL LOCO LOUIE: “Louie Louie” may be the dumbest song in rock, and the most beloved. Now a new 245-page book by noted critic Dave Marsh--”Louie, Louie”--traces its history--including an FBI investigation of its murky lyrics--and locates its origin in Orange County. . . . Songwriter Richard Berry first heard the song’s three-chord reverie in 1956, in a tune called “El Loco Cha Cha” played by a band led by Anaheim brothers Rick and Barry Rillera. Drummer brother Butch Rillera recalls: “He’d request that song every night. Then one night he shows up and says, ‘Listen to this song I wrote.’ ”

WASTE LINE: If you’ve seen someone dumping hazardous waste materials, but you don’t want to get involved, Robert E. Merryman, who runs the county’s environmental health division, has a solution. . . . You can report it anonymously on the county’s Toxic Hotline--(714) 667-3710--and Merryman promises that county health and law enforcement officials will diligently pursue your leads. “Be environmentally conscious,” Merryman urges.

LEGAL REMINDER: Anaheim attorney Cathy Jensen spends much of her time with the American Civil Liberties Union, often representing the homeless. Problem is, she says, there are too many cases and not enough lawyers. . . . She’s helping launch a recruiting drive to get more ACLU attorneys here. “Maybe we can get some of these people to remember the real reason that they went to law school,” she says, “To help people who need it.”

GIVE ‘EM THE DICKENS: You can get in a lot of trouble for not paying your bills, but should you go to jail over it? The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana this week said no. A local judge had ordered an Anaheim man in contempt--and ordered him to jail--for not paying off his legal bill under an agreed-upon schedule. . . . But appellate Justice David Sills opined: “This is the equivalent of debtors’ prison,” something he says, “out of the works of Charles Dickens.”