Did Cole Porter's parents know this?

Maybe not, but it's interesting: today's word of the day is colporteur. A colporteur is

A peddler of religious books.

[From French colporteur (peddler), from col (neck) + porter (to carry), from Latin portare, from the idea of a peddler carrying his wares in a bag hung around his neck. Ultimately from Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over) that gave us other words such as support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, Swedish fartlek (a training technique), Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain).]

"By then, because a Seventh-Day Adventist colporteur had come into Croscombe selling religious tracts, his parents had joined that Church, and Hardy became a keen member of it." The Rev Bertram Hardy; The Times (London, UK); Mar 27, 2003.

Over at IsThatLegal? (where I was happy to be guest-blogging recently) Eric is alleging a possible colportage where it doesn't belong.