It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Ahoy, ye hearties! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! So belay yer fancy grammar and shoot the breeze with yer crewmates!

The holiday started in 1995 during a fiercely contested racquetball game between John Baur and Mark Summers in Oregon. Injured, Mark cried, “Aaaar!” and they spent the rest of the game speaking pirate lingo, and decided everyone should talk like a pirate one day a year. That fateful game was on D Day, but out of respect, they chose another date. The faux holiday got a boost from Dave Barry in 2002, and the rest is history.

Here’s a link to the website of the founders, for fun! It has a fine list of translators and glossaries, so you, too, can speak like a pirate, and even a piratical Insult Generator!

I’ll be back sometime this fall with some piratical lore, being as how my work in progress takes place in a former pirate haven.