Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, Mateys

Ahoy ye bilge-sucking landlubbers, and welcome to International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Yarrr, that be right: Monday September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day, a celebration of all things piratey – or at least, piracy as it was in the Golden Age of Piracy, not the scary new modern kind that sees armed men with AK-47s capture innocent tourists at gunpoint.

This decidedly unique holiday has its origins in 1995 and, bizarrely enough, came about from a sports injury.

John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy) of Albany, Oregon were playing racketball when one of them suffered pain and reacted with a yelp of “Aaarrr!”. From that moment, the two friends declared the date a new holiday.

For many years, it remained an inside joke between the pair, until Baur and Summers sent a letter about their new holiday to humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002. Barry liked the idea, and began promoting it, leading to rapidly expanding media coverage.

Baur and Summers now earn extra cash by selling T-shirts, books, and other merchandise related to their invented holiday on their website. Which, let’s face it, is pretty good going for two blokes who randomly made up a holiday from a racketball game.

If YOU want to take part in International Talk Like a Pirate Day, it’s fairly simple: just throw some pirate talk into your everyday conversation. Possible phrases that you could repeat until people stop talking to you include:

Ahoy, me Hearties! – (“Hello, my friends!”)
Blow me down! – (“Holy Crap!”)
Booty – (treasure)
Lad, lass, lassie – (younger person)
Old Salt – (an experienced sailor)
Pieces of eight – (coins found in pirate stashes)
Scallywag – (mild insult)
Thar she blows! – (whale sighting)
Yo Ho Ho! – (expression of cheer)