Jessica Burgess
GOOGLE GOURMET
Avast me hearties! Are ye ready for International Talk Like a Pirate Day
next Monday?
If not, here's a site that's just bursting with piratey goodness.
In 1995, Oregonians Mark Summers and John Baur were playing racquetball.
One of them (they can't remember which) hurt himself, and perhaps
screamed "Aaaaaarrrr" in pain. They spent the rest of the day talking
like pirates, as guys are wont to do, and soon realized what the world
truly needed was a whole day of such speech.
Of course, the popularity of piracy has been extravagantly helped along
by movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and that pirate guy in
Dodgeball.
But I'm here to talk Web sites. And the Pirate Guys have got one, matey,
at
www.talklikeapirate.com.
Need some piratey pickup lines for the big day? How about, "That's the
finest pirate booty I've ever laid eyes on"? Say that, and she'll be
yours forever. Promise.
Need to know what's going on in the lives of the Pirate Guys? Check out
their blog (but shouldn't that be "blaaarrrg"?).
And there's a bucket o' links, too, where you can discover your very own
pirate name (more fun than it sounds! I'm "Iron Bess Bonney!"), chat
with other pirate-minded people on a message board, or find some good
games to introduce your kids to a life of piracy.
Basically, all you need to live it up on International Talk Like a
Pirate Day is right at your fingertips, except for a mug of grog and a
bawdy bosomy wench. But you'll need to leave your computer, at least
briefly, to get your hands on those. You can do it, ye landlubber!
Quick: Will a sort of caste system eventually evolve, with those
who can only manage the occasional "Aaaarrr!" lower in the hierarchy
than those who can smoothly say things like, "Now watch as I fire a
broadside straight into your yardarm!"?
Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket
Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers: We're the holiday of
"inclusion." If the best ye can do is muster up the occasional "Arrr!"
and ye do it with a certain élan and enthusiasm, ye'll always be
welcome. But 'tis true that the more ye can say with an even thicker
coating of the aforementioned élan, or as we likes to call it,
"Pirattitude," yer esteem amongst the pirate-talkin' faithful will rise.
Of course, our book, Well Blow Me Down: A Guy's Guide to Talking Like a
Pirate (available on our Web site) will be an invaluable tool in the
furtherance o' yer skill in pirate talk and your social standin' amongst
"The Piratical."
Quick: Do you expect International Talk Like a Pirate Day to
eventually become a federal holiday, thus freeing the working class to
spend the day hauling keels?
John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur: Why would pirates care
about being an official holiday? If we want a holiday, we'll by gar take
a holiday, and we'll have no landlubber politicians tellin' us when to
take our leisure!
If you come across a cool Web site, e-mail Jessica Burgess at
jburgess@quickdfw.com.
