INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY

[MKBLK]

For everyone's enjoyment, the following has been gleaned from my local newspaper, The Bucks County Courier Times – source: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/howto.html#basic:

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

Today [Wednesday, 9/19/2012] is the 17th anniversary of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It was in 1995 that John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy) of Albany, Oregon, proclaimed that each Sept. 19th is the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello,"  but with "Ahoy, matey!" Bauer and Summers declared pirate lingo to be rich and complicated – and favoring the letter "a" in its simplest form. Here are some basic words that you cannot live without if you want to talk like a pirate today:

Ahoy! – Hello!
Avast! – Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise.
Aye! – Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did.
Aye aye! – I'll get right on that, as soon as my break is over.
Arrr! – This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is, of course, the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show; it sucked!" or "That was a clever remark you or I just made."

Once you've mastered the basics, you're ready to start expanding your pirate vocabulary. Try these:

Me – Pirates like to describe just about everything by preceding it with "me." For instance, "C'mere, me beauty" and "Shiver me timbers!" You'd be surprised how effective this is.
Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It's loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship. Since bilge rat is a pretty dirty thing to call someone, use it on your friends by all means.
Bung hole – Victuals on ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. When dinner is served, you'd make quite an impression when you'd say, "Well, me hearties, let's see what crawled out of the bung hole!" That statement will instantly be followed by the sound of people putting down their utensils and pushing themselves away from the table. Great! More for you!
Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water, but in this context, you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer. Water aboard ship was stored for long periods in slimy wooden barrels, so you could see why rum was added to each sailor's water ration – to kill the rancid taste. So, today drink up, me hearties!
Lubber – This is someone who stays on the land. In a room where everyone is talking like pirates, lubber is ALWAYS an insult.

Hope you enjoyed the above, me hearties – there will be a test!

Marty K.