International Talk like a Pirate Day

If you're one of those people that has to know what is going on and Google Trends or Trendite.com are places where you hang out on the internet, then you have seen all the talk like a pirate keywords that have invaded the lists. If you're someone like myself (a visually oriented man), who looks for interesting terms and keywords (mostly women's names) to read about (translation: pictures and photos to look at), then you may have missed the previous days' references to Talk Like A Pirate Day. Obvious hints like "shiver me timbers," "talk like a pirate," "pirate name generator" and "talklikeapirateday.com" would mean nothing until there were simply so many pirate related keywords that you couldn't miss it (except for the distractions of Whitney Duncan and Jennifer Walcott).

What Is Talk Like A Pirate Day?

Trivia nut that I am, I still had never heard of Talk Like A Pirate Day, not to mention the far more universal International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So, after a quick side click to find out who Terri Hughes and Christy Canyon were, I quickly found out quite a bit about International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

First of all, it was not invented by Jimmy Buffett to promote his line of frozen dinners. According to Wikipedia, was concocted by a couple of guys, Mark Summers and John Baur, on June 6, 1995, over a sports injury, when one of the guys yelled in pain, "Aaargh." They decided then and there that there should be a national holiday where people talked like a pirate. Out of respectful deference to D-Day (World War II), the two decided to move the celebratory day to September 19, which is Summers' ex-wife's birthday, a day he said he was sure not to forget.

But the holiday would remain a small affair until the two wrote Miami Herald syndicated writer and humorist, Dave Barry, in 2002 telling him about their extremely localized holiday. Dave Barry liked the idea so much he helped promote the idea.

No, Really, What Is Talk Like A Pirate Day?

Talk Like A Pirate Day is a relatively simple concept. You simply talk like a pirate for a day. Really. Yes, I know it's silly, but so are many other national and international holidays. September alone has Be Late For Something Day (Sept. 5), Salami Day (Sept. 7), Hobbit Day (Sept. 22), and Hug A Vegetarian Day (Sept. 28). Tomorrow, September 20, is Wife Appreciation Day, which is rather nice, but it is also Big Whopper Liar Day, which some husbands will put to good use celebrating in order for the wives to get the benefit of Wife Appreciation Day. But I digress... There are many more strange and silly holidays to be found on Brownielocks.com.

Robert Newton is the patron saint of International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Newton starred in the 1950 Walt Disney film "Treasure Island," playing the part of Long John Silver.

The holiday even has a quasi-official anthem, "Talk Like A Pirate Day" by Tom Smith.

And you can celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day and not even leave your house. Online games like World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, and Kingdom of Loathing allow you to celebrate in their game worlds. Nintendo has programmed Talk Like a Pirate Day into their Sims 2 DS game.

So Go Talk Like A Pirate Before They Invent A Holiday For Something Worse

International Talk Like A Pirate Day is a fun day. It's a day when we can all be a little goofy, dress up like a pirate, talk funny - a sort of mini-Halloween.

But could this be the start of something that could quickly get out of hand? We already have those aforementioned silly holidays. But what if we had a "Talk Like ___________ Day" all 365 days of the year. You know, like "Talk Like John Wayne Day" and "Talk like Yoda Day." There could be "Talk Like Howard Cosell Day" or "Talk Like Elmer Fudd Day" or "Talk Like A Rapper Day."

There could even be a "Talk Like Sarah Palin Day." That day would have to be celebrated on September 12, which is also World Suicide Prevention Day.

It could get so bad that Congress and other government agencies around the world would have to enact an Intenational Talk Like Yourself Day.

Yeah. I like the sound of that one. In fact, let's make every day "Talk Like Yourself Day." Oh. Except for September 19, when everybody gets to talk like a pirate.

Sources:

Wikipedia.org
Brownielocks.com