International Talk Like a Pirate Day

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket)
and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon,[1] U.S., who proclaimed September 19 each year as
the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.[2] An observer of this holiday would greet friends
not with "Hello, everyone!" but with "Ahoy, maties!" or "Ahoy, me hearties!". The holiday, and its observance,
springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.

According to Summers, the day is the only known holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury.
During a racquetball game between Summers and Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of
"Aaarrr!", and the idea was born. That game took place on June 6, 1995, but out of respect for the
observance of theNormandy landings, they chose Summers' ex-wife's birthday, as it would be easy for him
to remember.[1][3]
At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when Baur and Summers sent a
letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicatedhumor columnist Dave Barry in 2002.[4] Barry
liked the idea and promoted the day,[4]and later appeared in a cameo in their "Drunken Sailor" Sing Along A-
Go-Go video.[5]Growing media coverage of the holiday after Barry's column has ensured that this event is
now celebrated internationally, and Baur and Summers now sell books and T-shirts related to the theme on
their website. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-
restriction of the idea or non-trademarking, in effect opening the holiday to creativity and "viral" growth. [6]
The association of pirates with peglegs, parrots, and treasure maps, popularized in Robert Louis
Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883), has had a significant influence on parody pirate culture. [7] Talk
Like a Pirate Day is celebrated with hiddeneaster egg features in many games and websites,[8] with
Facebook introducing a pirate-translated version of its website on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008 [9] and
publisher O'Reilly discounting books on the R programming language to celebrate.[10] In September
2014, Reddit added a pirate theme to their website.[11]
Adherents of the Flying Spaghetti Monster celebrate the day and believe that the concept of pirates as
"thieves and outcasts" is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages and by Hare
Krishnas. Instead, Pastafarians believe that historically, pirates were "peace-loving explorers and spreaders
of good will" who distributed candy to small children, adding that modern pirates are in no way similar to "the
fun-loving buccaneers from history". Also, that recent decreases of pirates have led to global warming.
English actor Robert Newton is the "patron saint" of Talk Like a Pirate Day.[1] He portrayed pirates in several
films, most notably Long John Silver in both the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island and the 1954 Australian
film Long John Silver, and the title character in the 1952 film Blackbeard the Pirate.[12] Newton was born
in Dorsetand educated in Cornwall, and it was his native West Country dialect, which he used in his
portrayal of Long John Silver and Blackbeard, that some contend is the origin of the standard "pirate
accent".[13] This was parodied in the 1950s and 1960s by British comedian Tony Hancock.[14]
The archetypal pirate word "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!"), which in West Country parlance means
"yes",[15] first appeared in fiction as early as 1934 in the filmTreasure Island starring Lionel Barrymore,[14] and
was used by a character in the 1940 novel Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer byJeffery Farnol.[14] However, it
was Robert Newton's use of it in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island that popularized the
interjection and made it widely remembered. It has been speculated that the rolling "rrr", a distinctive
element of the speech of the West Country of England, has been associated with pirates because of the
West Country's strong maritime heritage, where for many centuries fishing was the main industry (and
smuggling a major unofficial one), and where there were several major ports. As a result, West Country
speech in general, and Cornish speech in particular, may have been a major influence on a generalized
British nautical speech.[16]