If you start thinking about pirates what comes to mind?  Those fools in Somalia that may be effective but ultimately are hunted by every Navy in the world including the British, French and the Good Old USA and then shot with pinpoint accuracy in high seas by the greatest fighting force the world has ever known?  Or do you think (as you should) about the so called Golden Age of Pirates, that time between 1650 and 1750 when pirates and privateers ravaged the Spanish fleets, all for gold stolen from the indigenous peoples of America.

That era holds a romance and fascination for this Coot that is for sure.  That is why this weekend will be so fun.  Today is my birthday as Ralph has so pointed out on Wednesday in this post, but contrary to his opinion the big celebration this weekend is for International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  If you have never heard of TLAPD, now is the time to amend your ways.  It is a day to celebrate pirates, and most things pirate.

Look at it this way, Pirates really were bad people.  Rape Pillage and Plunder was their Modus Operandi and stealling other peoples ships is not very nice.  But then again it was the Spanish….but I digress.  Many pirates were larger than life characters with reputations that would never hold up today with a quick google search and the AP following their every move on sattelite.  But over 300 years ago stories were spun and fear grew from the exploits of a few men.

Fast forward to a time where these stories are all that is left.  A time when Hollywood was just getting started and needed stories to capture imaginations.  Stars were born and pirates were movie stars.  See the Sea Hawk or Captain Blood with Errol Flynn, they are still great adventures.  Walt Disney loved pirates so much he made a whole ride dedicated to them.  And then came Treasure Island.  A movie based on Robert Louis Stevenson‘s book (go read it if you have not, it is great and the movie barely does it justice) that truly defined an imaginary world of pirates that we have all fallen in love with.

It was Robert Newton who played Long John Silver that has perpetuated much of how we think pirates were in the past.  They may have been nothing like that but here we are now and pirates are cool.  Look at the success Disney had with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, movies based on a freaking amusement park ride!  People love them so much they had to modify the ride to fit the movie that was based on the ride!

But that brief and only partially accurate history brings us to two guys who had a screw loose and decided not to tighten it but to talk like pirates on an international holiday.  John “ol Chumbucket” Baur and Mark “Capn Slappy” Summers created this fantastic lunacy and I have been celebrating faithfully for 5 years now.

Here is your assignment for this weekend.  Go watch a pirate movie.  Wear something black and Talk like a Pirate on Sunday!  It is a bunch of fun.  There are phrases and helpful hints over on the pirate guys website http://talklikeapirate.com.  Spend some time there, download some songs, especially Tom Smith’s talk like a pirate day anthem.  Oh and use this google address: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=xx-pirate&q=&oe=UTF-8&tab=dw it will make google speak pirate at you…it’s pretty cool.

Be a pirate this weekend, you can be truly Cantankerous as a saltly sea dog!  Now I just have to figure out how to teach Sunday School in Pirate….

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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