WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Is there a need for International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Don't be a 'ilge rat, of course there is — when else can you call someone a bilge rat?
The day, celebrated every Sept. 19 for about the past decade, has its own Web site and its own Facebook fan site with nearly 7,000 fans.
Plans for celebration are in the works from Alaska to St. Croix.
The day is the brainchild (though how brainy may be debatable) of two guys, John Baur and Mark Summers, who turned lively racquetball court banter into a day of celebration.
They emphasize the day isn't in celebration of real pirates. Those people do vmry bad things.
Avast! This is more about giving your conversation a "swagger, an elan, denied to landlocked lubbers."
The holiday gained traction when Miami syndicated columnist Dave Barry gave it a nod in 2002: "Every now and then, some visionary individuals come along with a concept that is so original and so revolutionary that your immediate reaction is: 'Those individuals should be on medication.'"
Aye, me hearties. But before you reap the benefits, you have to learn the lingo.
It's not enough to throw a few "Arrrs!" and "Ayes!" into the conversation, mates. You'll need to order up some "grog," perhaps address the barmaid as "me beauty."
Sit down for dinner? TLAP Day founders suggest you make an impression by saying, "Well, me hearties, let's see what crawled
out of the bung hole." The bung would be the wooden casks where victuals were stored onboard ship. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole … the bung hole.
We could share with you the Top 10 pickup lines (think references to yardarms, barnacle scraping and boarding). But that's treasure best plundered somewhere other than a family publication.
Talking like a pirate
Become a member of the International Talk Like A Pirate Day group on Facebook (you can find a link to that on the TLAP homepage or just go to Facebook and search)
Some perate lingo as defined by the TLAP Web site:
Ahoy! — "Hello!"
Avast! — Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get out!"
Aye! — "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."
Aye aye! — "I'll get right on that sir, 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," "My team is going to win it all," and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." (
Advanced pirate lingo; or on beyond "Aarrr!"
Once you've mastered the basics, you're ready to start expanding your pirate vocabulary. Try these for starters:
Beauty — The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by "me," as in, "C'mere, me beauty," or even, "me buxom beauty," to one particularly well endowed. You'll 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.
On TLAP Day — A lot of guy humor involves insulting your buddies to prove your friendship. It's important that everyone understand you are smarter, more powerful and much luckier than they are. Since bilge rat is a pretty dirty thing to call someone, by all means use it on your friends.
Bung hole — Victuals on a ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. That's all. It sounds a lot worse, doesn't it?
On TLAP Day — When dinner is served you'll make quite an impression when you say, "Well, me hearties, let's see what crawled out of the bung hole." That statement will be instantly 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, and we aren't prepared to be picky about that, either. Water aboard ship was stored for long periods in slimy wooden barrels, so rum was added to each sailor's water ration — to kill the rancid taste.
Horopipe — Both a single-reeded musical instrument sailors often had aboard ship, and a spirited dance that sailors do.
Lubber — (or land lubber) This is the seaman's version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution. A lubber is someone who does not go to sea, who stays on the land.
On TLAP Day — More likely than not, you are a lubber 364 days of the year. But not if you're talking like a pirate! Then the word lubber becomes one of the more fierce weapons in your arsenal of piratical lingo. In a room where everyone is talking like pirates, lubber is ALWAYS an insult.