Ahoy, landlubbers, it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day.

At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when John Baur and Mark Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002. Barry liked the idea and promoted the day. 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 on their website related to the theme. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or trademarking, in effect opening the holiday for creativity and “viral” growth.

So grab your copy of Treasure Island…

* “Bring me one noggin of rum, now, won’t you, matey.”
* “Avast, there!”
* “Dead men don’t bite.”
* “Shiver my timbers!” (often pronounced as “Shiver me timbers!”)
* “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
* “Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it?”

To quote Captain Nancy Blackett, “Jib-booms and bob-stays, you tame galoot!”