Ahoy ye bilge-sucking landlubbers, and welcome to International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Yarrr, that be right: Monday September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day, a celebration of all things piratey – or at least, piracy as it was in the Golden Age of Piracy, not the scary new modern kind that sees armed men with AK-47s capture innocent tourists at gunpoint.

This decidedly unique holiday has its origins in 1995 and, bizarrely enough, came about from a sports injury.

John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy) of Albany, Oregon were playing racketball when one of them suffered pain and reacted with a yelp of “Aaarrr!”. From that moment, the two friends declared the date a new holiday.

For many years, it remained an inside joke between the pair, until Baur and Summers sent a letter about their new holiday to humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002. Barry liked the idea, and began promoting it, leading to rapidly expanding media coverage.

Baur and Summers now earn extra cash by selling T-shirts, books, and other merchandise related to their invented holiday on their website. Which, let’s face it, is pretty good going for two blokes who randomly made up a holiday from a racketball game.

If YOU want to take part in International Talk Like a Pirate Day, it’s fairly simple: just throw some pirate talk into your everyday conversation. Possible phrases that you could repeat until people stop talking to you include:

Ahoy, me Hearties! – (“Hello, my friends!”)
Blow me down! – (“Holy Crap!”)
Booty – (treasure)
Lad, lass, lassie – (younger person)
Old Salt – (an experienced sailor)
Pieces of eight – (coins found in pirate stashes)
Scallywag – (mild insult)
Thar she blows! – (whale sighting)
Yo Ho Ho! – (expression of cheer)

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, Mateys is a post from: The Inquisitr

Don’t think you’ll have to pull away from your monitor and Cheetos to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft will have its very own celebration of the special day, which takes place tomorrow.

There will be numerous virtual activities taking place to celebrate the non-holiday, including:

* A large crowd of pirate revelers (“Dread Crew”) who dance, talk, eat, drink, laugh, and shoot fireworks. Ask Baron Revilgaz what he thinks of the visitors.
* The Tauren First Mate Hapana and his giant South Seas assault parrot, Nyuni.
* A trio of cannons and cannoneers who periodically fire out into the bay – at times, just barely missing the sails of the incoming transport. Those crazy corsairs.
* Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket, two curiously-named pirates.
* Lively pirate-themed music that plays upon the rooftop.

Very nice. All you have to do to get involved is chat to one of the pirate commoners who’ll be hanging round the bigger cities in Azeroth. They’ll loan you a pirate outfit, and then you can head to Stranglethorn to join in the frolicking and festivities. Once there, you can talk to Captain DeMeza to be transformed into a pirate of your race for the rest of the day.

“Yarr, it sure to be a fine time had by all!” (As I am contractually obliged to say).

[Via World of Warcraft]

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009 gets its own World of Warcraft party is a post from: The Inquisitr

The official International Talk Like a Pirate Day site is here, and while it’s archaic as a gentleman o’ fortune, it’s a reasonable place t’ start.

12seconds is celebrating the day by opening up the site to anyone wanting to leave a pirate message. It’s a great chance to get in on the closed alpha test. Details here.

Google is offering a pirate search engine here. Get your taste of Webbe, Engravin’s, Crews and Direct’ry, and if in doubt, you can always click the button labeled I be feelin’ lucky.

FriendFeed is in on the act, complete with a pirate logo, and many members joining in the fun with pirate names and pirate themes.

Arrrr, there be local pirate sites as well. A few include Aussie Pirate Day at Yaaarrr.com, the exceedingly dry (at least in the heading) British HQ for the event, and Talk Like a Pirate Day Queensland.

Look also for local parties. In Melbourne, there’s PirateTUB in place of the regular MTUB Twitter event.

If you want information on the hottest pirate ever to grace the screen, start here.

Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a post from: The Inquisitr

Talk Like a Pirate Day started in 1995 and sees devotees talk like Pirates on September 19 each year. The day was relatively unknown until gaining media coverage in 2002, and has grown on the back of social networking site users who like nothing more than sharing fun memes.

Anyone visiting 12seconds on Friday will be able to record a Pirate message from the front page, even if they’re not registered. Anyone who participates will be invited to join 12seconds, and will receive a special “pirate skull & crossbones award.” The exercise from 12seconds is to share in the fun, and partly to load test their setup as well. 12seconds is in invite only alpha and will revert to closed registration after Friday, so if you haven’t got an invite yet, this is a great opportunity to get in.

12seconds opening up for Talk Like a Pirate Day is a post from: The Inquisitr