The Poopdeck

Many of you have been sending us your plans for this year's celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and thank you all. You can read about all the upcoming events at:

http://talklikeapirate.com/tlapd06.html.

Keep sending 'em in and the Web Wench will get them posted online as fast as she can – just keep in mind that she's an unpaid volunteer and has a life and a job and stuff.

RSS Feeds: Techno Stuff for Techno Pirates

Now, a note from the Web Wench, Jezebel:

By popular demand (well, one of you asked really politely, but "demand" sounds more piratey), we now offer RSS feeds for two of our most popular features. Bring the Poopdeck and our Ask Cap'n Slappy advice column to your desktop as they're updated by pointing your news aggregator to:

Ask Capn Slappy - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalTalkLikeAPirateDay- AskCapnSlappy

The Poopdeck - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalTalkLikeAPirateDay- PoopdeckNewsletter

If, like Ol' Chumbucket, ye don't know what we're talkin' about, read up on RSS feeds here:

and find yerself a feed reader here

Ring Tones and Long Needles

We have added some MP3 Ring Tones for Talk Like a Pirate Day. Please note we didn't say they were good, just free, but they should work. If you desperately want to hear Cap'n Slappy and meself shouting at you to answer the phone, go to:

http://talklikeapirate.com/partykit.html#ringtones

... in addition, there's this:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/knitlikeapirate.html

For some of you out there, this will be the most exciting thing offered on our site – a piratey handbag ye can knit yerself!

Wench Swap Update

No matter what the ad SEEMS to be saying, the Sept. 18 episode of Wench Swap on ABC featuring Mad Sally, Ol' Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy is one-hour.

The ad says "the two-hour season premiere of Wife Swap," and that's true as far as it goes. But it's two one-hour episodes, one of which features pirates, not one two-hour show.

I know how shocking that is – a reality show that's misleading:? Gasp! What is the world coming to? So you can kind of use that to gauge if you want to how real anything you see on the show is.

It's been suggested that our episode will be the second to air, but we don't know for sure.

What We've Been Up To

Filming the Wench Swap episode chewed a big hole in the middle of our summer (hell, in the middle of our lives!) so we haven't gotten out much to make a lot of appearances. But we haven't been completely idle.

Speaking of idle, a word that sounds just like Idol, we've been running the Buccaneer Bachelor contest all summer and you don't want to miss the fun as Slappy narrows down the field of four remaining lasses to find the perfect pirate wench. Follow the action at http://talklikeapirate.com/contest.html.

Slappy and I have also been hard at work on a couple of writing projects which our agent is now shopping to publishers. The first is a sequel to "Pirattitude!," which as we've mentioned is in its sixth printing. The other is the first in a projected three-book pirate adventure for young adults. We're very excited about that one (in no small part because our agent thinks it's very good, and we like hearing that.) And we've got other projects in the works as well. More on them as they develop.

Believe it or not, there's also talk of a stage musical. No, not "The Pirate Queen," the musical which opens in Chicago this fall about the life of Grace O'Malley. We actually had a meeting with a composer and lyricist about "Pirattitude! The Musical," turning our book into a stage musical! Nothing to report yet, but we've put together an outline for the play, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

And Slappy and I have put together an ABC book for the young'uns as well. jonathan, a wonderfully talented young friend of ours, is finishing up the illustrations and it'll be available (online only) before Christmas for gifts to the wee ones – if you don't mind yer wee ones being corrupted by some really obnoxious pirates.

Now that the holiday is fast approaching, our lives are filling up with the usual round of radio, TV and newspaper interviews. And Mad Sally has gone YouTube mad and has posted a slew of piratey videos on that Web site. Check 'em out through the link on our home page.

Many Thanks!

Finally (for now) we want to say thank you to people for their support and help in the Wench Swap adventure. We couldn't have done it without our friends, both here in town and in the pirate community. Special thanks for service above and beyond the call to:

– Shayna of www.dresslikeapirate.com, who helped make sure Mad Sally had a pirate wardrobe that would last the full week she was in charge.

– Robert Ramstead of the Pirates Plunder Mall in Newport, Oregon – www.piratesplundermall.com, not to be confused with the store Pirates Plunder in Seattle, also friends of ours – for helping set up the decor for the pirate party we held as part of the show.

– Our friends, the band 49 Fingers – http://www.49fingers.com/ – for their wonderful, live original music played loud enough to get the police to stop by the house – twice! You should definitely buy their album! The band's album, that is, not the police.

– Books Without Borders – http://bwobatthestrand.com/ – for hosting a book event for "Pirattitude!" that we pressed the swapped wench into service for. It's a great place to browse for books if you're ever in downtown Eugene, Or.

– Ardie Flynn of Flappin' Flags – www.flappinflags.com – for providing a Jolly Roger to present to the swapped family to recognize their new-found pirattitude.

– Pyrate Leatherworx – www.pyrate.org – for supplying Cap'n Slappy's amazing new pirate chapeau, which arrived just in time for his closeup.

– Captain Stormfeather, our sword-fightin' friends Mike and Russ, our dog Shiloh and a few fleas (let's just say they represented) and our neighbors and all our friends from Albany (Or.) Civic Theater who swelled the crowd.

Whether any of their contributions make the final cut of the show is immaterial. We needed help, and these people and many more came out and gave us just that. For which we thank them.

Thanks, and thank to all of you for spreadin' the word – and the word is Aarrr!!

-- Ol' Chumbucket