Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009

Arrrrrre ye ready for TLAPD 2009? .Let us know what ye're up to , an' we'll tell the world! If ye're at a loss for ideas, check out the year-by-year party reports from previous years:

2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003

We're especially interested in hearing about pirate parties organized as fund-raisers for good causes; they're marked below with a special icon.

Don't miss the photos! Send us your own best picture - just ONE, please! (We'll also accept links to yer on-line photo gallery).

Find out what the media's saying about Talk Like A Pirate Day here. And what the Pirate Guys themselves (and associated wenches) have been up to here. And don't miss the fan mail!

What's happening around the world on International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2009

On line
In the media
More media responses can be found here

Parties around the world

This list gets longer every year, so we've given it a page of its own; clicking the links below will get you there).

Events supportin' good causes

TLAPD on line and in the media

On-line:

Pirate's Booty, the tasty - and healthy - snack food from Robert’s American Gourmet Food, went all out for Talk Like A Pirate Day in their BootyBlog and on their FaceBook page. (Hop over to Cookie Magazine's Word of Mom and Cast your vote for Pirate's Booty as the best salty snack food!). The folks at Pirate's Booty also shipped some o' their snacks up to Alaska fer Cap'n Slappy and the fans to enjoy at the TLAPD gatherin in Fairbanks. Thankee, mates!
Piratize the Web! Yahoo!'s developers have come up with some nifty Web-to-pirate conversion tools t'give your Sept. 19 browsing pirattitude.
And while it no longer shows up on their official list o' supported languages, "pirate" translation is still an option for yer Google search page.
What better day than Sept. 19 to take advantage of FaceBook's language translator (at the bottom right of the screen when members are logged in - to translate your FaceBook page to pirate! (Alas, it appears that only you will see it, not your friends...)
Cap'n Slappy, Team' Pirate's token Twitternaut, reports that as of 7:40 a.m. Sept. 19', pirattitude dominated the Twitter "trending topics" (things people were tweeting about:
- 10. Burnley
  9. Good Morning
  8. #iranelection
  7. Avast
  6. Jennifer's Body
  5. Ahoy
  4. Talk Like a Pirate
  3. Selemat Hari Raya
  2. Jay-Z
  1. Pirate Day
Among those Tweeting about us: The inimitable Stephen Fry. We're not worthy ...
Examiner tech writer Harold Nolte took note of Twitter and Google trends for Sept. 19.
Deviant Art, the worldwide art community with more than 10 million members, celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day with contests and all-day pirate talk on the site's forums.
Second Life - We're heard tell ofmultiple TLAPD parties in the virtual world:
- The Fride Club, run by Midnattsdotter - with her and DJ LOLA playing the music. Pirate clothes, beach party, pirate ship and rock music.
- Jabberwock Isles (where every day is a pirate day) will be havin' a Talk Like a Pirate Day ball in... Jabberwock Isles
- Seas of Antiquity staged pirates vs. navy sea battles all weekend
- Resort on the Cay celebrated with a Pirate Tea for the ladies, and a Pirate Beach Barbecue with a couple o' big roast pigs. And we be havin' the first ever Antiquity Pirates' Job Fair where they linked up pirates-to-be with pirate captains. - Lisbeth Constantine, Resort Manager
- She's So Unusual Shoes - For the fourth straight year, Rowan Carroll, a designer and builder of crazy virtual shoes, transformed her shoe store into a pirate's playground, complete with mugs o grog, treasure chest, cannons and a ship or two. Read more on her blog.
Here's a new twist: The Two Chinese Characters and the Pinyin Pirate use pirate-talk to demonstrate how to pronounce the Chinese retroflex. (And it's funny, too!)
A great new pirate song for TLAPD2009: Ahoy, from The Rabble Rousers (Bill Collins and Gary "Chops" MacConnie)
Cardfish, a new e-card site, is offering a freeTLAPD card that lets you paste your face onto a singing, dancing pirate - and once the card has played, you can set it to call your mate on the phone to wish them a happy TLAPD.
Gumbo, the fine pirate band, offered a new song free fer the downloadin in honor of TLAPD. Bury 'Em Deep. Download here. Gumbo Stu has also compiled a pirate playlist on Alonetone fer your TLAPD listening pleasure!
Beekeeper Crosswords posted their 4th annual TLAPD crossword puzzle.
The more than 2000 collectors of American Girl dolls who congregate at the agplaythings.com message forum celebrated TLAPD by switching the forum skin to a pirate theme, filtering mandatory pirate-speak, and encouraging photos of American Girl dolls in pirate garb. Harr!
Singsnap.com, the online karaoke site, ran Sing Like A Pirate Day. Some of the performances are immortalized in their forum.
Sylvan Dell Publishing just loooooves Talk Like A Pirate Day. They've got a great writeup in their blog, pointing to some of their more piratical children's books. Have a look-see!
The Vin Diesel site held a contest for logged-in users challenging them to write a pirate story based on photos posted in their Picture This forum. (We've always thought Vin Diesel has plenty of pirattitude...)
The folks on this Colorado mountain climbing forum contemplated the thought of "Climb Like a Pirate Day..."
Australian Photography held a nautical themed photo contest for its members to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Pirate Contest - Folks could write, draw or cook like a pirate to enter Sisbro Productions' Talk Like A Pirate Day contest, based on their swashbuckling children's book, "A Pirate's Quest."
Write Like a Pirate - Took submissions from WritersCafe.org members of pirate songs, stories, poems, etc. for its Talk Like A Pirate Day writing contest. Submission deadline is past...
Arrrrtist Elizabeth Dumba has drawn up another fine pirate coloring-book page for TLAPD 09 - grab yer crayons and download it here fer printing. Previous years pages can be found here. Her TLAPD post is here.
Mmmmm, rummmmm cake! Season Strepp of the NYT Media Group offered a recipe for TLAPD (complete with a "Scurvy-Preventing Citrus Glaze!").
Blockbuster UK offers a list of top 20 video rentals for Talk Like A Pirate Day
Urban Threads offered a free pirate ship embroidery pattern for TLAPD (available through Sept. 27)
Jaunted, the pop culture travel guide, signed in with some piratical travel destinations.
From Download Squad, Seven TLAPD time-wasters
Greatest Uncommon Denominator, the award-winning literary magazine, pointed subscribers to free TLAPD goodies on the Web (and emailed in pirate-talk to let 'em know.)
Another Examiner columnist ( they're all over TLAPD this year), Cassandra Yorgey, describes her day at the Long Island Pirate Festival, including lots o' pirate shopping.
Francine Rose notes that for sailors and shipwrights, every day is Talk Like A Pirate Day

Blog Like A Pirate -

Our Close Personal Friend and Pulitzer Prize Winner Dave Barry once again counts down to TLAPD. Dave, we wouldn't be where we are now without ye. Wherever that is.
SometimesLizWrites blogged what may be the ultimate Talk Like A Pirate Day/Rosh Hashanah mashup story, complete with a realy groaner of a punchline. Well done!
Writes the Pirate Wench (aka Patricia Kuenzi): "I been PLAP (Postin' Like a Pirate) a' th' Time Magazine Swampland political blog since TLAPD 2008! Fer 2009 I been hearty encouragin' me crew o' fellow posters, an' th' "professional" commentators, t' Post Like Pirates all day on 19 September! Wish us luck!"
Where better to talk like a pirate than the Caribbean? The Carribbean Hurricane Network is blogging like a pirate this week. Might we suggest a new motto: "Keepin' the Chumbuckets safe since 2008."
For September 19th next www.barbaramartin.blogspot.com will be posting a book review on "FAST SHIPS, BLACK SAILS" Edited by Anne & Jeff VanderMeer, an anthology of 18 pirate related stories in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
The Pegu blog, celebratin' the cocktail life,offers drink recipes for Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Northwest History got a jump on TLAPD with links to some interesting, if not Northwestern, Pirate sites.
ESPN's blog spins off on TLAPD to discuss the fate of the Raiders against rival Texas on Sept. 19
- ... and Raiders coach Mike Leach, a man o' mighty pirattitude, speculates that the date could prove auspicious for his team
- At Texas Tech, meanwhile, they're holdin' a contest for the best YouTube video expressing why fans love Leach's swashbucklin' ways
- Postscript: The Raiders lost to the Longhorns, but Leach remained a pirate gentleman even in defeat.
DScribers (a gathering of professional journalists, authors, photographers, and filmmakers) counts down to TLAPD with the Top 12 Pirate Films (according to them). First four picks here.
ChurchMojo blogs 10 ways to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day - in church.
Pelican Publishing blogs some of their piratical titles to celebrate the day.
Skyscanner, the travel blog, offers the eight "most piratey" places across the seven seas.
Over at HandmadeByMother, Victoria "Victory on the High Seas" Dunn will post a vintage 1970s sweater pattern called "Deep Seas". Knit like a pirate!
Clinton Banbury, artist and illustrator, is blogging like Bob, a pirate ship's cat for TLAPD.
Little Food Junction offers up Pirate Pizza (they say it's fer kids, but we know a full-grown pirate or two who'd be thrilled to see this on the TLAPD menu
Subway Squawkers love TLAPD (even if they managed to get the date wrong)
Dr. Dawg blogs about the Day.
Cybersibes brings the "dogs with blogs" aboard for TLAPD
Black Holes and Macrame, a "blog about everything", posts for the day.
Swanshadow blogs about TLAPD
TorrentFreak joins in
TechCrunch praises FaceBook's Pirate language set
LAist blogs about TLAPD in Los Angeles
Elizabeth Wilse at the Examiner offers beer pairings for TLAPD. We're sure her choices are fine for New York, but Team Pirate recommends brews from Rogue Brewery, right here in Oregon. We're all mighty fond o' their Dead Guy Ale!
The Celebrity Cafe calls TLAPD "the most brilliantly random holiday of the year."
Alas, a Blog (on the Webwench's daily reading list!) took the occasion to point to a bit of classic Python pirate madness.
Condo Blues offers a guest post from Captain Blitzkrieg the one eyed Pekingese Pirate Dog
We also show up in a lot o' those pseudoblogs that seem to auto-generate most o' their content from Google searches in an attempt to drive up traffic to their sites (the idea bein' that if they link to us we'll link back to them, movin' 'em up in the search engine rankin's, etc). Just as we do with the "search engine optimization services" that try to get us to swap links with sites sellin office supplies and window shades and such, we say "thanks, but no thanks." Only not so polite-like.

Game like a pirate

Our pals at TellTale Games, who've been creatin' new episodes of the legendary Tales of Monkey Island game, went all out for TLAPD, with free game downloads and other surprises. Check their Web site for news about Pirate Awareness Week.
And at Amazon Video Games, they gave away copies of "Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”on TLAPD .
World of Warcraft once again celebrated its own Pirates Day on Sept. 19, with special rewards for players who found their way to Booty Bay - and return appearances by Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket as NPCs.
Pirates of the Burning Seas, our partners a couple o' years ago, turned on the Talk Like a Pirate Day content in-game with their 1.18 update, so scallywag players could go on special TLAPD missions to get cool rewards! New players ccould also take part
In City of Heroes, Charlie Angus planned a pirate-themed party for TLAPD.
A fan of the Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG noted that the game had special surprises and rewards for TLAPD 2008, and hoped they'll do it again this year. Looks like they did!
Guild Wars, which celebrated the day last year, did it again on Saturday.
Legend of the Green Dragon celebrated TLAPD on Sept. 19: Text n the game, whether player typed or game generated, be filtered an' shifted to resemble piratey vernacularrr.
Gravity Interactive celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day in two of their online games:
- Ragnarok Online offered pirate rewards to users who complete
  quests in-game
- ROSE Online had an in-game event where users were
  rewarded for talking like a pirate in-game
X-Box Live players could buy pirate hats and eyepatches to dress up their characters for TLAPD - and then stay up all night playing pirate games such as Age of Booty, Tales of Monkey Island and Sid Meiers' Pirates.
Cap'n Sarathai (aka Guild Leader Senthoi) and her crew from the Queen Anne's Revenge/Silver Dawn planned to pillage Warhammer Online's Age of Reckoning on Saturday (wearing "The Pirate" in game titles), keel-haulin' any of the soft land lubbers that refuse to oblige.
The folks at Diplomacy Online - the Web version of the famous board game - were reported to be playing Pirate Diplomacy today. (Login required)

Laugh Like A Pirate

Webcomics and other funny folk celebrate TLAPD:

This doesn't quite count as a Talk Like A Pirate Day strip, since it ran on Aug. 28, but so many of ye sent us links we have t' mention it: Dilbert, on pirate iPhone aps.
Hooray! One of our favorite Webcomics, Savage Chickens, goes all out for TLAPD every year. Check out this year's contributions, along with those from years past.
Stuffed! promised a special strip for Sept. 19
OhNo Comics by Vinc Greco has launched a month o' pirattitude!
TenuredFaculty, a New York comedy sketch menage a trois made up of Andrew Butler, Matt Gehring and Jeanna Phillips., has a very funny new series of four "webisodes" on YouTube in celebration of TLAPD under the title "Real Life of Pirates."
Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chickens, together at last!
Pronquest, a decidedly not-safe-for-work-or-the-kiddies hentai comic, has a special panel for TLAPD
The Danish comedy site The Noise will have a special episode (mocking Windows 7) for TLAPD on Sept. 19 (with an English translation for the Danish-impaired).
Suzannah Doyle's Ringtone Theater site, which offers up bite-sized comedy as downloadable cell phone ringtones, had a couple of special offerin's for TLAPD.
Cartoonist Phil Fountain has a nice TLAPD panel on the theme o' baseball
Finn & the Conniptions has a subtle TLAPD/Rosh Hashana strip (read the mouseover for the punchline)

TLAPD sales, promotions and miscellany

AvNex uses TLAPD to promote their Voice Changer software, which lets you customize your voice in real-time (and in-game). They offered discounts on Sept. 19 and a "treasure map" to unlock the pirattitude in your voice.
Florida-based Barnie's Coffee in celebrated with a sale on coffee beans from the places that pirates made famous.
BDOP Cycling ran a Talk Like A Pirate Day sale.
Bizmosis launchedPirate Talk, a new iPhone application which allows users to have their favorite expressions translated into Pirattitude, in honor of TLAPD.
The Brick, a national Canadian retailer of home furnishings, appliances and electronics, celebrated nternational Talk Like A Pirate Day by entering online buyersin a drawing win their entire purchase, along with deeply discounted delivery.
Clockwork Couture, purveyors of fine steampunk clothing and accessories,gave out free pirate flags with purchases made on Sept. 19.
The folks at Crucial.com ("the memory experts") take TLAPD seriously; theysponsored a contest in their Laid Back Lounge forum (forum members submitted their pirate names for a chance to win free memory).
CostumesInc celebrated TLAPD with a treasure hunt via Twitter; the lucky winner got a kick-butt pirate costume. Read how to enter.
DoubleCrossed Wines had a great little TLAPD sale goin' on, featurin' a fine Pirate News Network video of a long-distance interview with Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket.
FatWallet, the discount shopping site, kicked off TLAPD early on Friday, Sept. 18 with a fun promotion in the Hot Deals forum.
Lulu.com Talk Like A Pirate Day sale
Magnets de los Muertos gave away a set of free pirate magnets to one lucky lubber on TLAPD.
Renderosity, the digital art site, had a 50%-off sale on pirate-themed art from participating artists. There's some pretty amazing stuff there!
We don't exactly know what this is, but we're told that the Sonic Wacky Pack Smart Cube featured Talk Like A Pirate Day promotional stuff.
Zazzle, the design-your-own-apparel-and-sell-it-to-people site, offered $3 off on all Tshirts ordered through Sept. 19 using a special promo code.

Changing their logos and/or language:

Kentucky.com, Web home of the Lexington Herald-Leader, sported a pirate logo on Sept. 19.
Boston.com had a Jolly Roger in its masthead
LibraryThing.com converted to pirate-talk for the day

In the media

Print and Web

Wired! columnist GeekDad interviews Capn' Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket for TLAPD
Inc. Magazine interviews the Pirate Guys about their Heh) marketing strategy (warning: the site works fine in IE, but behaves badly in Mozilla-based browsers)
The Fairbanks News-Miner notes Cap'n Slappy's appearance in town
Paul Kajusky, writing in the Jewish Journal's GeekHeeb column, offers suggestions for blending Talk Like A Pirate Day and Rosh Hashanah, including practicin' up on a hearty "Ahoy vey!" - and a link to a very cool Pirate Star of David necklace from ModernTribe.
The Christian Science Monitor's Horizons blogger asks "Arrrrr You Ready...?"
Lego Club Magazine is planning a special Lego Pirates article for its September magazine in honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day.
USA Today wonders if TLAPD will suffer from the continued economic crisis. We doubt it (hey, talking like a pirate is free!) Feel free to drop 'em a line...
The Detroit Free Press blogs about TLAPD
Newsday covers TLAPD at the North Carolina Museum of History
The Los Angeles Times notes TLAPD events in the City of Angels
The Denver Post offers suggestions for TLAPD hangouts
Several bloggers for The Examiner write about aspects of TLAPD, including this exploration of the links with Pastafarianism
Escapist Magazine runs a cool pirate quiz (free registration and login required)
Eastside Business (which doesn't seem to answer the question "east side of where?") offers the obligatory annual software/music piracy article.
The Denver Post: Parrrty time for pirates in Colorado
North County Times (serving San Diego and North Riverside counties in California) reports on the piratization of Oceanside Days
Las Vegas Weekly offers lots o' things to do in Vegas on TLAPD
The New York Daily News chimes in
The Telegraph, in the UK, gives a rundown of events in Great Britain
NESN, the New England Sports Network site, says it's easy to tell when a Pittsburgh fan is talking like a pirate
Atlanta Journal and Constitution columnist Jay Bookman imaged what it would sound like if Sarah Palin talked like a pirate.
The Hamilton, Ontario Spectator took to the streets and asked local residents to demonstrate their pirattitude. Great video here.
Additional mentions in:
- The Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
- Thaindian News, serving south and east Asia
- The Sioux City (IA) Journal
- The Money Times
- The Epoch Times
- United Press International
- Omaha World-Herald
- The Taunton Gazette
- The Manawatu (New Zealand) Standard
- The Northern Star (Australia)
- The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post
- The Birmingham (England) Mail
- Australia's Sunday Times
- Sacramento Bee
- The School Library Journal

On the Air

Radio and TV stations love Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we don't even hear about most of the on-air pirattitude. When we do, ye'll find it here (and let us know if you discover something we haven't!)

NPR Music's Song of the Day features Alestorm, the pirate metal band. Read Play Metal Like A Pirate Day
CNN.Com covers the heck out of Talk Like A Pirate Day, with a pirate knowledge quiz written by none other than Ol' Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy.
Hear Cap'n Slappy himself, live from Fairbanks Alaska, over Alaska radio station KSUA-FM from 6-7 p.m. (PDT) on Sept. 19.
YTV, the Canadian youth TV network, will celebrate TLAPD with five hours of cartoons on its Crunch program.
Fan Leroy Skalstad (WD9HOT) reports that HAM radio forums are all abuzz about TLAPD. "Looks like the airwaves will be interesting with ham radio operators participating in Talk Like A Pirate Day, I myself will be on the airwaves," he writes.
Public Radio station WLRH-FM in Huntsville salutes ITLAP Day every year by featuring piratey music as much as possible (we are public radio, after all).
Jersey City - Meghan, the host of the Thursday morning Underwater Theme Park show on the Web version of WFMU-FM plans a pirate-themed show on Sept. 17 to usher in Talk Like A Pirate weekend.
Capn' Edward Burke, host of the year-round Celtic and variety show the good ship "Shillelagh Safari" on two Burlington, Vermont stations, plans a pair o' swashbucklin shows on Sept. 18-19. Hear traditional sea shanties and other pirate music on Friday from 5-8 p.m. (EDT) on WWPV 88.7 FM and then again from 8-10pm on WOMM-LP 105-FM . Cap'n Burke will take requests at vtradiocelt@gmail.com
Cap'n Chorlton will be be broadcasting a live Talk Like A Pirate radio show on Reachonair.com on Saturday 19th 6pm (UK time). "I'll try my best to play pirate tunes and not too much poop," he writes.
WBNG, Binghamton, NY reported on the Pirates of the Susquehannah's party.
WWPV 88.7-FM "The Mike" in Colchester, VT USA. Cap'n Seamus Blunderbuss (aka Edward Burke) played two of our You Tube videos: as well as Tom Smith's official anthem for the holiday, and a treasure trove of sea shanties and other music with piratitude, includin' some fine pirate music from Vermont artists.
Radio stations who've done live interviews this year with the Pirate Guys include:
- KSRO, San Francisco
- ... and a bunch more we'll list as soon as the guys get enough of a breather to email the Webwench..

Piratized

It's become a tradition for lots o' Web sites to "go pirate" for the day. Among the ones we heard of this year:

The Great Debate, a gaming podcast featurin' a new pirate promo
RenegadeWarez planned to change all of their content into pirate speak along with their members all speaking like pirates on the website and in irc chat
Neopets once again translates posts on the message boards into pirate.
PugVillage, a forum for pug fanciers, was piratizes