Talk Like a Pirate Day returns

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Avast, me hearties!

Friday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a holiday in which common folk pillage the scallywag vernacular for “Ahoys!” and “Aaaarrrrgggghhhhs!”

According to the holiday’s creators, it’s “the only day of the year when you can talk like a pirate and not be entirely insane.” (Or like James Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica.)

Origin

Talk Like a Pirate Day, like most silly holidays, started on a whim and with the aid of Dave Barry.

In the summer of 1995, a few buddies in Oregon were playing a heated racquetball game when, for no apparent reason, they started talking like pirates, shouting cheers and jeers to one another such as, “Now watch as I fire a broadside straight into your yardarm!”

After the game, the guys agreed that life is indeed better when you talk like a pirate. So they created an official holiday when people could freely do so. They chose Sept. 19, the birthday of one of the creators’ ex-wives.

Seemingly destined to be just one of those holidays celebrated by a few friends, Talk Like a Pirate Day went big-time when the guys asked columnist Dave Barry to give their invention some publicity.

Barry loved it. And obliged. And the rest is history.

Check out the link, it includes a primer on how to talk like a pirate:

Preface every sentence with an overly dramatic exclamation, like “Aaarrrrgghh!” (denotes anger), “Ahoy!” (hello) or “Avast!” (listen up).

Eyepatches, as always, are entirely up to your fashion sense.

Not to Freak Anyone Out….

But Michael Jackson is 50 years old today.

What Does the Class of 2012 Know?

Beloit College in Beloit, Wisc., annually makes most of us feel really, really old by releasing their College Mindset List.

This list offers a snapshot of what the year’s college freshmen (or first-year students) have always known as the norm (8-track, what’s that grandpa?).

This year’s list features the class of 2012, most of whom were born in 1990.

For some of the WarriorWay readership, this will be amusing. For others, the humor of the everyday norm may not be apparent. For the rest of us, it will have us checking into AARP discounts.

Enjoy!!

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative–or known about a friend’s relative–who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.