It's rolled around once again, like a stray cannonball on the deck of a sailing ship. Sept. 19 is the annual Talk Like a Pirate Day, for no particular reason whatsoever.
Thank John "OI' Chumbucket" Bauer and Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers, the two ne'er-do-wells with pirattitude for starting the tradition, and writer Dave Barry for popularizing it seven years ago. Bauer and Summers have two books available from publishers and three others they've self-published, including the children's book "A Li'l Pirate's A-B-Seas."
Not all pirate talk is fit for kids. Suggested pirate pickup lines include "Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?" and "How'd you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?" As for "booty" and "treasure chest"... well keep those double meanings to yourself, you swarthy knave.
Los Angeles is home to a bounty of pirate-related events today, including sexy pirate talk and a costume contest at the R Bar in Koreatown, a pirate-themed murder mystery geocache hunt, and a weekend's worth of pirates and steampunk at the Queen Mary. Shiver me timbers.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: from the Lake Forest 2008 Fourth of July Parade. Credit: tinyfroglet via Flickr
Shiver me timbers!: The founders of the event
International Talk Like a Pirate Day is being celebrated today, as it has every September 19 for the last decade. 

The tradition was started by John Baur and Mark Summers, known to fellow pirates as Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket. It became popular in 2002, when US author Dave Barry joined the support. Baur and Summers are both published authors themselves, as well as self-publishing books.

In Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom the Campaign for Real Ale has organised a pirate pub crawl, while a London pub is offering rum at £0.50 a time. There are several events linked to the cancer charity Marie Curie. A Los Angeles bar is offering a day of 'sexy pirate talk'.

Australia's Whitsunday Islands are holding an event organised by a man identified by ABC only as Captain Dan van Blarcom. "We're the polite pirates and we always use our manners and say please and thank you and ensure our visitors always come first," he said, adding that people caught not having fun may be made to walk the plank and that there are "some pirate hip hop music and other pirate songs" on offer.

Bauer and Summers started the day after deciding that raquetball was much more fun when various pirate sayings were mixed into the game. The picked today as it was one of the few dates Summers could remember that did not already have a major holiday, being his ex-wife's birthday.