Yarrrr! September 19 be Talk Like a Pirate Day
Stephen Vaughan Avast, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day - surely a holiday that Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) can approve of.
Grab your cutlass and polish your peg leg: Talk Like a Pirate Day is here once again.
The observance, started by John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers, gained widespread renown when it was mentioned by Dave Barry in his nationally syndicated newspaper column seven years ago. And thanks to our collective love for pirates and their lore, it's now gone international.
Talk Like a Pirate Day came to be when Baur and Summers, in the middle of a friendly raquetball match, found the game was more fun when punctuated with pirate utterances -- so they decided to make a day of it. September 19 was chosen because it is Summers' ex-wife's birthday, and one of the only dates he can remember that's not taken up by another holiday, the two explain on their Web site, www.talklikeapirate.com.
Since then, the day has spawned celebrations around the world, including pirate-themed bar crawls, charity walks and plenty of other events with a healthy dose of pirattitude.
Talking like a pirate needn't be complicated. Even throwing a simple "me hearties" or "matey" on the end of a sentence is enough to participate, the founders say.
And since this year's Talk Like a Pirate Day falls on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, here's a good opening line: Shanah tovah, matey!
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.