The Poopdeck

75 days until International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

2 days until the opening of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest!"

• Dead Man's Chest
• Video clips posted
• Contest
• Buccaneer Bachelor
• Ol' Chumbucket's Book Club

"Dead Man's Chest" Opening!!

The social event of the season is almost here, the opening to the sequel of our favorite movie. If you're "putting on the pirate" when you attend the opening weekend showing, don't forget to get a picture of you and the crew at the theater and send it in. We'll post it. (Remember, ONE photo, not 20, and optimize the size for the Web. Thanks)

Just a couple of cautions: It's very difficult to sit in a movie theater seat while wearing a sword, so it may be necessary to leave the cutlass in the car. The theater owner may prefer it also. And don't forget that every time anyone says "Captain Jack Sparrow," it is pirate etiquette to stand, doff your hat, and salute with your left hand, the way Jack does in the opening of "PotC: Curse of the Black Pearl."

We also want to hear what you think of the movie. Let us know by writing to me at chumbucket@talklikeapirate.com. I'll select the best of your responses for the next Poopdeck. Keep it brief – if you don't, I'll edit ye down.

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Video Clips Posted!

To mark the opening of "Dead Man's Chest," Mad Sally, the Official Lusty Pirate Wench, has captured Cap'n Slappy and me (Ol' Chumbucket) on digital video and posted them at youtube.com. You can find the links on our home page, or you can go directly to youtube.com and search for "Pirate Guys" or "Talk Like a Pirate." There are four of the rascals up there. And speaking of rascals, the clips wouldn't be nearly as good without the help on two of them of me son, who goes by the pirate name Chumpail, though I calls him Mad Max. And special thanks on the "Phone Etiquette" clip to young Evan, "Garçon De Patineur," for his convincing performance as the Uber Nerd.

Party City contest

A lot of merchants are getting on the pirate bandwagon and offering contests centered on the opening of the PotC movie. One such is at Party City, a national chain of party supply and costume stores. their first prize is a 4-day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas for a family of six (I assume they mean "up to six." Wouldn't make any sense if you had to have exactly six people in yer family to win, now would it?)

This is a worthwhile prize, so ye might want to get yerself down to www.partycity.com and enter. The contest entry is in the lower right corner of the screen.

Good luck to ye! If one of our readers win, we'd sure like o hear about it!

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Buccaneer Bachelor

Speaking of contests, our own summerlong competition, is in its second week and heating up fast. We stared with 22 wenches competing for the heart, hand or some other piece o Cap'n Slappy (and some really good prizes, too) and after two weeks of competition we're down to 16. The winner will be named on Sept, 19.

Check out the action at http://buccaneerbachelor.blogspot.com/

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Ol' Chumbucket's Book Club

Last month me eldest son, Red Jack (really, his name is Jack Baur and has been since 1981, long before "24" made it a somewhat more well-known monicker) gave me a Fathers Day gift that warmed the cockles of me ol' heart. It is the initial tome in the new book club we're launching.

"Will Eisner's Hawks of the Seas" is the almost complete collection of a comic strip that ran in the late 1930s. It tells the swashbuckling adventures of The Hawk, a hero almost too good to be true. He and his crew are not exactly pirates – they are on a mission to stamp out the slave trade and turn their nose up at the very thought of ill-gotten booty – but their adventures and actions are all in the best buccaneering tradition.

Eisner's drawings are terrific, his composition and framing were years ahead of their time, and here they lend a dramatic urgency to the action that's just terrific. The story of "Hawks of the Sea" is good. The art work is terrific.

Eisner, who died in 2005, was one of the patron saints of American comics. His early work is as alive today as it was when he drew it for a society just discovering the fun of graphic entertainment. "Hawks of the Sea" is a valuable addition to any seafarer's collection of piratey literature.

Ol' Chumbucket gives it two hooks up.

Ol' Chumbucket, ed.