Talk Like a Pirate Day 2010
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What are ye planning for September 19th?

Arrrrrre ye ready for TLAPD? .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:

2009 | 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 2010

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). Reports are pourin' in - get yours added soon!

Events supportin' good causes

TLAPD on line and in the media

On-line:

Every day can be Talk Like A Pirate Day at ...

  • Google, where choosing the "Language" link to the right o' the search box (or just followin' our link, above) pulls up a long list o' languages fer yer search results, including "pirate."
  • FaceBook, where users can "go pirate" on TLAPD (or any day) by selectin' the "English" (or whichever language they're usin') link at the very bottom o' the page and changin' that to "English (Pirate).
  • FaceBook and Twitter, in fact, seem t'be Talk Like A Pirate Central this year!

Blog - and Tweet - Like A Pirate:

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:

Game like a pirate

  • New for TLAPD 2010: The first-ever Official Talk Like A Pirate Day game from QuantumAlchemist (Carson Morton and Julian Halliday)! Play this addictive little Flash-based game as Cap'n Slappy, Ol' Chumbucket, Mad Sally, Jezebel the Webwench or our mates Robert ("Cockroach") and Mercy Blair (and fair likenesses they be, too!) Great work, mates!
  • Adventure Quest, a family-friendly multi-player fantasy role-playing game, has special goodies for Talk Like A Pirate Day.
  • ArenaNet kicks off its Guild Wars Talk Like A Pirate Day (weekend) on Friday with grog, drunken sailers and more, continuing through the 21st. Look for vE enemies throughout the world to be dropping grog beginning at noon PDT Friday, and the NPCs in Lion's Arch and Kamadan are joining the festivities as well. They've got a swashbuckling new look, and if you take a moment to chat with them, you'll find some interesting dialogue as well.
  • Friday (the 17th) through Wednesday the 22nd, DriveThruRPG celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day with sale prices on pirate-themed stuff and 20 hidden virtual treasure chests containing free ebooks.
  • EU PlayStationHome celebrates Talk Like A Pirate Day: "Pick up some pirate loot from the cannon emplacement in Home Square, including the massive Monkey Island 2 Home bundle pack! Check the forums on Friday for details of a fun little event to take place on Sunday … as a hint, you may want to prepare a pirate costume."
  • FurCadia, an animal-based multi-player on-line game, got tired of the old pirates versus ninjas question, so this year they're asking: zombie pirates or space pirates? It's part of a weekend of Talk Like A Pirate-themed gaming.
  • GamersGate, the game download site, is offerin' great deals on all pirate-related games all week long. Great chance to grab a fresh copy o' Age Of Pirates, Tortuga or the ever popular Zombie Pirates Collectors Edition, and more ...
  • As a grand opening special, new online retailer Gamethonic s discounting all games 30% - and in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th, pirate-themed games are 40% off.
  • At City of Heroes, the boards were full of pirate talk ...
  • As if the whole Pirates vs. Ninjas thing were'nt enough, Runescape, the online MMORPG is pitting pirates against vampyres in Talk Like A Pirate Weekend gaming events. Check it out. (Go, pirates!)
  • SecondLife, as always, is teeming with pirate parties. Chipmunk Pete reportsthat in ElvenMyst, Eren Padar (the famous liddle dwagon pirate) will be hosting a party from 1pm - 4pm SLT (Also Pacific Time).
  • Telltale Games, developers of the awesome Tales of Monkey Island games originated by LucasArts, are planning big things for Talk Like A Pirate Day, including a special offer on the complete Tales collection for just $4.95 (starting Friday evening and running through Monday morning). Look for deep discounts on the iPhone version of the game, too. Check their blog on Sept. 15 for more news about piratical doin's - or check the Tales link, above, on Friday afternoon for its annual TLAPD transformation.
  • Chris Roots leads the The Eighth Underworld online gaming community, with members in Europe and North America. They're planning a community Talk Like A Pirate Day event all day on the 19th, playing a series of pirate theme maps on their 'Team Fortress 2' game sever (IP: 85.234.148.169:27105). They even set up a karaoke feature on the server and have uploaded several sea shanties and pirate songs, plus lyrics to sing along to. The hope to upload a video to YouTube of the gaming and singing after the fact. Read about it in their forum, on Steam or in their FaceBook group.
  • Once again, the hearties at World of Warcraft will celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day in Booty Bay on Sept. 19. Commoners wearing pirate garb have appeared in all the world's cities with the news that the Dread Captain DeMeza and her crew have landed in Booty Bay and declared it Pirates' Day! If you are brave enough to share a drink with her, you may have what it takes to become an honorary crew member for the day. Talk to any pirate commoner to receive a costume to help you get into the spirit, then head down to Booty Bay to join in the fun. WoW player Cap'n Sarah writes: "Just wanted to drop a line and say how satisfying it was to come home from work tonight and be able to see yourself and Ol' Chumbucket celebrating perhaps my favorite day of the year. Even if it was pixel representations of the two of you, in Booty Bay, on World of Warcraft! I received the book Pirattitude from a friend many years ago and have been a fan ever since. I was even able to educate a few of my guildmates on TLAPD and how to celebrate. It really did make my night."

Pirate Apps

  • Better late than never: Words With Pirates, a piratized version o' Scrabble® fer the iPad, evidently got held up in the Apple queue and didn't get released till after TLAPD, but it's a fine little app for them what likes their pirate-talk all year 'round.
  • Just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day, Dropkick Apps has released the Pirate Web Browser app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. This app translates the web's Landlubber's English into Pirate instantaneously with sometimes hilarious and other times disturbing results. Brush up on your modern Pirate and celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day with over 23 billion pages of pirate content.
  • Smartphones have all kinds of practical uses -- but suppose you get into a confrontation with a pirate at the office and you need to put him in his place? Whip out your Palm Pre Plus and fire up Pirate Insult Generator. A free app, available in the Palm App Market.
  • In plenty of time for for Talk Like A Pirate Day: A new iPhone app, iArrrPirate, from RipTide Games, lets you transform anyone into a pirate. And to celebrate the launch, RipTide is giving away a $50 iTunes gift certificate to whoever makes the best tweet/photo from iArrPirate with the #iArrPirate50 hash tag by Talk Like a Pirate Day. Details and rules here.
  • Pirates with an Android phone can find Cap'n Black Mike's entire collection of 900+ pirate jokes from PirateJokes.com in the Android Market under 'Pirate Jokes', at http://www.piratejokes.net, or at Android Pit. And of course, the app features an ARR button, "cause sometimes you need yer phone to say ARR!"
  • Another Android app, Pirate Speak For Landlubbers, from Mage Technologies, which is running a compeition on Twitter to benefit Haitian relief. Read about the competition and how to buy the app here.
  • In celebration of ITLAPD, Appigo Inc. has announced a new Pirate Theme (skin) for ToDo in iPad. Download the theme via in-App Purchases by going into Todo for iPad Settings > Themes > More button.

Laugh Like A Pirate

Webcomics and other funny folk celebrate TLAPD:

  • We depend on Savage Chickens to come up with a week's worth o' pirate chicken cartoons every Talk Like A Pirate Day. Because what could be better than pirate chicken cartoons drawn on PostIt notes?
  • Enjoy this most excellent and amusing video tribute to Tom Smith's Official Talk Like A Pirate Day Song, by abbyg. Well done, mate!
  • Callous will have a special Talk Like A Pirate Day strip on Sept. 19.
  • Count on GoComics to come up with a great collection of pirate-themed panels and strips. Get your pirate laugh on!
  • The WannaBe Pirates don't wait for Sept. 19th - it's all pirates, all the time over at Largent & McCrary's strip!
  • For the third year in a row, Ebenezer Splooge posts a Talk Like A Pirate Day strip on his (adult content, very not safe for work) PronQuest comic.
  • Another video, this one from Dateless Wonders, with some prodigious pirate talk.
  • An amusing little animation of the Pirate Guys, uh, hit children's song, "I'm a Pirate, by the artist known as chaostune.

TLAPD sales, promotions and miscellany

  • Yarrrrduino! Check out the arrrrrsome project Jay Bolton threw together for Talk Like A Pirate Day: A skull with LED eyes that blinks out messages in Morse Code, using the Arduino microcontroller. We love the geeky pirate thing-makers!
  • Australian Photography is throwing a pirate photo contest the week leading up to Talk Like A Pirate Day, with prizes. Open to registered members only.
  • With a name like Avast.com, you might expect this Bohemian anti-virus company to be kindred souls - and ye'd be right. Check out their Talk Like A Pirate Day page for bargains and special offers - including a free download to switch your Avast anti-virus software to issue its threat warnings, etc in pirate English.
  • Romance novelist Katharine Ashe will unveil the cover of her next pirate novel, Captured by a Rogue Lord (Avon books, April 2011) on Sept. 19, and giving away swag to visitor to her site that day.
  • Pirates have seized the shipping lanes at Taiwan-based BDOP Cycling, an online vendor of fine bicycling goods, and are offering a one-day anmesty on shipping costs. Place an order on Sept. 19 and they'll ship it anywhere in the world - for free! (BDOP displays pirattitude year-round with their pirate dude Web logo; he's been there 365 days a year since they opened for business two years ago.
  • Now that you've polished up your pirate talk, here's a chance to use it: The Bookrix writing forum is hosting a pirates-related writing contest called "The Curse of the Pirates" from September 22 until October 6. More details next week in their "Contests & More" section.
  • CaptainFTP, makers of fine file transfer and distributrion software, is running a 50-percent-off sale Sept. 17-19 in celebration ot ITLAPD. More information here.
  • For the second year in a row, clockworkcouture.com is giving away free jolly roger banners to customers who use TLAP in the coupon code area. They're also discounting all of eyepatches, viewing glasses, ships, and anything else deemed pirate worthy from 9/11-9/19.
  • Crucial.com once celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day, this year with with a 10% discount on RAM memory upgrades! Visit their Web site Sept. 15-17 (Weds-Fri before the 19th) and click on the pirate-themed image for details.
  • Astrologer and fortune-teller Alexandra Chauron is ready with an all-pirate horoscope for Sept. 19 on Examiner.com
  • Featherburger, the Indie-Pop-Rap band, has a new song about pirates, as yet unreleased - but on International Talk Like A Pirate Day they plan to release a video of the band performing a live acoustinc version of the song. Check them out at www.featherburger.com/ or on Facebook., where the video will be released.
  • Rumor has it that Hot Topic stores are runnin' a Talk Like A Pirate Day discount: Go into any Hot Topic on Sept. 19, talk like a pirate and get a 10% discount on your purchase!
  • Author Andrea Jones, whose award winning novel Hook & Jill came out on Talk Like A Pirate Day 2009, is auctioning off an autographed copy of the book to benefit Plunder for A Cure, a Chicago TLAPD party and fund-raiser for the MS society. Bids begin at $50. More information here.
  • Rogue songwriter Lemaster has a new song, Captain Jack's Quest, available on iTunes. All proceeds from download sales during September and October go to St. Jude cancer research.
  • A new sea chanty Put Yer Backs Into It, Lads, by Clark Graff
  • Another original new pirate song, this in a more modern vein, by singer-songwriter Matthew Moore.
  • NileGuide.com, a travel-planning site, is running a “Travel Like a Pirate" contest through Oct. 19. The winner and a friend will be flown to Aruba by Jet Blue, where they’ll have a 4-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort and Casino. While there, they'll take part in a bunch o' pirate-y activities planned: a private sailing tour on a refurbished pirate vessel; dinner at a pirate-themed restaurant; and a tour of a brewery. Enter at http://www.nileguide.com/blog/travel-like-a-pirate
  • William Hill Bingo, an on-line bingo site, offers pirate treasure for TLAPD.
  • ZixCorp, maker of email encryption software for the healthcare industry, is offering a crunchy little TLAPD deal: Attend a free one-hour web overview to see how ZixCorp can make securing your email easy; when you register use the promo code "pirate"; the first 20 to register receive a shipment of Pirates Booty snackfood!
  • Teachers: Looking for classroom activities around Talk Like A Pirate Day? Check our Pirates in the Classroom page - and the Talk Like A Pirate wiki launched by a bunch of New Zealand teachers with pirattitude for sharing share their pirate-themed lesson plans, activities, links and more! http://talklikeapirate.wikispaces.com/

In the media

Print and Web

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!)

  • Our own Cap'n Slappy did a live call-in with Absolutely Mindy at 5 pm (Eastern Time) Friday on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio Kids Place Live Show.
  • Cap'n Slappy was also the featured guest on the HoboTrashCan podcast on Sept. 16 - he chatted with hosts Joel and Lars for an hour, so no tellin' what came out o' his mouth.
  • Additional interviews by the Good Cap'n this season (so far): WIIL Rock Tom and Lisa (Chicago to Milwaukee), Y106 Columbus Indiana (Tonya Haze), Troy at Pirate Radio, Cork (Ireland) 96FM with Darren Johnston.
  • We're told by a fan - and the show's online forums comfirm - that in honor of TLAPD, the TV game show Jeopardy had an entire "Talk Like A Pirate" category on the 17th!
  • On the Today Show, late night/early morning edition, Matt Lauer reported referred to Talk Like A Pirate Day.
  • CBS New York: Prepare Your Pirate Parlance, with tips for some pirate bars in and around New York City for Sunday's festivities.
  • CNM News Network notes that everyone's blogging (and twittering) about TLAPD, and suggests renaming it Blog About Pirates Day.
  • The Detroit, MI Fox affiliate asked viewers to show off their best pirate talk for TLAPD. The results, on video, are ... amusing.
  • CNN's Ann Hoevel claims "Real pirates don't say 'Arrrr!'" in a TLAPD piece focusing on hard-core pirate re-enactors. We say: To each 'is own, mate!
  • NBC Washington reports on TLAPD in and around the US capital.
  • The New England Sports Network ponders The Top 10 potential Boston Sports Pirates
  • From WEWS5, the ABC affiliate in Clevelend, ARRRRRGH! Sept. 19 is Talk Like A Pirate Day, Matey!
  • Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio's Sunday night "In House" show gave a nod to TLAPD by playing Lambchop's "National Talk Like A Pirate Day."
  • As ye might expect, Cap'n James planned to be talkin' like a pirate all day on PirateFM in Cornwall, UK.
  • DJ Kyo and her first mate, DJ Charlie will be hosting our annual Talk Like a Pirate show on KJSR.net, and giving away a copy of the Pirate Radio movie, and soundtrack!
  • Radio Tatras International - uniting Europeans and givin' em a chance to practice their English skills - will air a Talk Like A Pirate Day special in it's flagship programme Postcard From Poprad this Friday - see schedule and listen in via the RTI web site.
  • The Abaco Cruisers Net---on the air every day at 0815 in vhf channel 68---will feature as Net Controller, Capt. Bruce from s/v Shearwater, reprising his Piracy from a few TLAP Days ago. You can hear it Live by going to Abacomessageboard.com and clicking on Cruisers Net Live on the left side. We're in Marsh Harbour, Abacos, Bahamas-----where the real pirates hung out in the 1800's. (posted by Carol and Dick Simmons on s/v Gusto!!!)
  • News10.ne, the ABC affiliate t out of Sacramento, CA offers some linguistic advice for Talk Like A Pirate Day
  • DJ Terry D'Attore is a big fan of Talk Like A Pirate Day; on Saturday morning he'll dedicate most much of his morning show to the holiday with pirate music and advice on how to get the talk right. Tune in on www.area24radio.com
  • Beachfront Radio.com's Pyrates Behaving Badly show, hosted by Capt'n Cali and Cheetogyrl of the Pink Pearl, will hold a pre-party for Talk Like A Pirate Day on Tuesday, Sept. 14.. Pirate trivia, giveaways and tons of great TropRock Pirate tunes. The station is free to anyone who chooses to listen.
  • HAM radio operator KJ4NUY is planning a "fox hunt" on Talk Like A Pirate Day. He writes "I'll be somewhere in the city limits of Myrtle Beach, SC with a chest of goodies for the first to find me. (I might hold a few dubloons for a second, if I get enough participants.) Arr! I'll answer yer hail if ye talk like a pirate! I might even regale ye with tales of other trackers chasing pirate radio. Listeners may also participate in this event, as no license is required to receive a radio signal; bottle me an email at KJ4NUY@sc.rr.com prior to Sept. 19th or team up with a ham. Licensed operators may check in by email, or on the day of the hunt at 2PM on the 147.120 repeater. I will verify the list of participants and announce the hunt frequency at that time. Start will be between 2:15 to 2:30, and the hunt should conclude no later than 4PM. There is no official start line, so be ready to sail when I hoist the Jolly Roger."

Read on for what else is happening all over the world...

 
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