Talk Like a Pirate Day 2011

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:

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003

We're always interested in hearing about pirate events 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 2011

On line
In the media
More media responses can be found here

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

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." But still no Doodle, alas ...
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).
Tweet like a Pirate for one week only with a special, pirate-ized version of SwiftKey X, an Android-to-Twitter app from TouchType. Try it out here.!
Another fine app for Tweetin' Like A Pirate: That Can Be My Pirate Tweet
If yer preferred social network, blog, forum or letter to yer granny ain't equipped to translate, you can use Post Like A Pirate (today or any day) to turn yer post into proper pirate talk!

On-line:

Don't forget to check out our new Ustream channel on Sept. 19. for special, live video streams from the Pirate Guys themselves (assumin' they figger out the technology)
Lookin' for some shipmates for Talk Like A Pirate Day pillagin' and plunderin'? Our mate Cap'n Deadfish the Rubber Duck has set up a special TLAPD category on Meetups Everywhere. Just go to www.meetup.com/talklikeapirate, sign up, list yer event and send out an invite (or post it to our FaceBook page!) And don't forget to tell the webwench about yer plans!
American Girl Doll Collectors are at it again and the members are having a ball! For the 5th year in a row our membership(3,000+) is celebrating TLAPD. Again we have changed the forum and collectors around the globe are crafting, changing user names, and chatting it up in pirate speak. Our wee bonny plastic lasses are in on the fun too!
Arrrrrby's slapped a Talk Like A Pirate Day video up on their YouTube channel
History.com, the History Channel's Website, ran a great feature comparing historical pirates to the modern mythic version, and even providing an historic glossary of such phrases as "shiver me timbers"!
The National Geographic: "Talk Like a Pirate Day" Busted: Not Even Pirates Spoke Pirate" (we coulda told 'em that...)
The folks at kaneva.com, a free virtual world, will be talkin' and interactin' like pirates on Sept. 19. "Thank you in advance for such a great site and hours of fun." - Mrs. Capt. Hartley
Mashable reviews five free Pirate Apps for yer iPhone.
SkyScanner Flight Search is featuring an on-site treasure hunt and ‘tweet like a pirate’ competition, along with "the best beaches to be shipwrecked on."
Portfolio.com ran a feature on How to Be a Business Pirate from Best Buy's GeekSquad.

Blog - and Tweet, and podcast - Like A Pirate:

If ye spot - or write - a blog about TLAPD, let us know! Ditto Tweets, etc.

Follow the official International Talk Like A Pirate Day fan page on FaceBook.
As usual, Dave Barry (Our Close Personal Friend and Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author, as we likes t'call him) and his minions and followers blogged like and about pirates all day today.
Bar None blogger Mark B. offered a poem for Talk Like A pirate Day: Teresa the Moroccan Pirate Girl.
Writer Barbara Silkstone, author of Wendy and the Lost Boys, a comic contemporary spin on Peter Pan, featured TLAPD on her Sept. 19 blog.
Cap'n Justin planned a special ITLAPD podcast on www.cantankerousoldcoots.com and www.justinsbrainpan.com.
At Double-Jointed Life, Gina blogged like a pirate.
GrinningBeggar has put together a most excellent playlist for his Talk Like A Pirate Day podcast over on Pod-O-Matic.
At GrowingKidsTherapy, pediatric speech pathologist Elizabeth Voessler blogs "Arrrr, Matey, or How I spent my summer as a pirate princess."
Over at Savings.Com, they blogged pirate-friendly recipes for TLAPD. Honey cake and bumboo, anyone? Good tips, too: "Eat with your fingers. Utensils weren't really standard practice on pirate ships. Who needs them? There's dishwashing at the end of the night that way!"
Excellent news: The Theme Show host ishtarandromeda has resurrected her classic 2006 and 2007 Talk Like A Pirate Day shows from the digital dustbin, once again making the best pirate playlists we've come across available fer yer listening pleasure. Perfect soundtrack for a pirate parrrrty!
And the Kids Music Planet Blog has a special Talk Like A Party podcast full of pirate songs for kids!
The Musical Depreciation Society ("We Play It For Laughs") is playing comic pirate songs all week long, through Sept. 26.
Sabotage Times paid tribute to Robert Newton, "The man who taught the world how to talk like a pirate" (and Patron Saint of TLAPD)
Craig's Scurvy Rock Sunday podcast for TLAPD had a fine pirate playlist.
Want to put yer own pirate playlist together? Silicon Valley DJ Pol vanRhee has a great list o' the classics.
The Undead Bar Association offered up a new sea shanty for Talk Like A Pirate Day, with an appropriately ghostly theme.
Women of G+, an email newsletter for, well, women who are part of the early adopter Beta test for the new Google+ social network, featured our very own Webwench, Jezebel, as its Profile o' the Week!

Piratized

It's become a tradition for lots o' Web sites to "go pirate" for the day. Let us know if ye spot one!

Laughterpiece Theater, a comedy duo dedicated to "MST-ing" vintage films via YouTube, does it pirate-style to the classic Robert Newton film, "Long John Silver" (yes, the whole movie) for Talk Like A Pirate Day:
As part of the online celebration for Talk Like a Pirate Day, LiveJournal infused the homepage with a little pirate-friendly wording and ran a contest. 45 random LJ users who answered the Writer's Block, arrr, Scrawl question (tell us your favorite pirate-themed joke) on the homepage were eligible to win episode one of TellTale's "Tales of Monkey Island" game. The 5 favorite pirate jokes chosen by the staff received a free copy of the complete game.
Thoughthammer.com is Thoughthammarrrrr for the day, and piratized from stem to stern.

Game like a pirate

We expect to see pirate action on WoW and elsewhere in the gamesverse- but we're too busy to game, so we count on you to let us know.

For the second year running, our clever mate Carrrrrson Morton has put together an Official International Talk Like A Pirate Day Game, featuring wee Flash representations o' Team Pirate and friends. Play it free on Kongregate Games.
Bubblenauts: The Hunt For Jolly Roger's Treasure (from indie game-maker Ted Valkov right here in TLAPD's home state of Oregon). The first hour of play is free. They've got a Facebook page, too.
GarfieldGames.com celebrated TLAPD again this year with free pirate themed puzzles and word games.
Legend of the Green Dragon, an online text-based role-playing game, had a module that kicked in on Sept. 19 and translated everyone's words into Pirate! Among the LOtGD sites planning to game like pirates is http://www.kalisiin.com.
Lightwood Games has an iPhone game "Face Rivals" - a silly quiz game where answering questions lets you slap stickers on your friends faces. The game includes a pirate themed pack . On Sept. 19, they did a one-day giveaway of the "premium" version including the pirate gubbins (and a few others) for free!
XBox UK promoted ITLAPD with a cool banner on its home page and some fine pirate booty to dress up yer avatar!
Let It Ride League, a fantasy sports site , has a new game "Pirate World Cup." Free to enter - choose 8 territories and they battle it like true sea dogs over ten sailings.
"The Lord of the Rings Online has a pirate week every year... starts tomorrow. Not officially a TLPD event but I don't think it is coincidence either. Stop by Landroval Server and say ARRR to Merrydew or Eija, the game is Free to Play." - Merrydew Sweetblossom More information here.
Pirates of the New Horizon is a new video game, still under development by Exit Strategy Entertainment, but the makers have put up a wee Talk Like A Pirate Day tribute video to give swashbucklers a sneak preview. Nicely done, lads!
Telltale Games offered a 70% discount on the pirate game classic, "Tales of Monkey Island" for Talk Like A pirate Day
And for an almost comprehensive list of pirate-themed games, EverybodyPlays is the winner!

Pirate Apps

Each year brings new pirate apps for the Android, iPhone, etc. Here are the latest we've heard of:

uPirate - A new Android app, especially for Talk Like A Pirate Day, provides pirate captions for your camera-phone snaps.
PixelsOfEight (best company name EVER) has just released Swivelgun, a pirate-themed shootup game for the Android, soon available for iOS.
aRgh, a free iPhone/iPod app that spits back yer words in pirate-talk.
Fat Cat Pirate Chat - Talk, text, and tweet like a pirate, with rapid-fire buccaneering broadsides, and snappy corsair comebacks. Just as importantly, the interface is based on the developers' work in assistive technology, so folks with communication disabilities can join in the fun!
Penelope the Purple Pirate storybook app is sale on the iTunes store through Sept. 20 from $1.99/$2.99 HD to $.99 for both versions in support of Talk Like a Pirate Day. Polka Dots Publishing and storybook app developer PicPocket Books is offering ita educational iPad storybook app at a fraction o' the normal price in honor of The Day.
Pirate Fleet for Friends is an iPhone pirate gaming app from United Toys that's getting some good buzz.

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?
Cap'n Dan and the Scurvy Crew, the official rap/hiphop artists of International Talk Like A Pirate Day (because we declare them so), have a new "greatest hits" album and a pair of instant holiday classics, "Rap Like A Pirate" and "Ninja Hater."
Candina put together a nice little webcomic that expresses what Talk Like A Pirate Day means to so many of us.

TLAPD promotions, contests, sales and miscellany

When Mystery writer Laurie King's publisher was trying to set up the publication date and surrounding events for her next novel, she writes, "I said they could choose what they wanted--just so I had at least one event on Sept 19. Because the name of the book? Pirate King. And Sept 19th? My birthday." As it turns out, the grand finale of her book tour fell on Sept. 19, with winners of various contests announced at Denver's venerable Tattered Cover bookstore.
Romance writer Patricia Leever is releasing a new novel, Cat O' Nine Tails - a historical romance about a female pirate captain - on Aug. 30, and planning fun stuff on her website to celebrate TLAPD. She's also runnin' a Twitter contest on Sept. 19 to win an ebook copy & some swag. On Sept. 19 she asked folks to tweet their best pirate pick-up lines to @omnitraci or @patricialeever for a chance to win the booty!
Through Sept. 19, Amazon.com offered the new Kindle edition of Keith Thompson's Pirates of Pensacola (which Ol' Chumbucket has called "one of the two funniest novels I've ever read") for just 99 cents, in honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Voice actor Chris Hendrie has produced an audiobook of the original R.L. Stevenson Treasure Island, performing 16 different pirate voices (including, of course, Long John Silver). For Talk Like A Pirate Day, he's offering a limited-time download of the whole book for only $5.99 from Sept. 19, 2011 through Sept. 19, 2012 (!) at http://chrishendrie.com/audiobooks.html
Audio4Fun.com offered discounts and piratical "treasures" for its VoiceChanger software for Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Australia - "Lombard The Paper People are a party store located nationally through out Australia. One of our biggest selling range is a our pirate party theme. On the 19th of September, all stores will be participating in International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Staff members will be dressed up as pirates and will speak in Pirate (to the best of their ability!) Customers are encouraged to join in the fun, for every customer who speaks pirate will in return receive a free eye patch. A fun day for customers and staff to enjoy." - Cap'n Olivera G.
Black Sails is a new UK vendor offering what look to be high-quality pirate, gothic and steampunk garb and accessories - launching their online store on Talk Like A Pirate Day 2011!
Bookaholic bookstores in Wichita, KS, offered 20% off coupon for anyone who comes in dressed like a pirate or just talking like one on Sept. 19.
CafePress, home o' the Official International Talk Like A Pirate Day booty store, promoted pirate gear on its home page in the days leading up to the holiday.
Cigar Captain offered a special Talk Like A Pirate Day assortment of fine cigars - and askin' for photos of cigar-lovers celebrating the holiday with cigar in hand!
For TLAPD, Merge Records gave away the terrific 2008 Lambchop song, "National Talk Like A Pirate Day," and also discounting all Lambchop tunes and albums (on iTunes and in the Merge store).
Pirates Rule, a fine little Lego video on YouTube
The rPlank - "rPlank™ be Long, rPlank™ be Planky. rPlank™ goes anywhere and lasts forever. (Not, apparently a real product. But a damned fine concept! and ye can buy the Instruction Manual.)

In the media

Print and Web

The New York Times Monday Crossword for Sept. 19 was based on Talk Like A Pirate Day! (Answers here - don't peek if ye want to work the puzzle yerself!)
The Christian Science Monitor instructed readers in how to piratize their FaceBook pages and Google searches - and then piratized their own story about the European debt crisis (we love "US Department of Booty).
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a great story about the pirate skirmish aboard the Tall Ship Gazela
Wired magazine's Danger Room: How to Talk Like A Pirate in His Native Somali
The Californian wrote about a pirate dog and his person who spent TLAPD cheering patients at a Salinas hospital
Pittsburgh Morning Sun - Great little feature about a grade-school TLAPD event.
The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal covered Washburn University's TLAPD celebrations
The Pirate Guys penned "10 reasons to be a pirate" for Fantasy magazine!

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!)

NBC Washington covered the pirate scene in the nation's capital and elsewhere
Michael Jenkins does a morning show for Comcast Sports Network in Washington, D.C., and managed to ... well, we'll just let you watch it.
Cap'n Corbin, the Magical Pirate appeared on local TV i n Ontario, Can. on Sept. 19. Great work, mate!.
In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, Abbie Thomas and science colleague Paul Willis talked about scurvy on ABC radio in Adelaide, Australia at 2.30pm local time.
ABC Action News in Tampa got in on the TLAPD action. Here's a clip of their morning anchor attemptin' the lingo.
"Me name be Captain Jack Gonzo and I be the DJ of The Saxon Files on CoogRadio.com. It is a student run radio station for the University of Houston. On the 19th I will be having a special Talk Like A Pirate Day show from 1pm-3pm...maybe more if I be able to keelhaul the next shift. We are available only online at coogradio.com which means everyone can join in on the fun. I will playing such bands as The Pirates Charles, Alestorm, The Pyrates Royale, Captain Dan & The Scurvy Crew, and many more.
DJ Boffles, on Dark Militia Radio, plans special TLAPD programming for the station's gamer listeners; last year (on another internet radio station), he organized activites in Eve Online; this year he's hoping to draw in WoW players, too.
The Disney Channel once again celebrated ITLAPD, this time with a marathon o' Neverland Pirates.
From the shores o' Lake Chaplain in Vermont USA, The Radiator be broadcastin' hearty Chanteys from all corners o' the seven seas actually ON Talk Like A Pirate Day herself. Tune in me maties, ta www.theradiator.org (or The Radiatarrrrrr" if ye prefer) Monday 5-7pm E.S.T. Yer requests-in-a-bottle can be floated over ta vtradiocelt@gmail.com.
Beachfront Radio aired a special TLAPD show, featuring an interview by Cap'n Cali of the Pink Pearl with our own Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket! Catch it on the Web during the Sept. 19 Amish Beach Party show with DJ Jeff Allen, 11 am to 1 pm Pacific time.
Speaking of interviews, one or both of the Pirate Guys were heard live or on tape at
- Before Sept. 19:
- Gold Radio Network, UK
- WSWR Mansfield Ohio, Ed Gutchall
- Ross Brittain "Mornings, 98.1" WOGL-FM /Philadelphia, The Ross Brittain Report
- Y106 Indiana Tonya Haze
- CBS Radio
- Perth Australia, 6PR Perth (live Sept. 18.)
- MORE FM Auckland New Zealand
- Australian Broadcast Corp Radio, Ballarat Australia
- 2GB radio in Sydney, Australia's No. 1 radio station
- Sept. 19, (PDT) 9 a.m. EST, Jim Polito, News Talk 580AM/94.9FM Paxton, MA
- Sept. 19, 10 a.m. EDT, Bill and Marla on KEZR the mix
- Sept. 19, 11:30 a.m. EDT Good Morning Sacramento, KOVR Sacto television,
- Sept. 19,8:45 p.m. PDT KGO Radi News in S.F.
- Sept. 19, ABC Radio Perth (Cap'n Slappy)