Pirates! Did You Miss Talk Like A Pirate Day?

Okay, so I missed International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Because that's how we roll, here.  Fashionably late.  Setting trends, not chasing them.

[whispering] She had no clue, did she?

[whispering back] Not even a tiny one.

I do, however, love me some pirates.  Kittehs wearing pirate hats kind of pirates.  The nicely washed, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow Disney-style clean kinda pirates.

Romance hero pirates who are actually loyal servants of the Crown and noblemen in disguise  (not, however, the rape-y kind of romance hero pirates).

My current main character, Lexy, thinks of herself as a sexy pirate gal.  She accents her costume  with hand-knitted red-and-white striped stockings, for Halloween, and then recycles 'em for the ugly sweater parties at Christmas.

She even named her Prius the Black Pearl, and not for the vibrator line.

And yet, somehow, I missed Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Even though it's my sister's birthday, and her husband could definitely pass for a pirate.  He even has his own sailboat, and tattoo.

By the way, does anyone really know how pirates talked?  Did they actually go around saying "Aaargh, matey," swilling rum and collecting parrots?

Talk Like a Pirate Day Trivia from the Atlanta Examiner:

• Actor Robert Nixon is known as the “Patron Saint of Talk Like a Pirate Day.” The actor portrayed pirates in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, the 1954 film Long John Silver, and the 1952 film Blackbeard, the Pirate.
• The archetypal pirate grunt "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!") first appeared in fiction as early as 1934 in the film Treasure Island starring Lionel Barrymore.
• It has been speculated that the rolling "rrr" has been associated with pirates because of the location of major ports in the West Country of England, drawing labor from the surrounding countryside.
• One of the most influential books on popular notions of pirate speech was Treasure Island, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• When the wind blows hard on a wooden ship, the timbers literally rattle. This is a cause for surprise and concern ... therefore, "Shiver me timbers" is an expression of surprise.

Did you ever notice during a swordfight the parrots magically disappear?  Where do they go?

If you fancy yourself a true pirate expert, pirate trivia quizzes here will test your skill.

Anyway, here for your enjoyment is some great Pirate Music, from the amazingly wonderful Rodrigo y Gabriela (with a little Han Zimmer sprinkled in). 

I'm looking at it this way - I am not two days late for Talk Like A Pirate Day, I am 364 days early.  (See, I didn't forget about Leap Year in 2012.)

And for more fun and frolic, do not you forget about my special chat with romance author Liza Hendrix here this Monday.  She's bringing prizes!

Did you miss out on Talk Like A Pirate Day, too?

Or were you all over that like a lusty pirate on a buxom wench?

What was your best pirate line?