Talk Like a Pirate post-mortem
It seems to come earlier and earlier every year . . .
I was remiss in not reminding and encouraging my reader(s) of the 19th--I've been quite busy for the past few days grading student writing ("Arrrgh! Th' freshness of yer prose fills me head like th' salt-air when I stand on th' bow, the ship under full sail !" "Avast! Revise this scurvy mess you call writing!") and, yes, I confess it, making up some talk-like-a-pirate jokes to try out on students and colleagues--like this one (my best one, just to give you a sense of the quality of said jokes), inspired by the all-O.J.-all-the-time mode Fox News (alas, the news network of choice where I work) has gone into:
Q: "What's a pirate lawyer's favorite court proceeding?"
A: "Arrrgh-raignment!"
(That one's yours, Randall and Belle--no need to thank me.)
Someone asked me where my eyepatch was, which I frankly hadn't considered--props I mean. The inherent charm of International Talk Like a Pirate Day is that it is in its essence a come-as-you-arrrrgh! (get it?) affair. No worries about secularizing or commercializing it; no concerns about offending non-adherents (though, as I found, they'll laugh at you more than with you); no shopping; no having to clean up after the guests leave; no wondering why the heck we kill ourselves worrying about whose family we'll visit this time around. But maybe it's not a "real" holiday, then: maybe holidays should create at least a little existential tension in the celebrants to get them to, you know, think about not just what is being observed but also why.
But, you know, there are times when I could do with a bit less existential tension in my life; I think that's true of most of us. TLAPD more than fills the bilge--er, the bill.
Anyway: I hope TLAPD didn't sneak up on your stern this year the way it almost did me. Feel free to use the comments section to tell the world how you celebrated this year (or, alternately, to promise that you will next year).
