Yarr! It's That Time Again!!!

It's the 19th of September, International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Basic pirate words & phrases:

Ahoy! - “Hello!”
Arrr! – This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. “Arrr!” can mean, variously, “yes,” “I agree,” “I’m happy,” “I’m enjoying this beer,” “My team is going to win it all,” “I saw that television show, it sucked!” and “That was a clever remark you or I just made.” And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!
Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, “Whoa! Get a load of that!” which today makes it more of a “Check it out” or “No way!” or “Get off!”
Aye! - “Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did.”
Aye aye! - “I’ll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over.”
Beauty – The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by “me,” as in, “C’mere, me beauty,” or even, “me buxom beauty,” to one particularly well endowed. You’ll be surprised how effective this is.
Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship.
Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water, but in this context you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer, and we aren’t prepared to be picky about that, either. Call your beer grog if you want. We won’t stop you! Water aboard ship was stored for long periods in slimy wooden barrels, so you can see why rum was added to each sailor’s water ration – to kill the rancid taste.
Lubber – (or land lubber) This is the seaman’s version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution. A lubber is someone who does not go to sea, who stays on the land.

UPDATE: After President Obama launched another tax-the-rich scheme today, a Republican congressman had some choice words for an article in Hotair.com:

Thanks to a couple of obscure fellows named Mark and John who decided using pirate lingo made playing racquetball more fun — and even more thanks to humor columnist Dave Barry who made their antics national news, Sept. 19 (that’s today!) has been “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” since 2002.

No doubt Dave Barry himself would be pleased Barry Obama decided to play along and announce a spectacular tax plan on Sept. 19, of all dates. But so far, the only person who seems to have caught the irony is Republican Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida who today suggested maybe the president doesn’t quite understand the holiday, even though it looks as though he’s captured the spirit of it.

“Perhaps the Pres misunderstood,” Ross tweeted. “It is TALK like a pirate day…not ACT like one. Watch ye purses & bury yr loot, the taxman cometh.” Then, just to be sure followers knew he meant it good-naturedly, he added the hashtag #humor....