International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, a 1718 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris depicting the battle between Blackbeard and Lieutenant Robert Maynard in Ocracoke Bay. After a furious battle, Blackbeard was killed and his head was cut off, eventually being tied to the bowsprit of Maynard's ship, where it hung as proof of the infamous Blackbeard's death. Upon returning to his home port of Hampton, Maynard had Blackbeard's head placed on a stake near the mouth of the Hampton River as a warning to other pirates.

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International Talk Like a Pirate Day,
Puzzle by Fred Piscop, edited by Will Shortz

If you subscribe to The New York Times on-line Premium Crosswords, you are probably familiar with the monthly bonus puzzle. For the month of September, the title of this shipshape and seaworthy crossword is “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” featuring almost thirty clues with the word “pirate“, and more than a few pirates in the answers.

Capt. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, became feared as he plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. His hair is woven with flaming fuses to increase his fearsome appearance. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) — Pirates Who's Who.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday created in 1996 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, matey!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy. The holiday is a major observance in the religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. More on Wikipedia, HERE.  For the talk, HERE.

Across — 1. TV network with the reality show “Pirate Master”CBS; 4. Jolly ROGER (pirate flag); 9. Female English pirate Mary READ; 18. SETON Hall University Pirates; 19. “Pirates of the Caribbean” star Johnny DEPP; 21. Pirate’s assent, AYE; 24. Pirate, as software, STEAL; 32. High SEAS (pirate’s domain); 36. Pirates’ uprising, MUTINY; 44. Pirate’s mooring site, COVE; 45. Pirate Francis Drake’s title, SIR; 6. Treasure Island” pirate LONG John Silver; 54. Pgh. Pirates and N.Y. Mets, NLERS; 67. Legendary Pirates slugger Ralph KINER; 73. Pirate’s take, LOOT; 74. Black PEARL (ship in “Pirates of the Caribbean”).

Down — 1. CROW’S-nest (pirate’s lookout spot); 9. Pirate RADIO (unregulated broadcasts); 14. Many modern-day pirates, SOMALIS; 29. Pirate ship, ROVER; 33. EYE patch (stereotypical pirate’s wear); 38. “TERRY and the Pirates” (Milton Caniff comic strip); 44. Pirate’s sword, CUTLASS; 46. Pirate’s punishment unit, LASH; 48. “Treasure Island” pirate BEN Gunn; 53. Pirate’s “Halt!”, AVAST; 55. Flynn who played the pirate Captain Blood, ERROL.

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