Pirate words this week. Fun topic. I lived for a few years in Tampa, FL where they have a huge parade and celebration called Gasparilla. This is a celebration of the defense of the town against pirates invading via sea. Pirates [local wealthy business people in full pirate regalia] are everywhere, there is a huge parade and much merriment. My best pirate joke: What type socks do pirates wear? aaaarrrrgyles... [don't forget to roll the r].

From today's email:

TA note -- I've often heard people talk about pirates' "cockney accents."
Wrong! The stereotypical pirate has a Cornish accent, based on the
performance of Long John Silver by actor Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney
version of "Treasure Island". He was from Cornwall, and his over-the-top
performance and native accent are the reason people think that's what a
pirate sounded like. Of course, pirates came from all nationalities. But
the pop culture image is firmly embedded, and Robert Newton is the reason
why.

If this is true, it must mean that in Cornwall everyone talks like a pirate all the time.

No, piracy is not a fun topic. From the International Maritime Organisation's report on armed robbery at sea for April to June 2006:

During the period under review, 5 crew members were killed, 76 crew members were
held hostage, 42 crew members were injured/assaulted, 37 crew members missing and 4 vessels
were hijacked. In several of the incidents reported, the crew were violently assaulted/attacked by
individuals or groups of two to ten persons carrying guns or knives.

http://www.imo.org/includes/blastDataOnly.asp/data_id%3D15189/89.pdf

Are we to understand that on this Talk Like A Pirate Day, people go round threatening each other with murder, maiming, or rape if they refuse to hand over their valuables?

As a child from our bookcase at home I remember a B- novel called :
'De Boekeniers.' For a long time I thought it had to do with 'boeken'(books). Later on I understood it was about pirats and that bucaneer was directly 'Dutchenized' to boekenier in the past.
A milder synonym for pirat/bucaneer in Dutch is zeeschuimer (sea skimmer).Are there more english synonyms?

> Talk Like A Pirate Day

> Long John Silver by actor Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney
version


this is what it's all about, not reality. kinda like Hallowe'en.

From WKP: Perhaps the best-known was Barbarossa (meaning red beard) the nickname of Khair ad Din, who after having been invited to defend the city of Algiers from the Spaniards killed its ruler and seized it in 1510, making it into a major base for privateering, as well as a regent for the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Some of them were renegades or Moriscos. Their usual ship was the galley with slaves or prisoners at the oars. Two examples of these renegades are Süleyman Reis "De Veenboer" who became admiral of the Algerian corsair fleet in 1617, and his quartermaster Murad Reis, born Jan Janszoon van Haarlem. Both worked for the notorious corsair (privateer) Simon the Dancer, who owned a palace. These pirates were all originally Dutch. The Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter unsuccessfully tried to end their piracy.

Raids by Barbary pirates on Western Europe did not cease until 1816, when a Royal Navy raid, assisted by six Dutch vessels, destroyed the port of Algiers and its fleet of Barbary ships

So I found my synonyms: priveteer and corsair and of course I'm proud of the dutch pirat past. (The romantic kind meaning history). Quoting someone else's quote: "I want my history dead. Dead history is written in ink, live history is written in blood."

Living as I do, approx. 650 miles from the nearest seacoast, pirates are not exactly a frequent topic of conversation for me, so I find all this information very interesting. I am still rather shocked when it comes into my awareness that there are pirates now; but then I think, "Well, robbery is robbery, I guess."

I had to look up Morisco; here's Onelook's quick def.:

(a.) Moresque.
(n.) A thing of Moorish origin; as: (a) The Moorish language. (b) A Moorish dance, now called morris dance. Marston. (c) One who dances the Moorish dance. Shak. (d) Moresque decoration or architecture.

(This definition is from the 1913 Webster's Dictionary and may be outdated.)
web page

"No, piracy is not a fun topic."

Shiver me timbers, more flotsam overflowin' yer scuppers!

Come on. COuld you possibly be any more radical Islamicist in your lack of a sense of humor or a sense of proportion.

Food can never be fun topic because thousands choke to death every year. Politics cannot be a fun topic because various political leaders have caused wars. Driving is not a fun topic because of the millions who have died or been injured in automoblie accidents. Fashion is not a fun topic - Versace was murdered, animals are slain for vanity. Even language is not a fun topic because many are killed or injured and lives are otherwise ruined because of words that have been used.

"Are we to understand that on this Talk Like A Pirate Day, people go round threatening each other with murder, maiming, or rape if they refuse to hand over their valuables?"

Yes, that's just what happens.

Is there anything that can be a fun topic or should we all just stay in bed (where, by the way, millions die each year).

Sheesh! Or rather "Aaaar!" Which reminds me:

"Cap'n! Cap'n! The cannibals is coming!"

"Aaarrr, Jim."

"Oh sorry. Capn, Cap'n, the cannibals ARE coming!"

> COuld you possibly be any more radical Islamicist

aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgh. for that bit of popery (har!) you'll walk the plank!
-joe beard

Popery?

If Gregory had any idea of awakening an awareness of the raging intolerance of popular radical Islam (which I think he might have), he is still a late-comer to the show.

Worse than their intolerance and lack of humor is their utter lack of a sense of irony.

"What!? You say I am violent? I will slit the throats of you and your children!"

Ya gotta laugh - even if they are serious.

As a London rabbi voiced when shown the anti-Semitic and holocaust denial "art" gathered in Teheran to rebuke the West for the now infamous Danish cartoon depicting Mohammed (mainly it was purported to show how the West would not tolerate such offences against one of 'its' religions): "Eh, I've seen worse."

To paraphrase somebody who's name I forget: most people would hide the fact that their father is a thief and murderer but brag that their great-grandfather was a pirate.

PS Welcome aboard Jrzee, me hearty!

Quote:

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I had to look up Morisco; here's Onelook's quick def.:

(a.) Moresque.
(n.) A thing of Moorish origin; as: (a) The Moorish language. (b) A Moorish dance, now called morris dance. Marston. (c) One who dances the Moorish dance. Shak. (d) Moresque decoration or architecture.

(This definition is from the 1913 Webster's Dictionary and may be outdated.)
web page

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Hy!Jackie! (which you must have heard a thousand times).
I think Morisco is the Spanish way to say it and Moresque closer to French. The meaning is clear eather way. Let politicions have their wars over words (apoligies for this, regocnition demanded for that, on condition of etc.)Morisco , Moresque, it's Moors (an oldfashioned word anyway) who took the pirat ways, I mean the waters.