Ahoy, Me Hearty, It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Here in the Children's Department of the Port Jefferson Free Library, we celebrate all the big holidays of the year. New Year's, the Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving.

But, we also like to shine a light on some of the lesser known holidays like Squirrel Appreciation Day (January 21), National Peanut Butter Month (November), National Grouch Day (October 15).

It is in this tradition that we announce the celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19.

This is the one day all year when it is acceptable, even encouraged, to double up on your adjectives (pirates never say "never", they say "No nay ne'er"), drop all your final g's (resulting in words like "readin' " and "writin' ") and your v's ("ne'er", "o'er") and always speak in the present tense ("I be thinkin' about readin' ").

In addition to the vast array of pirate-related materials available and on display, this year the Library is making available, for a limited time, an actual course in Pirate through it's Mango Languages link. Simply go to the Library's homepage, www.portjefflibrary.org, click on "Learn a Language" and select "Use Mango from Inside the Library" if you are using one of our in-house computers, or "Use Mango from Outside the Library" if using your home computer.

You will be asked for your library barcode (found on the back of your card) and a password.  Then, select "Pirate" from the list of available languages. You will be sounding like a native before you can say "yo ho ho!"