CRESTVIEW — Arr, me hearties, there will be no official local recognition tomorrow of International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Still, residents should feel free to observe the lighthearted "holiday" in their own ways, community leaders say.
"It's due to financial cutbacks that we won't be able to have a celebration this year," Mayor David Cadle said jokingly. "But if you want to do it, go ahead."
Cadle punctuated his comment with a hearty, "arrgh," in best pirate fashion, unaware that the word he was seeking was actually "arrr."
"Arrgh," according to International Talk Like a Pirate Day founders Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers and John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur, is "the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin."
Some local schools will use the holiday as an opportunity to make learning fun. Fifth-graders in Glenda Nibert's class at Riverside Elementary will observe the occasion with a special project.
"Our class will be doing a creative writing assignment with Pirate Lingo Vocabulary," Nibert said, adding her students' words list will "set sail with 'arrr' class."
The all-in-fun holiday was founded in 1995 as "a ‘whimsical alternative’ to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing," according to talklikeapirate.com.
"In other words, silliness is the holiday's best selling point."
Humorist Dave Barry brought the holiday to the nation's attention in September 2002, writing in his Miami Herald column, "talking like a pirate will infuse your everyday conversations with romance and danger."
Cadle said that with recent tax rises — for county, city, school and gas — there was no need for the city to encourage more pirates in town.
"We don't need them around 'arrr' streets," Cadle said.
However, as Dave Barry reminded his readers, come tomorrow, "You have the buckles, darn it: Don't be afraid to swash them!"
Want to celebrate, matey?
International Talk Like A Pirate Day is Thursday. Visit www.talklikeapirate.com for more on the holiday’s history, a link to humorist Dave Barry's column and suggestions on how to talk like a pirate.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: International Talk Like a Pirate Day officially unobserved in Crestview