DeKALB | Well, shiver me timbers, who would have thought that September 19 was rated ‘Arr’ for being International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

Here’s the fine tale on this pirate booty, matey. It all started with John Baur and Mark Summers of Oregon state, who host www.talklikeapirate.com. They began this tradition in 1995 after a game of racquetball. It wasn’t until early 2002 that Baur e-mailed Dave Barry, the nationally syndicated humor columnist, to get him to bring attention to Talk Like A Pirate Day. Soon after that, the Internet was abuzz with activity about this new holiday for all to have fun with.

Lyssa Liotta, a junior KNPE major, saw something posted on Facebook’s News Feed feature, and felt that it was something really interesting to learn more about. After getting on the Web site, Liotta printed out the lingo to use throughout the day.

“I’ve been talking like a pirate to people I meet on the way to class and with my friends,” Liotta said.

The seafood restaurant chain, Long John Silver’s, has even been observing Talk Like A Pirate Day in good-natured fun. The restaurant in Sycamore, which often gives free pirate hats to customers, saw an increase in hat demand.

“We’ve been trying to talk like pirates today, but we’re not very good at it,” said Katt Clucas, assistant manager at the restaurant at 1690 DeKalb Ave. As of early Tuesday afternoon, the restaurant had already given away more than 500 hats.

Andrew Boerema, a junior computer science/mathematics major at South Dakota State University created a Facebook event group after first learning about it in high school. He decided he would take it up as a personal tradition.

“When I came to college, it was much easier to get people to have fun at the expense of their own image. So many more people participated,” Boerema said. “This year, as far as I know, there are about 200 people from South Dakota State University that are going to participate with me.”

“It gives us a chance to step outside of ourselves and do something fun that we wouldn’t do on a normal basis,” said Sarah Roman, a junior political science major.

Samantha Arbogast, a sophomore pre-physical therapy and computer science major at Kishwaukee Community College thought this event was interesting after first learning about it from a teacher in a class of hers on Monday. “My teacher repeatedly/jokingly stated that pirates are better for the environment,” Arbogast said.

Matthew Rainwater is a Campus Reporter for the Northern Star.