YO HO HO, LANDLUBBERS! Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day
Ahoy, matey! Wednesday, Sept. 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Brush up on your pirate vocabulary, grab your eye patch, get your puffy shirt dry cleaned, and bring a little seafaring fun to your office or classroom.
wife’s birthday (and the only date he could remember besides Christmas and the Super Bowl). In 2002, they pitched the idea to humor columnist Dave Barry, who promoted it in his syndicated column, and the concept quickly spread internationally.
sounded more like Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately, the pirates of the Golden Age didn’t leave behind any YouTube videos to confirm this.
LEARN THE LINGO, LANDLUBBER
THE HISTORY OF THESE SWASHBUCKLING SHENANIGANS
DID PIRATES REALLY TALK LIKE THAT?
Participating in Talk Like a Pirate Day is easy — you just need to know a few key phrases. “Ahoy, matey” means “Hello, friend!” “Blimey, that son of a biscuit-eater hornswaggled me out of me doubloons” means “Darn it, that jerk cheated me out of my money!” “Shiver me timbers, that old salt is three sheets to the wind” means “Wow, that old sailor has had too much beer.” And if a pirate (or your boss) says, “Swab the deck, ye bilge rat, or it’s Davy Jones’ locker for ye!” start mopping the floor immediately.
The holiday began as an inside joke between pals John Baur and Mark Summers in 1995. For reasons not even understood by themselves, they began speaking like pirates while playing racquetball, saying things to each other like, “That be a fine cannonade” (“Nice shot, dude”) and “Now watch as I fire a broadside straight into your yardarm” (“But watch this”). They decided Talk Like a Pirate Day needed to become official, so they chose Sept. 13, which was Summers’
The “pirate-speak” popularized in movies and Disney attractions probably sounds nothing like real pirates did in centuries
past. Today’s swashbuckling phrases delivered in a strong Southwest England accent can be traced back to Robert Newton’s 1950 portrayal of Long John Silver in the movie “Treasure Island.” Historically, English- speaking pirates probably
MnSOM’S MUSIC EQUIPMENT CONNECTION GET TO KNOW SWEETWATER’S LUKE HERIAN
our customers. For a business that is primarily online, that’s almost unheard of these days. You don’t send in generic contact forms or leave messages in general voicemail and hear back from a new person each time, having to repeat yourself during each interaction. That just saves everyone a ton of time and frustration! It’s a very mom and pop approach, but with all of the benefits of a typical online store. WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR PARENTS LOOKING TO BUY SOUND EQUIPMENT FOR THEIR CHILDREN? Learning from my own mistakes as a young musician, and now as a parent, I would say don’t underbuy and don’t overbuy. Sometimes the instinct is to spend very little on a first instrument because you’re uncertain if your child
will continue with it and you don’t want to invest much in that uncertainty. If the instrument is difficult to play, difficult to keep in tune, or just sounds bad, it will be that much harder for a new musician to stay interested. Conversely, I bought my oldest daughter a guitar, an amp, and all of the trimmings way too early. It was too big, too heavy, and too complex for her to even begin to learn. For really young kids, don’t be afraid to start them out with something simple. That could be hand percussion, harmonica, or maybe a ukulele. I’d also encourage parents to ask a ton of questions and learn as much about the equipment as their children are. That will give you a common interest to discuss and also ensure that you know what they’re getting and why.
The Minnesota School of Music has fostered a great relationship with the online music store Sweetwater Sound, giving parents access to exclusive deals on high-quality equipment. We sat down with Luke Herian, a sales engineer with Sweetwater Sound who has sold music equipment to Eric over the years, to get his take on the company as well as some personal tips for how to find the right instrument for your child.
WHAT SETS SWEETWATER SOUND APART FROM THE COMPETITION?
The biggest difference is the fact that we always work one-on-one with
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