‘Talk Like A Pirate Day’ still gets ‘aye’ vote in Lake Worth
Check your calender. What’s Sept. 19? It’s Wednesday, right?
Yes, but it’s also “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” in Lake Worth.
Created in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers, two Oregon residents who proclaimed the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. An observer of this holiday, for instance, would greet friends not with “Hello, everyone!” but with “Ahoy, maties!” or “Ahoy, me hearties!”
Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry liked the idea so much he promoted it in his nationally syndicated column in 2002. “There are so many practical benefits that I can’t even begin to list them all,” Barry wrote.
City Manager Michael Bornstein, a big pirate himself, brought the idea to the city when he was hired in 2012.
Not everyone loved it. Jo-Ann Golden, a former city commissioner, wrote Bornstein, saying she didn’t find the proclamation funny, calling it “an insult to the people of the city of Lake Worth.” She suggested a better proclamation would have been Constitution Day on Sept. 17, the day the Constitutional Convention delegates signed the U.S. Constitution. Kevin D. Thompson
She added that pirates rob, murder and kidnap people for ransom.
Bornstein wrote Golden back, saying, “I’m so sorry you find this fun, silly proclamation anything more than that,” he said. “I could easily become consumed with a sense of over correctness in almost everything involved in government. However, I refuse to become devoid of all the wonderful human emotions including, most importantly, humor.”
Mayor Pam Triolo remembers the time well.
“There was a lot of controversy over this when the city manager did it,” she said. “I thought it was strange I got my first national attention on Talk Like A Pirate Day.”
Triolo said the city was going through a rough period during that time and not everybody felt like laughing.
“We were just trying to introduce a little fun into our somewhat serious meeting and adding a little levity to the situation,” she said. “He’s always been called a pirate by friends and he has adapted to the pirate’s life and he took a liking to this day... to encourage camaraderie.”
City Commissioner Herman Robinson called Bornstein a “serious” pirate.
“The day is nothing very serious, but I suppose Michael will be doing his thing,” Robinson said.
Commissioner Omari Hardy said he expects to wear a pirate hat on the day.
“It’s a fun thing we do in Lake Worth that’s a little unique,” he said. “Michael is way into this.”
Bornstein declined to talk to The Palm Beach Post.
Argh!