Or, in another vernacular, we are guys, John Baur and Mark Summers.  And that really should be all you need to know about the origins of Talk Like a Pirate Day. We're guys. Not men with responsibility and suits  and power ties.

Once upon a time — on June 6, 1995, to be precise —  we were playing racquetball, not well but gamely. It wasn't our intention to become “the pirate guys.” Truth to tell, it wasn't really  our intention to become anything, except perhaps a tad thinner and healthier,  and if you see our photo, you'd know how THAT turned out. As we  flailed away, we called out friendly encouragement to each other -“Damn,  you bastard!” and “Oh, jeez, my hamstring!” for instance  – as shots caromed away, unimpeded by our wildly swung rackets.
 
On this day, for reasons we still don't quite understand, we started giving our encouragement in pirate slang. Mark suspects one of us might have been reaching for a low shot that, by pure chance, might have come off the wall at an unusually high rate of speed, and strained something best left unstrained. “Arrr!,” he might  have said.
 
Who knows? It might have happened exactly that way.
 
Anyway, whoever let out the first “Arrr!” started something.  One thing led to another. “That be a fine cannonade,” one said,  to be followed by “Now watch as I fire a broadside straight into your yardarm!” and other such helpful phrases.
 
By the time our hour on the court was over, we realized that lapsing into pirate lingo had made the game more fun and the time pass more quickly.  We decided then and there that what the world really needed was a new national holiday, Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Five A's of pirate speak:

    * Ahoy — Hello.
    * Avast — Stand and give attention; listen up.
    * Aye — I heartily agree with everything you said or did.
    * Aye Aye — Yeah, boss, I'll get on that.
    * Aarrr — Not to be confused with Arrgh (a sign of pain), it's a way of announcing yourself to the world, telling everyone you're here and alive.

There is also Advanced Pirate Speak for those who are interested. But for most of us, the only things we need are the Five A's and to add “me hearties” to the end of the occasional sentence.