Not many days can claim they started with a friendly game on a racquetball court, but Sept. 19, Talk Like a Pirate Day, has that and a global following to show for it. What began as a private joke between two friends in Albany, Oregon, in 1995 found its worldwide audience through a single syndicated column in 2002. Behind the “arrr” and the eye patches, something is making this day work, and it runs deeper than the silliness suggests.
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