Who celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day this past Thursday, September 19th?  I sure didn’t.  Talk Like a Pirate Day is becoming a widely known holiday in which participants… well I think the title explains it quite well.  I was reminded by seven different people about the holiday on Thursday, which is more than the number of people who typically call me on Thanksgiving (However less than the number of dumb mass Happy New Years text I get at Midnight).  This isn’t the first made up holiday with no real purpose, IHOP declared February 5th as Pancake Day and Ronald Reagan made July 15th National Ice Cream Day back in 1984 (To be fair he also declared July as Ice Cream Month, finally a month in which I can worship ice cream in my own way).  So who created International Talk Like a Pirate Day? A Famous person like Johnny Depp? A large eyepatch company trying to sell their surplus of stock?  Answer: Two guys playing badminton.  That’s right two guys were playing badminton and for no reason they decided to started a day celebrating this “fun” way of speaking.  The day they were playing, however, was June 6th, and since that day already had something historic happen they simply chose September 19th.

So how did everyone hear about this holiday? For that we will have to blame syndicated columnist, Dave Barry.  The two swashbuckling badmintoneers wrote to Dave Barry who surprisingly spread the word (Slow news day).  The weird part is that Dave Barry reported on this in 2002, but the guys created it in 1995.  Seven years.  These guys celebrated this holiday annually for seven years by themselves (They encouraged their friends to spread the holiday, but it sounds like they didn’t have many takers).

I have no idea how these guys pulled of creating a holiday, maybe they always thought they would be the only people celebrating their scurvy loving celebration.  Maybe it’s okay to have your own personal holiday that you along, and perhaps a few friends, celebrate.  For that reason I declare today, September 21st, National Cartoon Day, a day in which people draw and read cartoons and comics.  Perhaps, I will be the only one celebrating this  holiday in future years, but if you’re reading this on September 21st you have already celebrated this year.