Put a parrot on your shoulder, strap on a peg leg, hit the rum and start bellowing "Shiver me Timbers" - today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp is not the only over-the-top buccaneer allowed to have fun.
September 19 is your once-a-year chance to don an eye patch, sport a ridiculously large hat and keep on saying "Arrrrr."
It all started back in the 1990s as a cult joke between two American friends - John "Ol Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Capn Slappy" Summers - but really took off when syndicated columnist Dave Barry got to hear about their surreal festival.
"We tap into that need for whimsy in people's lives," Summers says of the 24-hour celebration of quirkiness.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLAPD), which adopted Treasure Island star Robert Newton as its patron saint, now attracts fans from as far afield as Britain and Australia and even boasts a special Wikipedia site on the Internet.
The day even has its own unofficial anthem - American Tom Smith has written and recorded Talk Like a Pirate Day - and Canadian sketch comedy troupe Loading Ready Run produced an educational video on how to swashbuckle with the best of them.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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