Pirates of Pezance Day

(Sure, maybe The Pirates of Penzance should be celebrated on February 29^th, but that’s hard to come by.)  This delightful musical follows Frederic, a pirate apprentice, who is released from his apprenticeship and promptly falls in love with a general’s daughter. However, their love becomes complicated when Frederic learns that he was born on a leap day and so he owes another 63 years of service to the pirates!  How will he be faithful to his oath and his love?

How to commemorate:

• Sing all the songs! (spotify)

Works Cited    

The Pirates of Penzance

Amazon         Barnes & Noble        Worldcat 

Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept 19)

Today is the day when we celebrate the dialect that we all have heaaarrrrrrty feelings about--Talk Like a Pirate Day!  This international event has celebrations all over the earth (though, strangely, all on land…).  Check out their website to find a pirate party or make one of your own known.

How to Commemorate:   

Talk like a Pirate!

If you need help learning the accent and vocabulary, we suggest using Mango, a language learning platform that is available through many public libraries around the US.  If you can’t find it at your library (but seriously, call them first, okay?), you can try the first lesson of any language for free by downloading the Mango app. (Check your app store.)  Mango also has a pirate info page about the course that shows some of the fun.

Watch pirate movies, ye scurvy scum!

• Goonies (1985)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (as many as you can)
• Captain Blood (1935)
• Against All Flags (1952)
• Peter Pan (2003 is one of our favorites)
• Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Read pirate books, ye unholy ballywag!

• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• A General History of the Pyrates, by Daniel Dafoe
• Pirates!, by Celia Rees
• On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers
• Piratica, by Tanith Lee

Search for titles you like at

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Mikey Walsh discovers a treasure map in his attic in Astoria.

In honor of Pirate week (which includes Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day on September 19), we’re featuring stories about pirates to get you in the nautical mood.  For me, pirate movies begin with The Goonies.  On the eve of their eviction from their seaside town, a band of friends goes on a sudden adventure to find hidden pirate treasure and save all of their futures.

Do I really need to say anything more about this?

How to Commemorate:

• Search for hidden treasure (There is still plenty out there!).
• Visit a place that found hidden treasure (like, you know, a museum).
• Invent some gadgets.
• Make a treasure map.
• Quote the movie (especially “Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here!”).

Remember: Goonies never say die!

Works Cited

The Goonies (1985)

Amazon         Barnes & Noble        Worldcat

A Monet is Stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (late Sept)

A group of bungling thieves-for-hire sneak into the museum by hiding in a statue of a horse and later pose as security guards to steal a roomful of Impressionist paintings.  The robbery goes sideways almost immediately, however, when a real guard catches onto them and sets the alarm, locking the gallery.  When the gallery is opened, Monet’s famous painting “San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight,” is missing.  NYPD Detective McCann suspects rebellious and rich Thomas Crown.

 

How to Commemorate:

• Race a sailboat or go gliding or some other luxurious pastime.
• Steal something.
• Put something back.
• Okay, just visit an art museum.

(For those of you who really care about the timing of this post, there is an exchange by two of the security guards who go to investigate the broken air conditioning.  One says, "It would have to be one of the hottest days of the year.”  And the other replies, “Can you believe it’s nearly October?”)

Works Cited

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Amazon         Barnes & Noble        Public Libraries

On Deck: Pirate Week

Tighten your eye patches and polish your wooden legs--next week we be setting sail for Pirate Week. As we’re sure you know, Sept 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we will be featuring swashbuckling tales of adventure throughout the week.

But just which pirate tales will they be? You’ll have to tune in next week. Follow us on our Facebook or twitter pages if you want to be kept in the know. And to offer your humble suggestions. We are open to parlay...

Tally and Shay’s 16th Birthday (Sept 9)

Tally and Shay became friends shortly before their 16^th birthdays (on Sept 9th) when they were supposed to have mandatory cosmetic surgery to make them Pretty and afterward live in New Pretty Town and have a life of parties and fun and glamour.  Instead, Shay runs away to Smoke, a haven for people who refuse to believe such concepts of beauty.  Tally follows Shay shortly after but with… mixed motives.

How to Commemorate:

• Sneak into a party.
• Hoverboard (Ok…skateboard).
• Read a fashion magazine.
• Traditional food: SpagBol (Spaghetti Bolognese)

*Share your photos and celebrations on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Works Cited

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld.

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Harry Potter takes his son to Platform 9 ¾ (1 Sept 2017)

In the final book in the Harry Potter series, we are flashed forward 19 years to the day that we see Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and, okay, Draco too) take their kids to the Hogwarts Express to begin their time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now it so happens that we know the Hogwarts Express always departs on the 1st of September (at 11 AM) and we know the years that the events of Harry’s Hogwarts time took place (see CinemaBLEND for a thorough delineation), AND SO we know that the Potters and Weasley-Grangers (and Malfoys) arrive at Platform 9 ¾ on 1 September 2017.  THIS YEAR!

We have caught up to the future that JK foretold! See where the whole Hogwarts gang is now (literally NOW) thanks to EW.

How to Commemorate

• Go to a train station. Look for a portkey to Platform 9 ¾.
• Wear your Hogwarts house gear. (You have some, right?)
• Walk into a brick wall. But not.
• Throw a Potter party (especially if you missed his birthday).
• Look up boarding schools to send your children to. (As if you parents haven’t done this a hundred times already.)
• Send a student a care package. Brownies are always acceptable.

*Share your photos and celebrations on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Works Cited

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Public Libraries