Campus, community host Talk Like a Pirate Day founder

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: 907-474-7902
09/17/09

Fairbanks might be hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean, but that won’t foil the full-scale pirate invasion this weekend.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and local community will be the official site for International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept. 19, complete with a visit by Talk Like a Pirate Day co-founder Mark "Cap’n Slappy" Summers. Summers will be participating in a variety of public appearances and events around the community and on the UAF campus Sept. 18-19.

Summers’ visit to Fairbanks will culminate with a live on-stage radio show from 6-7p.m. on Sept. 19 in the Salisbury Theatre. The show will be broadcast live on KSUA 91.5 FM, the UAF student radio station. The event is open to the public and will feature musical performances, pirate trivia and a pirate panel with UAF history professor Terrence Cole and his twin brother, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner columnist Dermot Cole. Attendees to the show are strongly encouraged to come dressed as a pirate. While admission is free, the event will be a fundraiser for the UAF Honors Program and donations will be accepted at the door. People outside Fairbanks can listen to the live radio show on KSUA-FM at www.ksua.org.

"This is truly a unique opportunity for the Fairbanks community, the university and specifically the UAF Honors Program, " said community member Charles Lemke. Lemke, who is orchestrating Summer’s visit to Fairbanks, said he was impressed with how many people in the community and on campus came together.

"It has a huge following," he said. "We want people to put on their eye patches and polish up their peg legs and come give Cap’n Slappy a good following wherever he goes."

On Sept. 18, Summers will be appearing on local radio stations, making a visit to the Santa Claus House in North Pole, participating in a book signing at Gulliver’s Books and then venturing to Silver Gulch Brewery for its Oktoberfest celebration. On the morning of Sept. 19, Summers will be enjoying a pirate’s breakfast and conducting a pirate linguistics class with students in the UAF Honors Program.

"The students in the Honors Program have been celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day for over five years," said Channon Price, director of the Honors Program. "Most of them don’t need an official occasion to let their inner pirates come to the surface, but the steadily growing recognition of the event means they don’t have to explain why they dressed up the Charles Bunnell statue on campus with an eyepatch."

Following the visit with the honors students, Summers will participate in a book signing and festivities at Barnes and Noble Booksellers. After the radio show, attendees are encouraged to join Summers at a Contra Dance at the Wood Center Ballroom. The dance is free to the public and begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, visit their Web site at www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html.

CONTACT: Channon Price, UAF Honors Program director, at 907-474-6106 or cpprice@alaska.edu. Charles Lemke at 907-388-4981 or soview@yahoo.com.

SJM/9-17-09/045-10