Prepare to go about!

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Update! If you live in Chicago, me shipmate Carolyn Crimi will be at Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park, 1:00 for a Talk Like A Pirate Day book signing! You can walk the plank and get a free tattoo! Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates is…

League

Three miles—roughly the distance a person can walk in an hour. As the sea-shanty Spanish Ladies tells it: We'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas Until we reach soundings in the…

Buccaneer

A pirate. The earliest pirates of the Caribbean were newly-arrived French woodsmen who preserved meat by curing it slowly over a smoky fire so it would last a long time (this was before refrigerators). In the native Carib dialect, boucan was…

Grog

Rum diluted with water. On long voyages, sailors might contract scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Ship's doctors eventually realized there is lots of Vitamin C in lemons, so they'd make sure everybody drank their lemon juice by…

Jolly Roger

The black pirate flag with skull & crossed bones.  The earliest pirates—French filibustiers—simply hoisted a red flag to announce their piratical intentions.  It's not hard to imagine one of the crew darkly describing the flag as "un…

The return of the dread Salty Carrot

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Alphabet Trail and Tales in Pittsburgh's Frick Park was a blast yesterday—the Salty Carrot was dragged out of drydock and assembled at the big Blue Slide pavilion.  We had glorious weather, too.  We read Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates…

Big doings

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This evening is the grand opening of Graffiti Gallery—that's in the beautiful Transit Building, Oil City, where I have a studio—from 6:00 - 9:00.  Come join us! Tomorrow morning I'll be performing at Alphabet Trail & Tales in Frick…

Crazed Chicken Pirates in Pittsburgh

Come and join me aboard the dread Salty Carrot! I'll be at Alphabet Trail & Tales Saturday morning, September 11th in Frick Park—that's in Pittsburgh, Pa.  I'll be reading Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates and painting and leading…