Jeopaaaardy!
Talk Like A Pirate Day Inventor Defeated On Jeopardy
By Joseph Friedrichs, 6-27-08
There are only three people in the world, who if they appeared as contestants on Jeopardy!, would I wish for them to fail miserably. That list, in no particular order, would include the following: Jared the Subway mascot; James Dobson the evangelist guru; and Oregon’s own John Baur, the inventor of Talk Like A Pirate Day.
A sanction of my Jeopardy! contestant loserdom was fulfilled Thursday night when Baur appeared on the greatest game show ever created. And although Baur was neither crushed nor maimed on the program, Baur did lose, providing me with a great sense of comfort. In fact, I slept better last night than I have in a month.
I first reported on the dreaded Talk Like A Pirate Day last September when the annual “holiday” came around. In case you were wondering how I felt about the holiday, allow me to sum it up real brief like: It’s the stupidest thing ever conjured by a human brain.
Anyhow, enjoy the weekend and cherish Baur’s defeat with me, from Oregon and beyond.
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Here’s the real story of how "Talk Like A Pirate Day" came into existence:
In 1938, a Louisville dessert chef name Selinsky visited the famed Churchill Downs race track. Selinsky was not only a talented baker, but also a well-known ventriloquist on the Kentucky nightclub scene. Instead of wooden dummies for his ventriloquist skits, Selinsky used his own baked pies as props, often bringing down the house with his “talking pie” sketch.
During Selinsky’s visit to Churchill Downs, he was asked to perform an impromptu ventriloquist act with his pies just before the first horse race. Selinsky appeared at Churchill Downs during one of its public “ride days,” when any native Kentuckian could bring his own horse and enter the races. Selinky was charmed with the idea of a public “ride day,” and worked that premise into his pie skit, with his blueberry and apple pies discussing the strengths and weakness of the various amateur jockeys and their steeds.
Word spread of Selinsky’s pie skit at Churchill Downs on public “ride day,” and the Kentucky locals began referring to the event as the “Talk Like A Pie Ride Day.”
As the decades passed the original phrase “Talk Like a Pie Ride Day” morphed into “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” and the rich history of the original phrase with its pies, ventriloquism, and sweaty horses has been lost. But perhaps that’s for the best.
JonCheever
No real news to report? There's a ton of it. It's hard. Roll up the sleeves. Take aim at real targets. Do the work. Or did you go to school to study how to cover TV?