"It is one day a year when everyone - man, woman and child - is not just allowed but actively encouraged to talk like a pirate for the sheer anarchic joy of it," says Summers, a school social worker from Oregon. Last year ITLAPD was celebrated by more than 19 million people worldwide who spent the day throwing "ahoys" and "me hearties" into their everyday conversation. Which begs the question: why?

"Because it's fun and more than that - it's inappropriate," says Baur, a former science writer. "It's anarchy, like the Marx brothers." Both Baur and Summers admit they remain astonished by the day's ever-growing popularity - particularly considering the day itself started off as a private joke between the two of them.

"We were playing raquetball and one of us reached down for a low ball and let out an 'Arrr'," Summers says. "Had we, in fact, let out a swear word, we might have come up with, 'Talk Like My Foul-Mouthed Cousin Roger Day!' I think it worked out better this way, though. More people can easily identify with pirates than they do with my foul-mouthed cousin."

For a few years the day was, understandably celebrated solely by Baur and Summers. "ITLAPD initially consisted of us calling our other friends at work, yelling 'Arrr!' into the phone and hanging up," Summers says. The turning point came when Baur e-mailed US Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Dave Barry in 2001 about their idea. Barry mentioned ITLAPD in one of his syndicated columns and before you can say "scurvy", ITLAPD had spread around the world.

So what about the date? Is there any reason they chose September 19. Sort of. September 19 is Summer's ex-wife's birthday. The date was stuck in his head and since he "wasn't using it any more" he thought it would be easy to remember. And so an international sensation was born. As for Summer's ex, she's called him and said she's fine with the notoriety.

Seven years after that fateful racquetball injury, there's a website (talklikeapirate.com) and a book, Well Blow Me Down: A Guy's Guide to Talking Like a Pirate.

"Our book offers the last best hope for world peace and understanding. Wait. No. That's not right," Summers says. I go to Baur. "It includes a lot more information on how to talk like a pirate, how to get a pirate name, how to throw a pirate party and cook like a pirate. And some of it is even probably accurate, although we've said from the beginning that accuracy was way down on our list of priorities."

As if having a website, flogging a book and doing interviews with everyone from CNN to the BBC wasn't enough, Baur and Summers also receive constant letters and e-mails from people all around the world. One of the most interesting e-mails the two men received was from a student from Ivory Coast in Africa.

"He wrote to us to say that September 10 was a national holiday celebrating the birthday of a dictator and he was going to replace that forced celebration with talking like a pirate," Summers say. "We've also heard from a research team in Antarctica who were celebrating ITLAPD at their station."

So let's say you're convinced. You're going to throw caution to the wind and on Monday you're going to embrace your inner pirate. How does one actually get started?

"The easiest way to get started is to add the words 'me hearties' to sentences," Baur says. "Like, 'I'll have a pepperoni pizza, me hearties'. Or 'Is the bus here yet, me hearties?' Then add a few 'Arrrs!' and 'Ahoys' and 'Avasts' and the rest will just start coming to you naturally."

Would wearing an eye-patch help?