Mission

Who, me? Speaking of which, I haven't updated this in a awhile. In fact, I may forget some of them it's been so long... Since we last talked, there has been the professor: Then there was Billy Bones from Lost in Space: And myself, with Glasses, courtesy of Michelle: Then me with my Actual 100% Real Mug, regardless of what Stynky said: And of course we had Tom Servo mugging as a pirate: Followed by the pirate Weeble: Next was the Disney wheelman: And a man wrestling a goat from the Smithsonian Bones Exhibit: Next was the Stikfas pirate skeleton that Duchess sent me in our gift exchange: Followed by this C&H panel: Which brings us to the current one, which is a reference to the title our esteemed forum leader has plastered me with:

Oh, this is almost too charming for words. (It reminds me of the picture in the old D&D Monster manual.) Enjoy! “CHAPTER NINETY-TWO. On incision for the worm arising beneath the skin, called ‘the cattle disease.’ [Editor’s note: Round-worm infection seems to answer to the clinically characteristic description of the complaint. Classical authors pass it over.] This complaint is called by us in some regions ‘the cattle disease’ since it frequently happens to cattle. It is in fact a small solitary worm generated between the skin and the flesh, that creeps all over the body, both up and down; it can be felt as it creeps from one part to another until it breaks out at a place where it can break through the skin, and out it comes. It arises from the putrefaction of certain humours as do worms, round-worms and gourd-worms in the abdomen. Part of the harm that may be expected of it is that when it creeps about the body and goes up to the head and reaches the eye it may make an opening in the eye and come out and destroy the eye; this frequently happens. If you wish to treat this and extract it, it must be done while it is creeping about and can be felt. You must tie a tight tourniquet above and below it, then cut down upon it and extract it. But if it burrows into the tissues and you cannot locate it, then apply the actual cautery to the place until you have burnt the worm. The greatest damage to be feared from it is damage to the eye, as we have said. So if you see that it has entered the head and is near the eye, then bind a strong bandage over the forehead beneath it, then cut down upon it and draw it out. It is important also for the patient to take care to cleanse his body with laxative medicines from all corrupt and evil humours. He should also avoid all foods giving rise to putrefaction.” (Spink & Lewis, Albucasis, p. 604)

Frappr appears to have gone the way of all things. I am going to unpin this so that it can sink into oblivion since the website has left us.

I didn't know you had a sailboat! Very cool. You should bring it down to PiP if you can figure out the details.

While there are events that you need to belong to a crew to shoot and eat and whatever, there are at least as many events (and quite a few more from my experience) where you don't need to belong. I have personally yet to see a "crew only" event that was so much fun that I desired to join a crew just be allowed to attend. As I suggested above, the ones I have seen come with extra responsibilities that I didn't particularly want. (Then again, my personal inclination is maintain my independence. Your mileage may vary.)

Ok, it's done! You can go read it!

That's true. However, I've always sort of thought of Peter Pan as a kid's story, not a pirate story. (I know, I know. I'm splitting hairs.)

Hey, I liked the name Count du Monet! You could have created a really interesting backstory for that one. Silas brings up a good point - you don't necessarily need to be in a crew to go to events. If you hang out here, you'll get to know people and the events they're going to and you can often just sort of show up so long as you play by the event rules. The last event I went to at Havre de Grace in Maryland, I represented no particular crew. I was mainly going to meet Blackjohn (another pub member) and hang out with his crew (Pirates of the Brethren). There are events that do require you to belong to a crew, but if you express interest in them on the Pub here, a crew will often agree to include you in their group for that event. (Personally, I prefer events that don't require crew membership because "crew only events" often seem to be a little more uptight in other areas as well as group membership...but that may just be me.)

I really enjoyed R. Duncan Matthewson's book Treasure of the Atocha. It was a nice balance of story and archeology.

Are you making up another Article we have to follow again?

Hmm. Quite right. I was being far too terse by reciting forum link chapter and verse when I should have just answered your questions. Sorry about that Mr. Malasses. Again, welcome to the forum. Ignore the man behind the scalpel. We should take a vote... I'll vote for you. (Oh, wait, I don't get a vote.)

There tends to be a mix of folks here. An observant member of the forum once pointed out to me that many of the East Coast and midwest re-enactors on this forum tend to be more or less moving towards period correct garb and re-enactments, while people on this forum from the West coast tend to be more involved with events that cater more towards "the popular image" of piracy. (Which sort of makes sense, given the environs.) But this is by no means a rule, and it does not hold true in every case. I really don't know a lot of midwest ren-fair oriented pirates, although I do know some who come out to the re-enactment events I go to. Personally, I've never been real interested in committing to a truly hard core crew, but I like to work on my PC surgeon impression. My crew is the Mercury crew, which doesn't really have what I'd call a formal organization. We've got members from all over the US. Our esteemed leader (who is not our captain because he doesn't want to be) lives in Utah somewhere. That would be William Red Wake. He started the Mercury Crew specifically for Pirates in Paradise back in 2006 or 2007 and it has grown from there. We decide which events we're going to attend through the Pub here or on Facebook and we tend to work inch by inch toward period correctness. (As such, it seems to me that we're a pretty open group and invite anyone who's interested in moving in that direction as well.) Most of our events are East Coast and midwest events, which is really odd given that our leader lives in Utah. Huh. So that's my perspective. If you want my perspective on individual events, you'll find it (or, better said, them) on this web site. I've been writing really odd commentaries on the events I've attended since my first period re-enactment at Pirates in Paradise in 2007. However, they will in no way help you to answer your question - they're too bizarre for that.

Ahoy, Capn! These are good questions, but they have been asked before. (And you can always check out individual profiles for more info.) Here are some threads you might like to peruse to find the answers: What's your day job Yer real name What does your user name mean? What does your avatar mean? Pirate Persona Bios Going Hollywood Vendors Index Thread Pyrates on Etsy Your interest in piracy Tell us about yer crew The best way to find a crew on this website is to look at the Pirate Crewes forum.

I also refuse to fill it out too. (Duchess' profile, that is.)

Blackjohn...oh, wait. Nice to hear from Captain Jim! So he no longer has a job where he is in danger of having his limbs eaten by alligators? (I was so hoping to use him for demonstrations at PiP if he managed it...)

Aw, shucks. We had fun too, as the journal attests. (The food at that party alone made up for any raindrop dodging. They put on a great party!) Thanks for being such a gracious host; it's wonderful to finally meet you after literally years of saying we should do so. (Maybe I'll bring the scotch! I found a bottle of The McCallen Cask Strength in Annapolis that was amazing! I left it at my sister's place since I only had a carry-on, so maybe I could bring it down. Seriously, it is amazing! It's like drinking scotch fireworks...) Cheers!

[i'm gonna combine this with the other topic on Pirate Latitudes since we've already been talking about this there - no sense having two topics on the same thing so close together...] Well, we know the movie rights have been purchased, which really doesn't mean much. Hollyweird buys and lets lapse movie rights to books all the time. I've read rumblings about Spielburg, but if you read this closely there really isn't anything definite in it other than someone is writing a script treatment. As for the gushing review on the site... "Pirate Latitudes is not only a page-turner, but touches on a genre that is sorely overlooked in the world of fiction. Combine the page-turning ride that James Patterson delivers, with lure of adventure and plotting climaxes of Clive Cussler, with the sheer brilliance of Crichton’s prose and you get the idea of the mastery of this novel." Uh...right. I don't know if the reviewer has read Crichton's other novels, but this read like an unfinished TV movie script for me. There were parts near the end that touched on his usual exciting page-turning writing, but the first 2/3 of it read like every other pirate story, albeit with some nice PC touches. As John Maddox Roberts said above: "...I'm certain that this was the first draft of a novel. Not only that, but I am sure that it was to be followed by a story taking place in modern times." That sounds right to me, given Crichton's body of work touching on historical subjects. OTOH, it would be interesting to see what Speilburg might do with a pirate story. (I doubt he'd follow this book overmuch, because the story is so pedestrian.) He's usually a smart director. Recent history suggests that it is really tough to make a pirate movie in the mold of the classics - which was the way it seemed to me that this story is written. It was tried over and over again in the 20 years preceding POTC and failed at the Box Office.) In fact, I'd guess that if they had made POTC the way it was originally written (without Depp's bizarre take on Captain Jack), it wouldn't have been quite the success that it was. Well, that's my 2 pennies worth, anyhow.

Cuisto, you might also want to check out the Surgeon's Journal Main page: www.piratesurgeon.com (Heh heh heh.)

Stynky has done a really good job of keeping the forum software up-to-date. The folks behind the software have a user group which comes up with cool new ideas that get added whenever the software is updated, but that aren't explained to us plebians. I happened to find this one by accident, and it's worth sharing: You'll find it on every forum index page (including 'View New Content' and 'Recent Postings' as I've shown here). It allows you to see a brief preview of the first post on the forum index pages so that you don't actually have to go into the post to view it and then back out again to get to the forum index page again. (That may be confusing...just move your mouse over to the right of the post listings and one of the little icons will be that little white and green thing the giant arrow is pointing to. Click on it and see what happens.) Maybe you've found something cool by accident? If so, let us know about it here! (I have doubts even Stynky knows what's been added with each new upgrade.)

Here's the latest Pirate Surgeon's Journal. It's for the Lockhouse event at Havre de Grace, Maryland. For the latest info on the Pirate Surgeon's Journals, check out the Facebook PSJ Fan Page.

The second page contains re-quotes of the original post that were done before you signed up, so you can ignore them. (They're like snapshots of your last birthday party - frozen in time. Why people do this with posts is a bit puzzling to me, but they do and it's not polite to just delete them.) The only post that counts in threads like this is the very first one.

I made reservations at Truman Annex and booked my flight. Does that count?

Hmm...re-reading that (it was written several years ago), I feel compelled to say...sorry again. Nice job, William. What are we going to do with them once they're decided? Brilliant...love it !Have to admit took me a while to figure it out ! Figure out the Do-It-Yourself 1000 Word Pirate Report or the articles? If it's the report, feel free to pm me with ideas how I might make it clearer. (Always looking to improve, I am. For example, some day I'll figure out how to remove one tooth without removing either of its neighbors. The crew keeps hoping for that one...)

I don't think it is possible to be beholden to no one. (It's that pesky unwritten social contract thing.) Even pirates formed articles to define their view of a social contract. Nor did they live without fear. Lest we forget, GAoP pirates feared their captains and captains their pirates (who could overthrow them on a vote - or something worse) and they all feared being caught and brought to justice to some degree. Maybe Chris McCandless achieved a bit of the 'no social debt' thing, but he didn't manage that until he moved to a barren field in Alaska where he wound up freezing to death in an abandoned bus. Like it or not, we all need other people to some degree.