DOTD For Friday, September 19, 2025

One Of AAAARRRRR Favorite Holidays!🏴‍☠️ 🦜

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is the Bumbo, inspired by International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

On June 6, 1995, friends John Baur and Mark Summers were playing racquetball in their hometown of Albany, Oregon, when one of them became injured, and in pain yelped “Arrrrr!” That, in turn, got the men to start speaking in pirate lingo - and thus the idea for the holiday was born.

As June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day & the Normandy landings, the two men chose another date for their newly invented holiday, September 19. This was Summers' ex-wife's birthday, so it would be an easy date for him to remember. The two continued to celebrate their newly invented holiday for a few years amongst themselves and their friends, promoting it whenever they could (or whenever they remembered to).

In 2002, John Baur - by this point nicknamed “Ol’ Chumbucket” - learned the email address of nationally syndicated humorist and author Dave Barry. If you don’t know Dave Barry you should. He wrote his nationally syndicated column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005, wrote any number of books, won a Pulitzer Prize, and he’s arguably one of the funniest American writers ever.

Baur & Summers - by now known as "Cap'n Slappy" - penned a missive to Mr. Barry during the summer of 2002, trying to cajole him into helping to promote their nascent holiday. Like any good comic writer, radio jock, or bartender, Dave Barry saw that Chumbucker & Slappy’s new idea could easily be exploited for attention, and maybe even praise from both his bosses and his audience.

So Barry wrote a column praising the new holiday, and its inventors. As he explained in that now legendary piece, “Every now and then, some visionary individuals come along with a concept that is so original and so revolutionary that your immediate reaction is: ‘Those individuals should be on medication.’“ From that point forward, Talk Like A Pirate Day grew and expanded, becoming another one of those uniquely weird American-originated holidays that make people from other nations look at Americans with confused & worried expressions, as though all of us need medication.

According to the holiday’s inventors, there are proper ways to observe Talk Like a Pirate Day. First, you need an appropriate pirate name. You may draw inspiration from Ol’ Chumbucket or Capn’ Slappy as examples, but another method is to proceed as follows:

1. Choose a color, or a malady suffered on ships - like scurvy, malaria, or dysentery

2. Choose an animal, preferably an aquatic animal or one on a ship.

3. Name a 17^th-18^th century trade profession (for example cooper, miller, or silversmith), or common object (like trenchers, chargers, or nippers).

4. String numbers 1, 2 and 3 together.

Now that you’ve decided on something like “Red Cod Windlass” or “Scurvy Rat Cook” you may proceed.

Next, it’s a matter of adjusting your speech. Pirate talk is not just saying “yo-ho-ho.” Let’s start with the basics. If your significant other asks you to do something you should reply “Aye aye, Captain” rather than “Yes, dear.” “Arrr!” is a multipurpose word, good for yes, no, as an exclamation if you stub your toe or a general noise of acknowledgement. And make sure to say “yer” instead of “you” and substitute “me” for any time you would say “I” or “my.”

Now we need an appropriate pirate drink. Here at The Politics Bar, we already covered Navy Grog for Black Tot Day, so we can’t do that again. And since, during the height of the era for seafaring pirates (roughly, the 1700s), Bumbo was actually a better drink, today Bumbo is our Drink of the Day!

Bumbo itself is almost as simple as Grog, it’s key components being rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. But pirates made their living by plundering, so they had access to a wide variety of ingredients that a Royal Navy swabbie could only dream of. Nutmeg was a typical addition, and at that point in history wars were fought over it, as it was literally worth its weight in gold. Cinnamon was also often added, creating spiced rum long before it became the fuel for many Florida Spring Break regrets.

Limes, of course, also fit the equation as does nearly any tropical fruit available at the nearest ransacked island or ship. Yes, surly pirates were probably the first to consume sweet, fruity drinks, but they did so without the tiny paper umbrellas, so did it really count as a tropical vacation drink? We think not.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: