Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, the HMS Manalo Trip set sail from Copa Cabana, Cuba with her holds stocked full of spiced rum and cigars. It was traveling on a course to the Orient, to trade for spices and silks, and wenches of an exotic variety. Just off the coast of Singapore, however, the ship was attacked by a clan of Ninja, who raided the hold and stole the best bottle of aged rum from the Captain's private stores.

A heavy dose of silver around the port bought Cap'n Haly the location of the Ninja Queen's secret hide-out, and she and her crew went off to retrieve the stolen rum. When at last the Pirate Captain and the Ninja Queen Zunii met, the Captain challenged the Queen to a duel. "Yar, ye scurrilous, scurvy scallywag! A duel we'll have, betwixt us. Not of rapiers or fists, nay. But instead, of wits! Yaarrrrrrr!"

"A grand idea," the Ninja Queen replied. "Have at you!"

And so it was that for 28 long hours, Pirate Cap'n Haly's crew of sea dogs, and Ninja Queen Zunii's clan of shadow warriors dueled with their wits and their words, until at last...a winner was proclaimed.....

To celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day, we're having a forum bash! What is a forum bash, you ask? Well, simply it's a thread on the forums (as it happens, this one) where you get to verbally bash your fellow participants! So bring your best pirate or ninja insults, and prepare for some mud-slinging fun!

The Rules: FIRST AND FOREMOST! Remember that this is supposed to be fun. In the spirit of that, please do not let your insults become personal. Insults should be generally addressed to "pirate" or "ninja" only, plzkthx. Also, please post your insults as a reply to this post, not as a reply to another reply (use the Post field at the bottom of the page, instead of hitting "reply" to any of the posts below); this way, no one will get your insult in their message center and mistakenly think that you are insulting THEM. PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS! We do not want misunderstandings or hurt feelings. (Do feel free, however, to comment appropriately on insults you find amusing or entertaining!)

Second, declare your team! You can post as many insults as you like, as often as you like, for the duration of the event. However! Once you declare a side (pirate or ninja) you can ONLY insult the other side. So choose carefully, and choose wisely.

Finally, just for fun, we will be declaring a winning team, who gets to keep the prized bottle of rum until the next pirate vs. ninja event, when it will be up for grabs again. This will give you ample amount of bragging rights, and opens up many fun and creative possibilities for things to put in your signature tags if you belong to the winning team. ʊkingofclubs has graciously offered to score each insult (scale of 0-5), and average the scores for each team, to determine the winner.

The event will run for 28 hours...that is from Midnight GMT Friday, September 19th (8pm EDT, 5pm PDT Thursday 18th) to 4am GMT Saturday, September 20th (Midnight EDT, 9pm PDT Friday 19th). Yes, I know this is confusing, but suffice to say, it runs "all day Friday." Only insults posted before the stop time (and I will make an END OF EVENT post), will count toward the winning team's score (though feel free to continue posting insults after that).

Now GO HAVE FUN!