Poyruts
2006-04-10
I still don't get this town's obsession with pirates (or poyruts, in the local vernacular). It's not just Talk Like a Pirate Day, since that's international, although I must say it has a far better following here than anywhere else I've been. It's more the fact that saying 'Yeaaarrgh!!!' appears to be contagious around here, and pirates just keep popping up everwhere.
Figuratively speaking...
Last night, while having a quiet drink in a quiet pub (a pub of the Real Ale kind; that's something else this place is quite fond of), I overheard a group of people joking that some rural Zuffolk type they'd bumped into had sounded like a pirate. Isolated incident, perhaps, but it does suggest that it's not even my friends who are to blame for the poyrut craze.
I pointed out to one friend - the one who had a fancy dress birthday party with a theme of pirates and priests - that I didn't understand the local obsession. She refused to tell me; it became one of a number of things that evening that I was being 'spared from' because of my 'youth' and 'innocence'. I pestered her on and off throughout the evening until she did, although she felt the need to warn that the reason was 'a bit pervy'. [Quite how she came to believe I was that innocent I really don't know.]
She claimed that [some] women liked pirates (or men dressed as pirates) in the same way that [some] men like nurses (or women dressed as nurses). Then she was concerned that I might feel used, having dressed as a pirate for her birthday. Like I'm going to get annoyed by someone manoeuvring me into a situation that might make me more attractive...
[Next came the assurance that the women would dutifully turn out if I held a 'cheerleaders and nurses' party, but I don't think I will. I'm a little concerned by what the men might end up as.]
So maybe the women around here like the look of pirates (or more likely just Johnny Depp), but that doesn't really explain the men. Or does it? I still think there's more to it than that.
So, my question to you people is this: Is your area obsessed with poyruts too?
Figuratively speaking...
Last night, while having a quiet drink in a quiet pub (a pub of the Real Ale kind; that's something else this place is quite fond of), I overheard a group of people joking that some rural Zuffolk type they'd bumped into had sounded like a pirate. Isolated incident, perhaps, but it does suggest that it's not even my friends who are to blame for the poyrut craze.
I pointed out to one friend - the one who had a fancy dress birthday party with a theme of pirates and priests - that I didn't understand the local obsession. She refused to tell me; it became one of a number of things that evening that I was being 'spared from' because of my 'youth' and 'innocence'. I pestered her on and off throughout the evening until she did, although she felt the need to warn that the reason was 'a bit pervy'. [Quite how she came to believe I was that innocent I really don't know.]
She claimed that [some] women liked pirates (or men dressed as pirates) in the same way that [some] men like nurses (or women dressed as nurses). Then she was concerned that I might feel used, having dressed as a pirate for her birthday. Like I'm going to get annoyed by someone manoeuvring me into a situation that might make me more attractive...
[Next came the assurance that the women would dutifully turn out if I held a 'cheerleaders and nurses' party, but I don't think I will. I'm a little concerned by what the men might end up as.]
So maybe the women around here like the look of pirates (or more likely just Johnny Depp), but that doesn't really explain the men. Or does it? I still think there's more to it than that.
So, my question to you people is this: Is your area obsessed with poyruts too?
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