MARCH 2007
Pirate-vs.-ninja debate rages
March 31 - Pirate or ninja? Don't think about it, just answer the question. Pirate or ninja? That's the beauty of one of the most colorful and passionate arguments that rages endlessly on the Internet these days: everyone has an opinion and no one is wrong.

Youths attack 'pirate' in fancy dress
March 30 - A PAIR of yobs who set upon a late night reveller dressed as a pirate have walked free from court.

Bounty Bay Online Joins Ranks of Pirate MMOGs
March 30 - After a successful start in German-speaking countries, Bounty Bay Online now sets its sails for the rest of Europe. On 4th March, Frogster Interactive and Yusho are starting the closed beta test for their sailor, pirate and discovery MMOG in international waters. From then on a limited amount of beta testers get the opportunity to try the English version, followed by an open beta phase. Frogster intends a release of Bounty Bay Online in the UK within the second quarter of 2007. The German publisher is aiming to internationally establish the online role-playing game with a subscription model common to Europe. From Frogster's perspective, the MMOG-flatrate in the middle-term turns out to be distinctely cheaper for players than item sales.

Pirate returns to school with eye patch in pocket
March 30 - Weaverville Ð A heroÕs welcome is not usually reserved for a pirate. But for Bryan Killian, an eye-patch-wearing, pasta-worshiping North Buncombe High School student, an applause awaited him at his first period class Thursday. Killian, 16, had been suspended Wednesday after he refused to take off his eye patch, which he says is part of his faith in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

If Depp's onboard, 'Pirates' may keep sailing
March 30 - "At World's End" may not be the end of the world. Word on the Walt Disney Studios backlot is that, while "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," which opens on Memorial Day weekend, is the end of the trilogy, it may not be the end of the franchise.

Orlando Area Resort Features Pirates Treasure Hunt Challenge With $10,000 Prize
March 27 - Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando/Kissimmee is celebrating Memorial Day Weekend in an unusual way -- by letting their guests compete for a $10,000 pirate's treasure. In a weekend already filled with pirate frenzy, this special Pirates Treasure Hunt Challenge is likely to cause a stir in the nation's most popular family vacation destination.

U.S. Navy born from Barbary pirate attacks
March 27 - March 27, 1794, is generally considered the day the United States Navy was born, and Ñ much like its subsequent growth Ñ this birth depended on a smart politicianÕs keen understanding of how the threat of losing defense-related jobs in their districts could affect the way members of Congress vote. That smart politicianÕs name was George Washington.

Ay, matey: Help a lass find treasure
March 26 - Paige Compton of Manteca wants your vote. She's not running for public office. She wants your vote so she can become a pirate. Yes, that is an unusual request Ñ what pirates there are on the seven seas are hardly a democratically selected band of thieves. What Compton, 18 and a freshman at Modesto Junior College, wants is to be a pirate at Disneyland. Just for one day.

Sea dogs and sea creatures at Ripley's
March 26 -Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach features a pirate exhibit, sea critters and kids' camps. "Pirates - Predators of the Sea" is an interactive voyage that includes a video in the exhibit's mini-theater, teaches pirate facts, dispels pirate myths, portrays their lifestyle and features tales of famous pirates, including William Kidd, Henry Morgan and Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard.

Terry And The Pirate Reprints
March 22 - Celebrating the centennial of Milton Caniff 's birth, IDW Publishing will publish a fully authorized six-book series collecting the entirety of Caniff 's groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips.

Pirates Lair to Take over Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island
March 22 - Extensive enhancements will bring a rousing "Pirate's Lair" to Tom Sawyer Island in Disneyland's Frontierland beginning in May. Building upon the hands-on play and exploration that have made the island a popular experience for children and adults for the past 50 years. "Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island" will take its inspiration from Tom and Huck's pirate games in the classic Mark Twain story, as well as from the renewed interest in pirates generated by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction and motion pictures. The attraction's opening will coincide with the summer opening of Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

They'll go nuts for postcard
March 22 - Real pirates menaced the high seas long ago, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. They still do in some parts of the world.

Aargh: This baby-sitting's worse than walkin' the plank
March 22 - The pirates are back, and that's good news for fans of the 2003 picture book How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon.

Exclusive Video Interview: Martin Klebba is a Pirate of the Caribbean!
March 20 - Martin Klebba joined Pirates of the Caribbean fans from the San Francisco Bay area in celebration of the release of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End trailer on Sunday. The IESB was able to talk with him a bit before the show!

`Les Miz' Team Rejigs `Pirate Queen' for Broadway: N.Y. Stage
March 19 - Alain Boublil didn't flinch when he read the tough out-of-town reviews for ``The Pirate Queen,'' which said the new $10 million-plus musical he and Claude-Michel Schonberg were creating needed work. Similar things were written about their two previous Broadway shows, which you may have heard of: ``Les Miserables'' and ``Miss Saigon,'' neither of which ended up doing too badly at the box office.

Pirate-flag 'farmers' claim moorland site
March 19 -RESIDENTS say they have been frightened off land by a group of "farmers" who have set up a camp in the picturesque Calderdale countryside, and hoisted a skull-and-crossbones flag.

'Pirates' celebrates 40-year voyage
March 19 - Francis X. Atencio remembers riding with Walt Disney through the dark swamp in Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride before it opened from haunted caverns to a pirate galleon to a ransacked Caribbean seaport.

The secret.s out: Sparrow returns for Pirates 3
March 19 - Look what the Krakken dragged in. Though Johnny Depp's iconic Jack Sparrow was swallowed whole by the many-tentacled sea beast at the end of last summer's blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," the makers of the third installment say it should be no surprise that he survives.

Coraci To Helm Pirate Comedy
March 14 - 20th Century Fox is ignoring the fact that, other than Disney, pretty much no studio has made a successful pirate movie since the days of Errol Flynn. They've just signed director Frank Coraci to take the wheel of "Part-Time Pirates," a project being billed as an "adventure-comedy."

Pirate employer runs aground
March 11 - A man who left his job after his boss said he was broke and "it was all over" - then drove past days later to see work continuing as normal - has won $30,000 compensation.

America's founding fathers influenced most by Pirate code
March 3 - Despite taking ideas for Democracy from ancient Greece, Rome, India and the Iriquois Confederacy, and many European countries during the Middle Ages, founding fathers John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman took most of thier ideas from pirates.