Monitoring the Media: Pillage and Plunder Pondering our passion for pirates By Debra Merskin We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho! We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho! Ho, yo ho! A pirate's life for me! Three times a day at the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas, pirates taunt and threaten tourists, forcing an unlucky few to "walk the plank." Three times a day since 1967, California's Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean attraction invites youngsters to "sing along as you discover what it's like to become a Pirate of the Caribbean!" Every February since 1904 the 165-foot Jose Gasparilla, the "world's only fully rigged pirate ship," sails into the harbor of Tampa, Florida's Ybor City district. "Unruly plunderers," celebrants of Gasparilla throw caution to the wind, eat, drink and make very merry, with men occasionally throwing a woman (i.e., wench) over their shoulders in pretend games of rape and pillage as they celebrate the conquests of legendary pirate Jose Gaspar. [Read More]
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