Pirates!

While poking around Sundog Books last (very rainy) Saturday afternoon, I tripped across The Penguin Book of Pirates.  First thing, I had to flip to everyone's favorite New Orleans privateer, Jean Laffite.  The five-page mini-biography ends its tale with "He was the mildest manner'd man, That ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat;"

With a glowing recommendation like that, passing by this book was impossible.  Not sure I'd want him along fishing offshore however.

No mention of Capt. Pitcher however, and that is quite a tale.  (If you really want the story right now, here's a somewhat rambling 14 minute video.  And no, you could not give that accursed chunk of beachfront to me, not even if you threw in a lifetime supply of rum.  Because I suspect it would be a remarkably small quantity of rum to match a correspondingly short life expectancy.)