A Pirate Quiz for Ye Trivia-Lubbers!

Get this: 25 year-old Caesar was so egotistical that when a gang of pirates on the Aegean Sea kidnapped him, he encouraged them to increase his ransom.

There is an 1829 account of some Caribbean pirates forcing blindfolded Dutch merchants to "walk the plank." But historians agree that this was a very rare practice overall.

Invented by John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers, the holiday's celebrated on September 19 because that's the birthday of Summers' ex-wife. For the record, she's OK with it.

Burying treasure was a rare practice, but in 1699, Kidd interred a stash of it on Gardiner's Island, an outcrop by the Long Island forks. The British quickly recovered his loot.

At one point, Kermit and company meet an island boar named "Spa'am." Hormel Foods didn't like the joke and tried to sue Jim Henson Productions for copyright infringement. A judge threw the (ahem) *meaty* case out of court.

At the height of her powers, Ching Shih commanded an estimated force of 80,000 men who terrorized the Qing Dynasty and British East India Company for several years. Her real name was Mrs. Cheng or Zheng but the Anglicized version was written as Ching Shih.

In the "golden age" of piracy (1650-1720), black flags usually indicated that a pirate crew would spare the victims who laid down their arms. Red flags, by and large, meant that no mercy would be shown - even to those who surrendered.

In exchange for certain legal favors, Lafitte supplied men, arms and battlefield expertise to future president Andrew Jackson, who led the campaign.

During the late 17th century, Spain dominated the Caribbean. So the pirates who operated there usually harassed the Spanish. Those rapscallions came to be known as "buccaneers." (Don't get them confused with Tampa Bay's NFL team.)