Don't Even Ask About The French Fries

Long John Silver is the pirate equivalent of Barney Stinson.  Discuss

I never understood why his trees were so cold.

So anyway, for today's edutainment, I return to the world of classic literature.

Return?  

The great Robert Lewis Stevenson, whose name is spelled with a V, upon further review, once wrote his piratey masterpiece "Treasure Island."  I say "Once" because I can't be bothered to look up the fact that it was published in 1883.  

Anyway, it's an adventure story featuring pirates, buried treasure, talking parrots, cannons, and possible swashbuckling.  Believe it or not, before "Treasure Island," was published, the general perception of pirates was very different.  This novel is where the ideas of peg legs, treasure maps, talking parrots, and phrases like "shiver me timbers" come from.  One novel has forever changed the way people believe pirates acted, spoke, and looked.  Long story short, International Talk Like A Pirate day would not exist if it weren't for R.L. Stevenson.  

Barney Stinson is a character on the whimsical sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" and I've probably referenced him in the Blag here at some point before.  You should be familiar with him.  If you're not take a couple minutes and Get Acquainted.  I submit to you that the characters of Barney Stinson and Treasure Island's Long John Silver are roughly the same. 

As you may have noticed, Barney has a number of catch phrases, such as "Suit Up!" and an overuse of the word "Awesome."  Long John Silver (who is officially the ship's cook, hence the name of the restaurant, although Hush Puppies weren't invented until the 1860's fully 100 years after the setting of Treasure Island, so I have no explanation for that), also has a number of catch phrases, like the aforementioned "Shiver me timbers" which he says a number of times. 

Both characters tell stories for personal gain, ending with a line meant to instill confidence in the validity of the tale.  In Silver's case, he ends many MANY sentences with the phrase "and you may lay to that." which is in every way the equivalent of Barney's famous, "True story."

Both characters go through an intervention staged by their associates.  Barney is given an intervention to assist in his addiction to performing magic tricks involving fire, while Silver is given the "Black Mark" by his crew for the supposedly failed treasure-hunting mission.

Both characters have the morals of a pirate, (which is more understandable in one case, since he actually is a pirate) willing to change loyalties and activities to serve their personal gain.

In conclusion...it should now be quite clear that Barney Stinson is a modern day Long John Silver...and you may lay to that.