They got it from Noah

So we're standing around on Sunday after church has let out. I'm holding Secondborn, who is now one year and one month old. One of the ladies leans in to flirt with him: "Oh, you're so adorable in your Noah's Ark shirt..." She tugs the shirt down far enough to reveal the skull and crossbones on the sail. "Oh."

I felt the sudden urge to share: "You know that pirates actually took that from the Noah's Ark story, right? While they were floating around for the forty-plus days of the Flood, Noah and his sons made a sign with a skull and two crossed bones on it, to show their mourning for... well, everyone else in the world."

I came this close to actually saying that. The whole explanation leaped into my mouth, ready to go. And I stopped myself, because I didn't want to hear someone repeat that back to me a decade from now as if it were really true.

I'm pretty sure that this is how urban legends get started.