Mysterious visitor to Edgar Allan Poe's gravesite fails to appear for first time since 1949

[a kennedy]

A mysterious visitor who has left roses and a bottle of Cognac at the original Baltimore gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe failed to appear this year for the first time in 61 years.

Is the mysterious ritual nevermore?

Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House, tells The Baltimore Sun that a "Poe Toaster," whose identity is unknown, has shown up every Jan. 19 since 1949.

"I'm confused, befuddled," Jerome says. "I don't know what's going on."

Jerome says the visitor usually arrives between midnight and 5:30 a.m. to mark the birthday of the author of The Raven as scores of onlookers respectfully gather nearby.

He sometimes kneels at the tombstone or puts his hands on it, Jerome says. "There's no elaborate ceremony — it's very short and touching," he says.

Jerome said he plans to keep vigil on Jan. 19 at least through 2012.

<http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/mysterious-visitor-to-edgar-allen-poes-gravesite-fails-to-appear-for-first-time-in-60-years/1>

[tonekat]

1. Whoever it is has to be getting on in years

The person may be incapacitated, or even passed on.

[stuntcat]

2. they told about him on my radio today!

They said at the end of the report that maybe he used the 60th year as his last visit.

This past Halloween we went to Poe's grave and house. We also went to Dorothy Parker's memorial where her ashes are at the NAACP hq's in Baltimore. We left her some flowers and a bottle of gin :headbang:
We didn't leave anything for Poe though, it was Halloween so hundreds of other people had him covered, the graveyard was full of people.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[nolabear]

4. wtf?

[JVS]

5. Here

BALTIMORE -- This year it was nearly "nevermore" for French cognac in an annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.

For 55 years, in the middle of the night, a man has slunk into the small cemetery where Poe is buried to leave a tribute of French cognac and three roses at his grave.

This year, however, the French cognac was left reluctantly to mark the writer's birthday. And the mysterious visitor made a point of saying so in a note placed at the grave.

"The sacred memory of Poe and his final resting place is no place for French cognac," the note read. "With great reluctance but for respect for family tradition the cognac is place . The memory of Poe shall live evermore!"

Nothing more was written in the note, and it was not clear what the sudden aversion to French cognac would be to the mysterious visitor. But it appeared to be a reference to French opposition to the war in Iraq.... (more)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jan/19/20040119-100633-6879r/

[LostInAnomie]

6. LOL... What!?

Either you know something I don't, or that was wildly and hilariously inappropriate.

[rcrush]

7. I love wishing republicans would die.

[JVS]

8. I'll toast to that!

:toast:

[rcrush]

9. Except how do you know the guy is a republican?

The note doesn't say why he doesn't like French Cognac anymore. Apparently the guy at the museum said it was because of the Iraq war. But he just guessed.

[JVS]

10. If it's not French, it's not cognac and what other plausible explanation is there that this guy...

would decide to start bitching about it being French in Jan 2004, when there had been no problem with the Frenchness of the cognac for the preceding 55 years (around 6 of them under freeper bozo's watch)?

Until I am convinced otherwise, I think it was related to the Iraq war.

[ornotna]

11. He probably got lost

First time on the job and he's late, go figure.

http://www.thedatadude.com/pages/eapoe_and_superbowl2001.html