Posts Tagged baltimore

John Cusack’s Gift on Poe’s Birthday. Also, 2nd Year No-Show for Poe Toaster

Posted by mistergroonk in Movies, Photography, USA on January 19, 2011

Actor John Cusack shared a bit of business on his Twitter a few hours ago. Two photos in celebration of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday and Cusack’s turn in the movie about Poe, THE RAVEN.

Comming soon - next fall ... Happy birthday Edgar ...
Happy birthday Poe -- hope he see's the film somewhere --


The Poe toaster No More?
It’s the second year the Poe Toaster has not appeared to leave Cognac and roses on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave.

Jerome said four toaster wannabes showed up at the gravesite with the requisite cognac and red roses. But all, he said, were pretenders to the tradition, not the real thing. Even though the toaster’s identity has remained secret — even Jerome swears he never knew a name or clearly saw a face — his general appearance remained constant. None of the four who showed up Wednesday morning matched it.

“They were not our boy,” he said. “We can usually tell within a few seconds. We’ve been seeing this guy for a number of years, and I could tell just by looking at them that they were not the real Poe Toaster.”

For some 60 years, the toaster would appear every Jan. 19 to pay tribute to Poe, a Boston native who died on Oct. 7, 1849, in Baltimore under circumstances that have never been fully explained. Arriving at the gravesite without fanfare, he would leave behind three red roses and a bottle of cognac, then quietly disappear into the night.

via baltimore sun

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60 Years Later: Poe Toaster No More

Posted by mistergroonk in People Who Died, USA on January 20, 2010

For 61 years, this man, or series of men, has honored Poe, long before anyone thought to name the Baltimore NFL team after his most famous work, or even jokingly — I hope — squabble with Richmond, Va., New York City, Philadelphia and Boston over which city should house his bones.

Many Poe enthusiasts would come from all over the country to witness the quiet, elegant nighttime ceremony in the dead of January, but the Toaster never spoke and never lingered long. In other words, he was the perfect mysterious benefactor, adding to the city’s strange mixture of romantic nostalgia and hard-nosed pragmatism.

The odd little man that was the Poe Toaster failed to show this year.

(via Baltimore Sun)

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Bright Lights and Weird Noises in Baltimore Not Aliens After All

Posted by mistergroonk in USA on April 30, 2008

Earlier this week:

“It wasn’t until we caught it on tape that we realized the magnitude of what they were actually talking about,” said Sgt. Warehime. “The sound is almost deafening. You can’t describe it. Seeing it on tape without hearing the sound doesn’t do it justice.”

Videotape taken at 3:34 a.m. on April 23 does show a flash of light that lasts a fraction of a second and lights up an area the size of a football field in the middle of the night.

The flash on the tape is accompanied by loud boom that sounds like a crack of electricity or lightning.

What it was discovered to be was some irate old man pissed at his neighbors, armed with fireworks, and low-rent psyops tactics.

That’s how police met Mackler, who apparently confessed to creating the disturbance. Inside his home, investigators found quantities of drugs, guns and fireworks. Police say he had been having problems with neighbors in the building.

“He would get up in the middle of the morning, around 2 o’clock, fire one of these pyrotechnic devices and be done,” Hill said.

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The Poe Toaster Revealed: Mystery Deepens

Posted by mistergroonk in Uncategorized on August 23, 2007

I’m unsure on how to feel about this. I made the Poe Toaster my personal weekly hero back in January. The Emo Kid/Tragic Goth in me could have lived a lifetime without knowing the(possible) truth.

But the birth of long lasting cultural mythology makes an interesting read. I read the article and was surprised. How strange that it didn’t seem to diminish the yearly ritual for me.

“We did it, myself and my tour guides,” said Sam Porpora. “It was a promotional idea. We made it up, never dreaming it would go worldwide.”

Porpora is an energetic, dapper fellow in a newsboy cap and a checked suit with a bolo tie. He’s got a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, and he tells his tale in the rhythms of a natural-born storyteller.

No one has ever claimed ownership of the legend. So why is Porpora coming forward now?

“I really can’t tell you,” Porpora answered. “I love Poe. I love talking about Poe. I had a lot to do with making Poe a universal figure. I’m doing it because of my love for the story.”

[…]

Porpora’s story begins in the late 1960s. He’d just been made historian of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, built in 1852. There were fewer than 60 congregants and Porpora, in his 60s, was one of the youngest. The overgrown cemetery was a favorite of drunken derelicts.

The site needed money and publicity, Porpora recalled. That, he said, is when the idea of the Poe toaster came to him. The story, as Porpora told it to a local reporter then, was that the tribute had been laid at the grave on Poe’s January 19 birthday every year since 1949. Three roses — one for Poe, one for his wife, and one for his mother-in-law — and a bottle of cognac, because Poe loved the stuff even though he couldn’t afford to drink it unless someone else was buying.

The romantic image of the mysterious man in black caught the fancy of Poe fans and a tradition grew.

Not surprising that some have contested Porpora’s story.

(via cnn and Dunc)

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