Monday, January 19, 2004
POE TOASTER DISSES FRANCE
Macabre writer Edgar Allen Poe always gets a bottle of French Cognac for his birthday (which is today). Every year since about 1949 (a century after he died) some guy dressed in black comes leaves the libation at his Baltimore gravestone in the middle of the night. Better late than never, eh? But last night's offering came with an appropriately mysterious note:
This is not the Poe Toaster's first brush with controversy. Two years ago he left a note backing the New York Giants against the Baltimore team named for Poe's horror tale "The Raven." Quel horror!
The sacred memory of Poe and his final resting place is no place for French cognac. With great reluctance but for respect for family tradition the cognac is place. The memory of Poe shall live evermore!The Poe Museum curator who picked up the note was reportedly "nervous about making the note public because of its political tone," assuming the gifter's reluctance stemmed from displeasure with French opposition to the war in Iraq. The can of Franco American Spaghetti-Os that started accompanying the cognac in 1965 was missing altogether, further fueling suspicion.
This is not the Poe Toaster's first brush with controversy. Two years ago he left a note backing the New York Giants against the Baltimore team named for Poe's horror tale "The Raven." Quel horror!
