Poe Fans Call an End to 'Toaster' Tradition

[The Straight Story]

Poe Fans Call an End to 'Toaster' Tradition

Edgar Allan Poe fans waited long past a midnight dreary, but it appears annual visits to the writer's grave in Baltimore by a mysterious figure called the "Poe Toaster" shall occur nevermore.

Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the "Poe Toaster" was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer's legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.

"It's over with," Jerome said wearily. "It will probably hit me later, but I'm too tired now to feel anything else."

It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's original grave on the writer's birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/poe-fans-call-end-toaster-tradition-15391756

[FSogol]

1. "Poe Toaster" is a stupid term. Makes me think of the George Foreman Grill.

I don't think I heard that visitor referred to that way before this year.

[The Straight Story]

3. I saw an ad for one on TV last night

And it is a well known term:

[TwilightGardener]

5. Agreed.

[Javaman]

10. I thought it was some undead poptart. nt

[FSogol]

11. Quoth the Poe Toastie, "Nevermore!"

[xchrom]

2. very sad, that. nt

[The Straight Story]

4. I hope when I die someone brings me some alcohol and white castles every year

[FSogol]

7. I hope my friends and admirers do that for me BEFORE I die.

[xchrom]

8. ...

[Motown_Johnny]

6. time for a copycat

someone desperate for attention may decide to carry on the tradition

[morningfog]

12. It's already been at least two individuals.

"A few indicated the tradition passed to a new generation before the original visitor's death in the 1990s..."

It would be great for someone to start it up again when the attention dies down, no that it is considered ended.

[mysuzuki2]

9. Poes been dead for 170 years

why does he need a toaster?

[morningfog]

13. FUnding cut to the museum and it will be closing. I wonder if this is why they can say

with such assurance that the tradition will not continue.

[KamaAina]

14. Wait a minute. Poe was gay??!!

Who gave him the toaster? Laura Dern's great-grandmother?