# Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603 "2007-01-19T18:22:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/21 "2007-01-22T23:26:13Z")
‘for the love of god, montressor!’ 😃 it’s amazing how many people have NO idea what i’m talking about… happy belated birthday, edgar. the colour out of space. best. poe. tale. ever. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/22 "2007-01-23T01:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] His grave is in Baltimore. For some odd reason, every year on his birthday, an “unknown visitor” leaves a bottle of cognac and roses on his grave. [/QUOTE] I went to law school at the University of Maryland at Baltimore – a grad-schools-only campus which includes the abandoned church and churchyard where Poe is buried. So I got intimately acquainted with Poe legends, including that one. Curious that when Baltimore (long abandoned by the Colts) got an expansion NFL team, they called it “The Ravens.” (Poe having been born in Boston and died long before American football was invented.) As opposed to some truly Marylandish name – say, “The Crabs.” “Yes, the Crabs were all over the Cowboys today, Bill!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/23 "2007-01-23T01:46:34Z")
[QUOTE=Scubaqueen] the colour out of space. best. poe. tale. ever. [/QUOTE] Ermmm . . . [no, it wasn’t.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_out_of_space) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/24 "2007-01-23T01:48:37Z")
Here’s something I once read in a trivia book: When Poe was a cadet at West Point (honestly! and Timothy Leary was too!), the student body was ordered to turn out for a parade in “white boots, white belts, under arms.” So Poe showed up wearing his belt, boots and rifle, and nothing else. He was shortly expelled. No cite. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/25 "2007-01-23T02:14:21Z")
[hijack]NPR recently had a feature on his Poe’s cousin, George. He ran a chemical plant and sold nitrous oxide to dentists. He also was a pioneer in the field of artificial respiration. He travelled from city to city, asphyxiating rabbits and reviving them with his device. In the Poe family, Edgar Allen didn’t have a monopoly on creepiness.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/26 "2007-01-23T07:43:21Z")
Well, to celebrate Poe’s recent birthday–and mine today–I went out and bought a volume of his _Complete Tales and Poems_, the Alan Parsons CD, and the Poe action figure. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/27 "2007-01-24T05:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Ermmm . . . [no, it wasn’t.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_out_of_space) [/QUOTE] oops. my bad. heart was in the right place, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603/28 "2007-01-24T21:33:33Z")
> [@](#): > > oops. my bad. heart was in the right place, though. You mean, under your floorboards? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-birthday-mr-poe/388603.md?page=1)