Someone was able to operate a historic property and museum for $80K a year? That's pretty damn impressive.

I hear they're packing up and heading for Indianapolis.

Guess they forgot the last part of that little story.

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

UNC_Samurai: Someone was able to operate a historic property and museum for $80K a year? That's pretty damn impressive.

very impressive. Hell I bet my local county museum by our courthouse cost that much if not more to run.

Link

ToddMU03: I hear they're packing up and heading for Indianapolis.

Oh...oh that hurts. Well played sir, well played. Mayflower moving trucks took a serious hit to their business after that.

Quoth the city, "Nevermore"


I guess they decided there is no reason to keep it around now that the anonymous person no longer comes to visit.

INeedAName: Mayflower moving trucks took a serious hit to their business after that.

Because people in Baltimore are retarded?

tear it down and build a starbucks

/just kidding

There are apparently several house he lived in that are preserved and he only lived in this one for 3 years.

The bar he was last seen drinking in before he died still stands. That's a far more fitting monument to him.

Col. Ripper unavailable for comment

Sad story but i lol'd at the headline so it's all good

The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

ToddMU03: I hear they're packing up and heading for Indianapolis.

Came here to say this :)

meow said the dog: Will they replace this with the Justin Bieber house or the Fat Americans without the Education house?

Damn MSTD - you're slipping. Except for an extra "the" toward the end, that was perfectly lucid!

Nevermore

/liked it read by Vincent Price
//eat my shorts

dobro: The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe are mere hacks compared to this literary genius:

Answer to this dilemma:

1. Set up a "Save The Poe House" website.

2. Establish a PayPal account.

3. Broadcast the website and the save effort on fark, facebook & twitter.

4. Send whatever is collected to Jeff Jerome.


I'm in the checkout lane anyhow so this is just my idea. It will give all those people decrying how awful the city's hate of history and heritage is a chance to show that people really sometimes do something other than just tap out their outrage on the internet.

meow said the dog: Will they replace this with the Justin Bieber house or the Fat Americans without the Education house?

That was awesome. Seriously though, the decay in America's arts and literature and especially the lack of preservation of both deeply disturbs me.

mjoven1975: dobro: The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe are mere hacks compared to this literary genius:

Is that real? THAT pile of fermenting uselessness wrote a BOOK! I am scared.

eeeleeet: mjoven1975: dobro: The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe are mere hacks compared to this literary genius:

Is that real? THAT pile of fermenting uselessness wrote a BOOK! I am scared.

You owe it to yourself to read some excerpts. They're readily available.

Perhaps Baltimore needs to find a more relevant local culture icon to memorialize.

The John Waters Museum? You know there's gonna be some REAL interesting exhibits there. And the leather gift shop sales will be a lot more profitable than selling out-of-copyright paperbacks.

eeeleeet: meow said the dog: Will they replace this with the Justin Bieber house or the Fat Americans without the Education house?

That was awesome. Seriously though, the decay in America's arts and literature and especially the lack of preservation of both deeply disturbs me.

An uneducated population is easier to manipulate. We have corporations to support and brown people to blow up, and writers like Chomsky get in the way of that.

During bad economic times, the arts are the first things to go. They produce nothing of perceived value, and, most people who would support their endeavors are struggling to support themselves. If it feeds a family for a year, shutter a wing of a museum.

evilmrsock: You owe it to yourself to read some excerpts. They're readily available.

She "writes" about herself as a character named Gia:

Even in the dark room, his blue eyes dazzled Gia. Ice blue. Something about light eyes on dark skin always made Gia's body temperature rise. The music was too loud to talk, not that it mattered. Gia wasn't interested in making a deep soul connection. Tonight was all about the three D's: Drinking, Dancing, and Duh.

"Are you from around here?" she yelled.

"You got a nice rack," screamed Rocky in reply.

Well, yeah, she thought. Okay, not a supergenius. That was fine. Gia didn't judge. She was glad he approved.


Well, at least it was good for helping me get the phlegm out of my throat.

FTFA:

City officials said they are not abandoning the Poe House and remain optimistic. The city put out a request last fall for a plan to make the museum self-sustaining and received four bids, planning director Tom Stosur said.

The winning bidder will be hired as a consultant to implement the business plan, with the goal of turning the Poe House over to new operators by the time its funding runs out in June 2012.

So the city won't fund it, but they're going to keep it open with private ownership. Hey, if the free market wants it to continue, then people will pay directly. I've never been, sounds like a good time to plan a trip.

They use his example to name their NFL team, but they don't think they should keep his house going? Maybe the Ravens should put up the 80K... because it's the right thing to do?

damitjim: They use his example to name their NFL team, but they don't think they should keep his house going? Maybe the Ravens should put up the 80K... because it's the right thing to do?

The team probably pays more in fines per year than it takes to run the place.

In todays logic I suppose they could sell the rights to say, "this is the row house that Poe lived in," to some other city or country.

Time for a Goth fundraiser!

damitjim: They use his example to name their NFL team, but they don't think they should keep his house going? Maybe the Ravens should put up the 80K... because it's the right thing to do?

Question marks mark questions.

eeeleeet: mjoven1975: dobro: The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe are mere hacks compared to this literary genius:

Is that real? THAT pile of fermenting uselessness wrote a BOOK! I am scared.

No, she didnt. she explained a plot to some other guy who wrote the book and they threw her name on the cover.

perhaps for 80 grand they could just fire some mid level bureaucrat.

Government employee unions are constructed far to well to allow for the dismissal of someone to save something important.

Vincent Price was outstanding doing The Raven, but if you ever get a chance to hear James Earl Jones do NOT miss it.

ms_lara_croft: /Baltimore native.
/Been to Poe House several times.
/Poe's one of my favorite writers

Personally, I have no problem with them removing funding. Actually, it seems very fiscally wise. Given a choice between this and, say, plowing snow or police salaries, there's no question where tax dollars should go. There's no question that cutbacks MUST be made. This seems an excellent choice.

Note that the city didn't say they were shutting it down. They just said it needed to become self sufficient. IMO, if admission fees and an onsite / online retail store don't pay for its modest operating costs, then it's not attended enough by the public to warrant keeping open.

ms_lara_croft: eeeleeet: mjoven1975: dobro: The museum should be in Boston, Poe's birthplace. And I would disagree with "America's most famous writer". That, I think, would be Twain. Big Poe fan also. Don't get me wrong.

Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe are mere hacks compared to this literary genius:

Is that real? THAT pile of fermenting uselessness wrote a BOOK! I am scared.

Here's a quote from it. Just run a web search. There's more.

"Gia danced around a little, shaking her peaches for show. She shook it hard. Too hard. In the middle of a shimmy, her stomach cramped. A fart slipped out. A loud one. And stinky."

Gaaaahh! Make it stop! Something something fire, just to be sure.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I websurfed, weak and weary,
...Over many a strange and spurious website of 'hot chicks galore',
...While I clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning,
...And my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour.
..."'Tis not possible," I muttered, "give me back my cheap hardcore!" -
Quoth the server, "404".

/Farkers, I am disappoint. No one dropped this in here yet?

NoWhiskeyWeGoNow: Vincent Price was outstanding doing The Raven, but if you ever get a chance to hear James Earl Jones do NOT miss it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU3RfB7308

Someone needs to put this audio to Darth Vader footage.

eeeleeet: meow said the dog: Will they replace this with the Justin Bieber house or the Fat Americans without the Education house?

That was awesome. Seriously though, the decay in America's arts and literature and especially the lack of preservation of both deeply disturbs me.

Are you having a hard time finding Edgar Allen Poe's works at your local bookstore? If so, might I suggest Amazon, which carries over 8,000 titles relating to him. (new window)

The fact that one of Poe's many houses might (and I stress the might, because the museum does not exist solely on city money) no longer be a museum has very little to no impact on whether or not people in the US are learning about Edgar Allen Poe. I am a very well-educated person in my 20s who has read Poe's works along with those of several other great American writers and somehow have never even once traveled to Baltimore to look at one of his former residences.

This has also worked for other great authors as well. I've somehow managed to get my hands on several of Dickens' works without having ever traveled to England once.

Quoth the Raven, "BS."