Times Piece Makes Likelihood Of Philebrity Staff Performing An Actual Graverobbing (As Opposed To The Metaphorical One We Do Here Every Day) That Much More Likely
You have to admit: When Philly-based Edgar Allen Poe scholar Ed Pettit boldly suggested last year in this City Paper article that you, him and a few buddies hop in a car, drive down to Baltimore, and spend the evening digging Poe up from his grave and then taking him back to dear old Philly, you kinda wanted to just go ahead and do it. If only because this has been the most tempting invitation to go to Baltimore that has come across your desk maybe ever. Poe (pictured, would it kill you to smile, dude, seriously) famously lived all over the place, and Pettit has been pitching his case that we should lay claim on the Poe corpse over and above all other burghs for a while now. It’s a good pitch: After all, Poe penned The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Gold-Bug while he lived here. And it just got a boost from this piece in the New York Times the other day. And like any good übernerd should, Pettit got right on his blog and got his gloat on:
Can’t you see, Baltimore? I’m not going away. We appreciate your stewardship of the Poe grave for the past few years, but it’s time to recognize that Poe should be where he belongs, in the city that helped Poe become the great artistic genius he was, Philadelphia.
This, of course, is the ramp-up for January 13th at the Free Library, where Pettit will engage in a formal debate with Baltimore’s Poe guy, Jeff Jerome.
But we’re thinking that by then, it may not be an issue anymore.
NYT: Don’t Tempt Me, B-More, You’ve Already Gone On Too Long With That Smart Mouth Of Yours
