Happy Belated Birthday to Our Dark Grandfather, as the "Poe Toaster" Goes Missing

Edgar Allan Poe, the headwaters of nearly all great American Gothic, horror, and darkly weird tales, would have been 202 yesterday, January 19, 2011.
 
On this topic, had any of you heard of  this, as reported in the Los Angeles Times?:

BALTIMORE (AP) — Telltale hearts beat with anticipation during a rainy, midnight dreary and beyond, hoping the mysterious visitor to Edgar Allan Poe's grave would return after a one-year absence.

But once again, the unknown person who for decades has left three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's grave on the anniversary of the writer's birth failed to appear Wednesday, fueling speculation that he may have died.

Four impostors came and went overnight. The real one never showed. Around 5 a.m., the dozen Poe fans who were left began to wonder if the eerie ritual is indeed nevermore, so they walked to Poe's tombstone and performed their own tribute by leaving roses and drinking a cognac toast.

A fascinating tradition that ran for some 60 years and was never fully explained appears to have ended at the downtown Westminster Hall and Burying Ground.

I hope you're finding the peace in the Afterlife that you sadly couldn't in Life, Grand Dad.  We owe you all the beautiful darkness we have.