Happy Birthday Poe And Good Luck In The AFC Championship Game

Today is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's first and foremost writers of poems, novels and really scary short stories.  Poe was always one of my favorite authors as a kid, mainly for the creepiness of his tales but also for the fact that he was a fellow Marylander too.  Poe is strongly identified with Baltimore, where he spent a lot of his adult life and, most infamously, died on October 7, 1849, a few days after being found on a city street.

What many people don't know is that Poe spent the last years of his life in New York City, not Baltimore. In fact, he lived just a couple blocks from my apartment in the Village but then moved way uptown for quieter times in what was then "the country" but soon would became known as "The Bronx." There is a detailed article on the Bowery Boys website about Poe's final home on what is now the Grand Concourse (which I've previously blogged about on a library visit to the Kingsbridge Branch).

Finally, Poe's stories live on today to scare new generations of schoolchildren. But his legacy is also, strangely enough, a part of the National Football League. Baltimore's football team was named "The Ravens" (after Poe's classic poem) in a fan contest back in 1996.  They remain, now and probably forever, the only U.S. sports team inspired by a literary figure.  (Though "The Gatsbys" would be a swell name for the new Brooklyn NBA team.)  This weekend, Poe's team will be battling it out with the New England Patriots for the AFC title. Oddly enough, Poe's birthplace is actually Boston but I doubt he'll have many fans rooting him in Foxborough. We can only imagine what Poe might think of our modern day Gladiators doing battle for the glory of his Raven...and ol' Baltimore too.

The Thain Family Forest At NY Botanical Garden

I recently made my annual trek up to the Bronx to do some leaf-peeping in the largest remaining wild forest in New York City.  I was surprised not only by the gorgeous colors of the leaves but also that this 50 acre thatch of unspoiled woods with trees 200-300 years old has been recently renamed The Thain Family Forest.

Thain is a former head of CIT and large donor to the Bronx Botanical Garden, which has a long history of naming things for it's donors like the landmarked Edith Haupfman Conservatory.  But naming a forest seemed a little over the top (and the NY Times City Room blog agrees).  Still a forest by any other name is still a thing of beauty come the first week of November.  So here's some of my photos below....enjoy!

Bronx Zoo Cobra Still Missing But Now Tweeting

There has been a great deal in the press lately about the missing cobra at the Bronx Zoo.  It slithered out of it's cage last Friday and is now hiding somewhere inside the zoo's large reptile house.  Zoo officials seem certain there is no way the venomous asp, native of Egypt, has escaped into the wild (aka New York City).  However, yesterday afternoon, an account appeared on Twitter called "BronxZoosCobra" which seems to indicate otherwise. In less than 24 hours, he's racked up 30,000 followers on Twitter, helped along by the fact that "Bronx Zoo" and "cobra" were the top searches on Google yesterday.

From the asps' first tweet thanking the animals of "Madagascar" for their inspiration, this snake-on-the-lam has proved to have a sly sense of humor.  In other tweets, he asks if anyone knows where Rebecca Black lives and marvels at the Temple of Dendur on a trip to the Met.  I think my favorite was the tweet where he gave away his actual location:  "You can find me right in front of Original Ray's Pizza".  LOL--one thing is clear....this snake is definitely a New Yorker.

Fall In The Bronx At The NY Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is home to a 50-acre Native Forest with trees that are more than are more than a hundred years old.  There was a write-up in the TIMES last week about leaf-peeping around the city in places other than Central Park. There are natural preserves in Staten Island, Queens and even Manhattan at Inwood Park.  But I have to say that the Bronx is pretty stunning.  I was up there recently and the fall colors were amazing.  Enjoy!

 

Poe In Da Bronx

Alright-maybe that's not the most politically correct headline. But it is true--and I have photos to prove it. You see, yesterday I was on my way yesterday to the fancy & newish Bronx Library for the 5-Borough Reading of NYC Teen Author Week. As I emerged from a long D-train ride from W. 4th Street, I saw this cute little cottage sandwiched between the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road.It looked so incongruous sitting there in the middle of the major intersection in the Bronx, almost like Dorothy's house when it drops into Oz. Well, it turns out this little house on the Concourse had some serious literary history behind it. Edgar Allan Poe spent his final years there after fleeing the filth and chaos of Greenwich Village as it was doing no favors for his ill wife and his own melancholy temperament. In fact, Poe's village pad was just a few blocks from my place until NYU tore it down a few years ago and put up a plaque. Lame!

Unfortunately, the Poe house is closed right now but, as I learned at the Bronx Historical Society's website, they are building a new visitor center opening later this year. So I'll have to make a return trip as Poe is one of my all-time favorite authors. My first screenplay was an adaptation of his short story THE PREMATURE BURIAL (creeeeepy), which starred Alan Alda and Faye Dunaway....at least in my 13-year old mind. The movie never went into production, sadly...but maybe I should pitch it now that horror is huge. Alda is too old and Faye looks too weird. So who are the Alan and Faye of today? How 'bout Jon Hamm and Julia Roberts. I smell a blockbuster.