The crabcake-stuffed cranks at the Baltimore Sun unleashed a scathing response to last week’s City Paper article by writer Edward Pettit, which offered a lengthy argument as to why the long-rotted corpse of Edgar Allan Poe should be returned to Philadelphia. Pettit claimed that Baltimore’s housing the author’s body was the equivalent of a “literary grave robbing,” and was hopeful that old, dead Poe would be returned to our city in time for his 2009 bicentennial birthday.
The Sun piece offered some inspired quotes from Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, located in a Baltimore hovel called “Charm City”: “Keep your greasy, onioned, sub-stained hands off Poe!” After a few more feyishly aghast quotes, Jerome then said he’s going to take Pettit out to lunch and “punch him the eye.”
The Sun then summoned Baltimore Ravens PR lackey, Patrick Gleason, to lob his own flaccid opinion: “I’d like to know where, exactly, are their eagles?” Gleason said. “I’ve seen pigeons but never eagles in the city.”
(Gleason obviously doesn’t know that this is a sore spot, especially since Philadelphia’s skies were once filled with thousands of buoyant eagles — until Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and his thug entourage came to town in 2004 and stabbed them all to death.)
The CP editorial staff is bemused by the Sun swipe. EIC Duane Swierczynski tells the Daily Examiner via e-mail: “We stand by our story. I’m deeply saddened that Mr. Jerome went for a low blow with his ‘greasy, onioned, sub-stained’ comment. Not once did we make an Old Bay crack. Not. Once.”
“Anyway, if Poe were alive today, he’d be … well, he’d be kicking and screaming inside of his coffin, begging for release. But beyond that, he’d be hitching a ride up to Philly in a tell-tale heartbeat.”
Managing editor Brian Hickey was also upset by the article, but not that surprised. His response via e-mail: “I’d expect nothing less from the syphilis capital of the universe.”
Neither do we.
We’re Taking Poe Back [City Paper]
We have the body, and we’re keeping him [Baltimore Sun]
Poe’s Ours [CP]
Shooting down an earlier report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that the Baltimore Ravens were thinking about putting together a substantial package to acquire Donovan McNabb’s quarterbacking services, Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome said the notion is preposterous.
