Jack Asters Bar and Grill, Brampton, Ontario. It kills me every time see the sign above the main doors.
Blow Me Down, Newfoundland.
According to local legends, this towns name was given by Captain Messervay. Messervey was an unusually small captain who only stood at 4’2’ and upon his ships arrival into the Bay of Islands, which is surrounded by huge mountains, he prayed that they wouldn't "Blow-me-Down".
An advertisement in a Toronto bus shelter.
This Pennsylvania village was formed in 1754 and although the town was originally formerly called "Cross Keys, the name was changed to Intercourse in 1814.
There are several explanations concerning the origin of the name of Intercourse, but none can really be substantiated. The first centers around an old race track which existed just east of town along the Old Philadelphia Pike. The entrance to the race course was known as "Entercourse". Some suggest that "Entercourse" gradually evolved into "Intercourse".
Another theory concerns two major roads that crossed here: the Old King's Highway, which ran from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh (now called the Old Philadelphia Pike), and the road from Wilmington, Delaware to Erie, Pennsylvania. The intersection of these two roads was thought to be the basis for the town of "Cross Keys" or, eventually, "Intercourse".
A final idea comes from the "old english" language which was is use in the early 1800's. It refers to the "fellowship" or social interaction and friendship which was so much a part of an agricultural village and culture at that time.
Sign guy having a bad day - or just a twisted sense of humor. This sign was posted in Ontario's cottage country.
A side road sign near Massey, Ontario
Dildo is a town on the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located on the southeastern Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay about 60 kilometres west of St. John's. South Dildo is a neighbouring unincorporated community. The town's unusual name has brought it a certain amount of notoriety.
This Newfoundland village of "Dildo" has been known by that name at least 1711, though how this came to be is unknown. The origin of the word "dildo" itself is obscure; it was used as early as the 16th century for a cylindrical object such as a dildo glass (test tube), for a phallus-shaped sex toy, as an insult for a "contemptuous or reviling" male, and as a refrain in ballads.
The name, then written as "Dildoe", was first applied to Dildo Island, located offshore from the present-day town of Dildo. This use was recorded in 1711 and 1775, and the name was thereafter applied to the Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay and other local physical features. Social scientist William Baillie Hamilton notes that Captain James Cook and his assistant Michael Lane, who mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, often displayed a sense of humour in the place names they chose, and were not above selecting names that might offend overly sensitive readers. Regardless of the origin, the name has brought the town of Dildo a measure of notoriety that is not welcomed on all fronts. In the 20th century there were several campaigns to change the name, though all failed.
A Catholic mission was started here in 1860, and the town was named in 1874. The name has nothing to do with laughter, but rather from an old French word for unexpected barrier or dead end. The "dead end" refers to Lac Temiscouata, 8 km to the east, where early canoe travellers were forced to begin an 80 km overland portage to Notre Dame de Portage on the St Lawrence
Burns, known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard, was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, on Jan. 25, 1759.
He grew up in the general atmosphere of dour Scottish Calvinism, but his father's moderate religious views helped instill in Burns a spirit of tolerance and of rebellion against the grimmer doctrines of Calvinism. Although Burns's formal schooling was skimpy, he read avidly and for a time had a good tutor in John Murdoch, who gave him a thorough grounding in the 18th-century genteel tradition of English literature.
Burn's birthplace in Alloway, Ayrshire
The family worked hard on their Ayrshire farm, and the arduousness of his labor in adolescence was to have a crippling effect in the long run on Robert's health. And troubles with landlords and their agents were helping to foster in him the egalitarianism and rebelliousness against privilege which became prominent themes in his poetry. In 1784 his father died in bankruptcy, and the family then moved a few miles away to Mossgiel. Here and in nearby Mauchline the gregarious and attractive Burns embarked on his notorious career as womanizer, which extended to about 1790. (By the end of his short life he was to have fathered fourteen children, nine of them out of wedlock, by six different mothers.)
At Mossgiel, Burns's poetic powers developed spectacularly, and in 1786 he published Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect at nearby Kilmarnock. At this time Burns was 27, and he had written some of the most effective and biting satires in the language. Among them were "Holy Willie's Prayer" (a dramatic monologue which exposes the hypocrisy of a Calvinist pharisee) and "The Holy Fair" (a cynically humorous description of the Scottish equivalent of a religious camp meeting).
Other important poems which appeared in his first volume were "Address to the Unco Guid" (a moving appeal to the rigidly upright to show tolerance for the fallen); "The Jolly Beggars" (a dramatic poem celebrating ragged havenots and ending with one of the most exhilarating paeans to anarchism in any language); the masterful "Address to the Deil" (that is, to the Devil); "The Cotter's Saturday Night" (an idealization of rural Scottish virtues); the sentimental but moving "Auld Farmer's Salutation to His Mare"; and the poignant "To a Mouse" (a poem that treats the human condition through presenting a field mouse unearthed by the plow). These and other typical poems by Burns are almost unparalleled in their combination of direct colloquialism and profundity of feeling or shrewd satirical characterization. Not for centuries had such fine poetry been written in the Scots tongue, poetry of feeling that exhibited great metrical virtuosity.
But 1786 was also a year of great distress for Burns. His liaison with Jean Armour, a Mauchline girl, had resulted in the birth of twins, and the two unwed parents were exposed to public penance. In addition, Burns was in love with Mary Campbell, the "Highland Mary" of his lyric, but she died in 1786, apparently in giving birth to his child. He contemplated emigrating to Jamaica, but he abandoned the plan and spent the winter in Edinburgh, where he was lionized. Early in 1787 a new edition of his poems was published which made him famous not only throughout Scotland but also in England and internationally.
After a summer and fall spent in touring Scotland (the only real traveling he ever did), and incidentally in a renewal of his affair with Jean, Burns spent a second winter in Edinburgh. The limelight had begun to dim, but the sojourn was highlighted by the tragicomic love episode with Mrs. M'Lehose, the "Clarinda" of the "Sylvander-Clarinda" letters. This episode ended in March 1788 with Burns's decision to return to Mauchline and marry Jean, who had borne him a second set of twins.
After his marriage Burns turned his efforts to supporting his family. In 1788 he leased a farm at Ellisland, 45 miles from Mauchline. After frustrating delays in house building and an equally frustrating few years trying to wring an income from reluctant farmland, he moved with Jean and the children to Dumfries. In 1789 he had begun duties as a tax inspector, a profession in which he continued until his death.
The memorial to the Scottish poet Robert Burns, a tribute to Montréal's Scottish industrialists and financiers, represents the socially-conscious and refined romantic ideal of the community during the High Victorian Era. The memorial by G. A. Lawson stands at the western entrance of Square Dorchester. Burns looks out towards the infinite expanse of Western Canada, opened up by the rail and finance managed by the elites of the community.
At Ellisland, Burns had little leisure, but it was there that he wrote his masterpiece of comic humor "Tam o'Shanter," his one outstanding piece of narrative verse. He also wrote numerous songs (some of them original lyrics for old tunes, some refurbishings of old lyrics) for The Scots Musical Museum, an anthology of Scottish songs with which he had been associated since 1787.
From 1792 until his death he also collaborated on a similar work, A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs. Most of Burns's poetic effort in the Ellisland and Dumfries periods was in this area of song writing and song editing (he had written songs earlier but had usually not published them), and his achievement was spectacular. Among the lyrics, early and late, that he composed or reworked are "Mary Morison," "Highland Mary," "Duncan Gray," "Green Grow the Rashes, O," "Auld Lang Syne," "John Anderson, My Jo," "Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled," "A Man's a Man for A' That," "A Red, Red Rose," and "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonie Doon." These are true song lyrics; that is, they are not poems meant to be set to music but rather are poems written to melodies that define the rhythm.
Burns's years in Dumfries were years of hard work and hardship but not (as some legends began to insist) of ostracism and moral decline. He was respected by his fellow townsmen and his colleagues.
Robert Burns Mausoleum at St. Michael's churchyard in Dumfries.
His health, always precarious, began to fail, and he died of heart disease on July 21, 1796. As if in witness to his vitality, his wife gave birth to their last child on the day of the funeral.
MY BONNIE MARY by: Robert Burns (1759-1796)
O fetch to me a pint o' wine, An' fill it in a silver tassie, That I may drink, before I go, A service to my bonnie lassie. The boat rocks at the pier o' Leith, Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the ferry, The ship rides by the Berwick-law, And I maun leave my bonnie Mary.
The trumpets sound, the banners fly, The glittering spears are rankèd ready; The shouts o' war are heard afar, The battle closes thick and bloody; But it's no the roar o' sea or shore Wad mak me langer wish to tarry; Nor shout o' war that's heard afar-- It's leaving thee, my bonnie Mary!
Neil Diamond was born on January 24, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, a child of Russian and Polish immigrants. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and sang in the All City Choir with a young Barbra Streisand.
Neil once told Larry King, "I actually wanted to be a laboratory biologist. I wanted to study. And I really wanted to find a cure for cancer. My grandmother had died of cancer. And I was always very good at the sciences. And I thought I would go and try and discover the cure for cancer."
However, during his senior year in NYU, a music publishing company made him an offer he could not refuse: an offer to write songs for $50 a week. This started him on the road to stardom.
Diamond spent his early career as a songwriter in the Brill Building. His first success as a songwriter came in November, 1965, with "Sunday and Me", a Top 20 hit for Jay and the Americans on the Billboard Charts. Greater success as a writer followed with "I'm a Believer", "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)", and "Love to Love," all by the Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote and composed these songs specifically for the made-for-TV quartet.
"I'm a Believer" was the Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. Other notable artists who recorded early Neil Diamond songs were Elvis Presley, who interpreted “Sweet Caroline” as well as “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”; Mark Lindsay, former lead singer for Paul Revere & the Raiders, who covered "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind"; the English hard-rock band Deep Purple, which interpreted “Kentucky Woman”; Lulu, who covered “The Boat That I Row”, and Cliff Richard, who released versions of “I’ll Come Running”, “Solitary Man”, "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon", “I Got The Feelin’ (Oh No No)”, and “Just Another Guy.”
In 1966 Diamond signed with Bang Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. His first release on that label, "Solitary Man", became his first hit. Diamond later followed with "Cherry, Cherry", "Kentucky Woman", "Thank the Lord for the Night Time", "Do It", and others.
Diamond began to feel restricted by Bang Records, wanting to record more ambitious, introspective music. Finding a loophole in his contract, Diamond tried to sign with a new label, but the result was a series of lawsuits that coincided with a dip in his professional success. Diamond eventually triumphed in court, and secured ownership of his Bang-era master recordings in 1977.
In 1972, Diamond played 10 sold-out concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. During the performance on Thursday, August 24, which was recorded and released as the live double album Hot August Night. A few weeks later, in the fall of 1972, Diamond performed a series of concerts on 20 consecutive nights at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. Every one of these reportedly sold out, and the small (approximately 1,600-seat) Broadway theater provided an intimate concert setting not common at the time.
In 1973, Diamond hopped labels again, returning to the Columbia Records for a lucrative million-dollar-advance-per-album contract. His first project, released as a solo album, was the soundtrack to Hall Bartlett's film version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The film received hostile reviews and did poorly at the box office. The album grossed more than the film did. Richard Bach, author of the best-selling source story, disowned the film. Both Bach and Diamond sued the film’s producer. Diamond felt the film butchered his score.
Despite the shortcomings of the film, the soundtrack was a success, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart. Diamond would also garner a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture. From there, Diamond would often include a Jonathan Livingston Seagull suite in his live performances, as he did in his 1977 "Love at The Greek" concert. In 1974, Diamond released the album Serenade, from which "Longfellow Serenade" and "I've Been This Way Before" were issued as singles. The latter had been intended for the Jonathan Livingston Seagull score, but was completed too late for inclusion.
In 1976, he released Beautiful Noise, produced by Robbie Robertson of The Band. On Thanksgiving night, 1976, Neil made an appearance at The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz, performing "Dry Your Eyes", which he had written with Robertson, and which had appeared on what was then his most recent album, Beautiful Noise. In addition, he joined the rest of the performers onstage at the end in a rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released".
In 1977, Diamond released the album I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight, which included "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". He had composed its music and collaborated on its lyrics with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. The song was covered on Barbra Streisand's Songbird, and a duet, spurred by the success of virtual radio mash-ups, was recorded. The song hit No. 1 in 1978 and became his third song to top the Hot 100 to date. His last 1970s album was September Morn, which included a new version of I'm a Believer. It and Red Red Wine are the two best-known Diamond original songs to have had other artists make more famous than his own versions.
In February 1979, the uptempo "Forever in Blue Jeans," co-written with his guitarist, Richard Bennett, was released as a single from You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Diamond's album from the previous year.
According to Cotton Incorporated, "Neil Diamond might have been right when he named his 1979 #1 hit 'Forever in Blue Jeans:' 81% of women are planning their next jeans purchase to be some shade of blue." The song has been used to promote the sale of blue jeans, most notably via Will Ferrell, impersonating Neil Diamond singing, for The Gap. Ironically, Diamond himself had performed in radio ads for H.I.S. brand jeans in the 1960s, more than a decade before he and Bennett jointly wrote and composed, and he originated, the selection.
Diamond instead starred in a 1980 remake of the Al Jolson classic, The Jazz Singer, opposite Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz. Though the movie was not a hit, the soundtrack spawned three Top 10 singles, "Love on the Rocks", "Hello Again" and "America". For his role in the film, Diamond became the first-ever winner of a Worst Actor Razzie Award, even though he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the same role.
Another Top 10 selection, "Heartlight", was inspired by the blockbuster 1982 movie E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Though the film's title character is never mentioned in the lyrics, Universal Pictures, which had released E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and was the parent company of the Uni Records label, by then referred to as the MCA Records label, for which Diamond had recorded for years, briefly threatened legal action against both Diamond and Columbia Records.
Diamond’s record sales slumped somewhat in the 1980s and 1990s, his last single to make the Billboard’s Pop Singles chart coming in 1986. However, his concert tours continued to be big draws. Billboard Magazine ranked Diamond as the most profitable solo performer of 1986. In January 1987, Diamond sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl. His "America" became the theme song for the Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential campaign. That same year, UB40’s reggae interpretation of Diamond’s ballad Red Red Wine would top the Billboard’s Pop Singles chart and, like the Monkees' version of “I’m a Believer”, become better known than Diamond’s original version.
The 1990s and 2000s saw a resurgence in Diamond’s popularity. “Sweet Caroline” became a popular sing-along at sporting events, starting with Boston College football and basketball games. Most notably it is the theme song for Red Sox Nation, the fans of the Boston Red Sox, although Diamond noted that he has been a lifelong fan of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. The song is also played during the 8th inning of every New York Mets home game and at Washington Nationals home games. The New York Rangers have also adapted it as their own, and play it when they are winning at the end of the 3rd period. The Pitt Panthers football team also plays it after the third quarter of all home games, with the crowd cheering, "Let's go Pitt". Urge Overkill recorded a memorable version of Diamond’s “Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" for Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, released in 1994.
In 2000, Johnny Cash recorded the album Solitary Man, which included that Diamond classic. Smash Mouth covered Diamond’s “I’m a Believer” for their 2001 self-titled album. In the 2001 comedy film Saving Silverman, the main characters play in a Neil Diamond cover band, and Diamond made an extended cameo appearance as himself. During this period, Will Ferrell did a recurring Diamond impersonation on Saturday Night Live, with Diamond himself appearing alongside Ferrell on Ferrell's final show as a "Not Ready For Prime Time Player" in May 2002. “America” was used in promotional ads for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Finnish band HIM covered “Solitary Man” on their album, And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits.
Diamond continues to tour and record. 12 Songs, produced by Rick Rubin, was released on November 8, 2005, in two editions: a standard 12-song release, and a special edition with two bonus tracks, including one featuring backing vocals by Brian Wilson. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart, and has received generally positive reviews; Earliwine describes the album as "inarguably Neil Diamond's best set of songs in a long, long time".
Diamond's album Home Before Dark was released on May 6, 2008. On May 15, 2008, the Billboard Hot 200 listed the album at No. 1.[20] This marked the first chart-topping album of Diamond's storied career. On May 18, 2008, "Home Before Dark" also entered the UK charts at No. 1, his second British No. 1 album, after hitting the summit in 1992 with a compilation album. His 2008 tour was the most successful of any of his previous tours since 1966.
Diamond married high school sweetheart, school teacher Jayne "Posey" Posner, in 1963. They had two daughters, Marjorie and Elyn, before they divorced in 1969. In December 1969, Diamond married Marcia Murphey, a production assistant; they also had two children, both sons, Jesse and Micah. Diamond's second marriage ended in 1995. Diamond was in a relationship with Australian Rachel Farley, whom he met while she handled marketing during his 1996 Australian tour. The album Home Before Dark is largely based on Farley's struggles with severe chronic pain from a back injury she suffered, surgery and ongoing recovery. Diamond said that "She had back surgery and it wasn’t going well. She was in extreme pain for a year and the surgery did not really work. If anything, it made it worse. And I never left her side. I was within 20ft of her for the entire year that I took writing this album."
In 1979 Diamond had a tumor surgically removed from his spine and underwent a long rehabilitation process just prior to beginning principal photography for his 1980 film The Jazz Singer. Despite the fact that Diamond still suffers from back pain he still performs regularly much to the thrill of his millions of fans.
Happy 69th Birthday Neil. Thank you for 45 years of great music. May your best years be ahead of you.
It must have been in 1965 that I first heard the Wolfman's voice over this GE transister radio. The signal came I think, from a pirate station in Mexico and would fade in and out but every saturday night I would be glued to the tiny speaker.
Robert Weston Smith, the man who would become Wolfman Jack, had his first professional radio job at a station at Newport News, Virginia. When he first took to the air he took the 'air name' -- Daddy Jules -- as a way of paying his respect to the strong influence black DJs had on his early years.
In an effort to copy the sucess of Alan Freed's shows in New York, Bob opened a dance club. The integrated club -- not especially popular in 1961 -- got the attention of the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and threats were made, ending in a crossburning on the lawn of his house.
In 1962, Bob moved on to Shreveport, Louisiana where he quickly became a ratings success on KCIJ-AM as "Big Smith with the Records."
Bob soon moved a short distance from Shreveport to XERF-AM, a superpowerful radio station in Mexico, just over the border at Del Rio, Texas. It was here that the legend began to make news. With his mix of verbal antics, and raw rhythm & blues, Wolfman Jack developed a radio personality that seemed to send energy and attract attention across North America.
By 1965, Wolfman Jack had moved again to XERB-AM, another power-pumping clear channel radio station located across the border on Mexico's Baja peninsula, at Rosarita Beach, near Tijuana. Beaming his now-trademark "gravel voice", Wolfman quickly found a new legion of fans from Southern California, up through the Great Northwest, into the remote regions of Alaska and Canada. His howls and yips, and the blues and hillbilly records he spun blanketed much of the United States all night long. In between cuts, he would hawk plastic figurines of Jesus, coffins, and inspirational literature, and exhort his listeners to "get yo'self nekkid."
Soon, the national press was beginning to take notice, and stories began to surface in Time, Newsweek, Life and major newspapers around the world. Leading recording artists like Todd Rundgren, Leon Russell and Freddie King wrote chart-making songs about The Wolfman, and his popularity spiralled upward. Still, questions persisted: Who is Wolfman Jack? Where does he come from? What does he look like? Only Bob Smith knew all the answers, and he was keeping them closely guarded.
One of the teens touched by Wolfman's radio programs was budding filmmaker, George Lucas, who remembered The Wolfman when he wrote a simple screenplay, a tale of four friends in a small northern California town -- graduates of the Class of '62 -- preparing to go their separate ways. When it was released in 1973, Lucas' "American Graffiti" earned four Academy Award nominations and $55 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful films of the year. The movie also, once and for all, removed the mystery behind Bob Smith's character, and Wolfman Jack was about to make a transition from a cult figure to a full-fledged media megastar. He credited his voice for his success. "It's kept meat and potatoes on the table for years for Wolfman and Wolfwoman. A couple of shots of whiskey helps it. I've got that nice raspy sound." After "American Graffiti", The Wolfman began an eight-and-a-half-year run as host of NBC-TV's "The Midnight Special," and had more than 80 network television appearances on other networks and in syndication, as well as more than 2,800 personal appearances. He was immortalized in 1974 by The Guess Who's "Clap For The Wolfman", on which his voice is heard in the background.
In the mid 1980s, the Wolfman became host of "Rock 'n' Roll Palace" on The Nashville Network, featuring performers such as the Shirelles, the Coasters, Del Shannon, Martha Reeves and the Crickets. From there, Wolf did a series called "Classic Rock with Wolfman Jack". The show featured live performances of sixties and early seventies rock music by the original artists and was shot in Nashville and Baltimore.
By the 1990s, the Wolfman was doing a weekly syndicated radio show for Liberty broadcasting from a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Washington, D.C.
On July 1st, 1995, he had just completed a 20-day trip to promote his new book "Have Mercy, The Confession of the Original Party Animal", about his early career and parties with celebrities. "He walked up the driveway, went in to hug his wife and then just fell over", said Lonnie Napier, vice president of Wolfman Jack Entertainment.
Wolfman Jack died of a heart attack at the age of 57. He is survived by his wife, Lou Smith; a daughter, Joy Rene Smith and a son, Tod Weston Smith.
"Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.” Byron
A Very Short Biography
George Gordon Noel Byron was born 22 January 1788 in London and died 19 April 1824 in Missolonghi, Greece. He was among the most famous of the English 'Romantic' poets; his contemporaries included Percy Shelley and John Keats.
He was also a satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. His major works include Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-18) and Don Juan (1819-24).
He died of fever and exposure while engaged in the Greek struggle for independence.
This poem while never intended for publishing was written by Byron to his wife after their marriage broke up. Several reasons are given for the breakup but the likely reason was his philandering, particularly the rumour that he had been having was affair with his half-sister Augusta Leigh.
Fare thee well! and if for ever, Still for ever, fare thee well: Even though unforgiving, never 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.
Would that breast were bared before thee Where thy head so oft hath lain, While that placid sleep came o'er thee Which thou ne'er canst know again:
Would that breast, by thee glanced over, Every inmost thought could show! Then thou wouldst at last discover 'Twas not well to spurn it so.
Though the world for this commend thee - Though it smile upon the blow, Even its praise must offend thee, Founded on another's woe:
Though my many faults defaced me, Could no other arm be found, Than the one which once embraced me, To inflict a cureless wound?
Edgar Allen Poe died on October 7, 1849. A couple of days earlier he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him.
He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. Some sources say Poe's final words were "Lord help my poor soul." All medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost.
Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for deaths from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery.
In 1949, a century after Poe's death, a bizarrre ritual began to take place and contined until 2009.
In the early hours of the morning of January 19, a black-clad figure with a silver-tipped cane, presumed to be male, would enter the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore. At Poe's grave he would raise a cognac toast and place three red roses on the grave marker in a special configuration, along with the unfinished bottle of Martell cognac.
The roses were believed to represent Poe, his wife Virginia, and his mother-in-law Maria Clemm, all three of whom are interred at the site. The significance of the cognac is uncertain, as it does not feature in Poe’s works (as would, for example, amontillado). However, a note left at the 2004 visitation implied that the cognac represented a tradition of the Toaster's family, rather than Poe's.
The 'Toaster' wore a black coat and hat, and obscured his or her face with a scarf or hood. A group of reporters and Poe enthusiasts of varying size observed the event each year. A photograph, reputedly of the Toaster, was apparently published by Life Magazine in 1990.
In 2007 a 92-year-old man named Sam Porpora claimed that he had started the Poe Toaster tradition. A former historian for Baltimore's Westminster Church, Porpora claimed that he invented the tradition in the 1960s as a "publicity stunt", to reinvigorate the church and its congregation, and falsely told a reporter at the time that the tradition began on Poe's centennial in 1949.
However, reports of the annual visits date from well before the 1960s, for example a 1950 article in the Baltimore newspaper that mentions "an anonymous citizen who creeps in annually to place an empty bottle against the gravestone."
Porpora's daughter said she had never heard of her father's actions but that it fit in with his mischievous nature; but Jeff Jerome of the Edgar Allan Poe Society pointed out that the details of Porpora's story seemed to change with each telling. "There are holes so big in Sam's story, you could drive a Mack truck through them," he said.
Jeff Savoye, another officer in the Edgar Allan Poe Society, also questioned Porpora's claims, but admitted he could not definitively prove or disprove them.
Whatever the case might be, this year as crowds gathered at Poe's final resting place, noticably absent were the roses and the partly emply cognac bottle.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.'
This composite photo that was created by my companion Lyn Peelar. She calls it 'Kindred Spirits'. It has become a prized possession. It is the closest that Grey Owl and I would ever get in a photo. He died April 13, 1938 - 8 years and 8 months before I was born.
As a 9 year old boy I was absolutely enthralled by the writings of Grey Owl. Today, some 55 years later, his descriptions of the characters, wildlife and northern scenery still astounds me. It has also left me very proud, since the land that Grey Owl loved so much, from Temagami, the Mississagi River, to Biscotasing is also my home.
His Ojibwa name was Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin, "He Who Flies by Night" - Grey Owl. His real name as it finally turned out, was Archie Belaney, an Englishman and a remarkable impostor.
As a kid I was a frequent visitor first to the Cobalt and later the Elliot Lake Public Libraries. I read every book that Grey Owl wrote numerous times.
When I became older I travelled to the towns that he had written about and canoed the same rivers. When I canoed the Mississagi River I was accompanied by a film crew who recorded the event for the local Chamber of Commerce.
Grey Owl claimed that he was the half-breed son of Scotsman George MacNeill and Katherine Cochise of the Jacarillo band of the Apache, born in Hermosillo, Mexico in 1888. His father had been an Indian scout and friend of Colonel Bill Cody.
He also claimed that at the young age of fifteen, he served as a guide and packer in Western Canada. When silver was struck in the Northern Ontario community of Cobalt in 1903, he had followed the rush but was sidetracked and instead became a trapper and wilderness guide.
The shock, however, was to come a few hours after Grey Owl's death. The North Bay Nugget reported that the 'blue eyed' man was not a full-blooded Indian, nor even a half-breed.(Apparently they had known this for some time but had decided to 'sit on it').
Grey Owl was, in fact, born an Englishman, Archie Stansfeld Belaney, and reared by two maiden aunts in Hastings, England. He would not see the true wilderness until he was 18 years old.
The repercussions of the revelation shocked those who knew him and drew damnation from the press who felt they had been deluded by Grey Owl/Belaney. In the end the truth about Grey Owl the man, did not overshadow the message he was attempting to deliver:the plight of vanishing species, symbolized by the beaver. Belaney's writings still stand as classics of the Canadian wilderness, both in form and message.
The story of Grey Owl is as mysterious in truth as any fiction. As a child, Archie Belaney had submerged himself in the study of nature and the tales of the North American Indian. His childhood was introspective, and he inwardly rebelled against the stern authority of his Aunt Ada, who wished to mold Archie into a gentleman so as to not become the irresponsible drifter his father had been.
At eighteen, against the protests from his aunts, Archie broke his ties with England and immigrated to Canada settling at first around Toronto. With the news of a silver strike near Cobalt, Archie naively headed northward into the wilderness. His near total lack of practical bush knowledge nearly killed him, but at the moment of his greatest distress, good fortune placed him in the hands of woodsman Jesse Hood and a band of Ojibwa, who took him in and taught him the ways of the Ontario wilderness.
Cobalt was a rough and tumble silver town. No place for a green horn.
Archie Belaney's Attestation Papers.
With the passing years, Belaney relinquished his past life and adopted the life of the Native Peoples he so admired. Soon his identity had become so thoroughly native that on his Army papers, he was identified as a half-breed.
The Great War pulled Archie and others from the Ontario wilderness and threw them into the savagery of the European battlefield. The sights and experience of war abhorred him. After receiving a foot wound during combat and having his lungs seared with mustard gas, Archie was released as unfit for further duty and awarded a pension. Brooding from the experience, Belaney returned to his Northern Ontario wilderness.
Back in Ontario, the horrors of war took their toll on his temperament. Belaney developed such a foul temper that his career as a guide was ruined. Total disregard for his own well-being nearly ended his life on several occasions.
Grey Owls next stop was in Biscotasing. Here his life went into a tail spin. He lived in a small cabin just outside the village and his life consisted primarily of drinking, poaching and occasional trapping. Periodically he would come into town to deliver his pelts, collect a few bucks from the Hudson's Bay Company, and spent the rest of his day gambling and fighting.
Seasonal home in Bisco.
Biscotasing is a mere shadow of it's former self. A few die hards stay on, but the bulk of the population are sportmen who come to the village for a couple of weeks each year. Myself and my eldest son visited the town in the late 1980's to retrace some of Grey Owl's travels. We stayed in a small cabin that had been the former town jail. Grey Owl spent a number of nights there.
On one occasion he attempted to shoot a man named Gus Christinik, but missed. Another time, he severely beat and left for dead a man named Gordon Langevin. Luckily Langevin was found three days later, albeit at the brink of death, by a boy named Newman. Grey Owl was run out of town on more than one occasion over incidents ranging from drunk and disorderly behaviour to attempted murder.
But again, the Ojibwa took him in. Under the care of the venerable tribal elder Neganikabu, Archie Belaney was trained in the Ojibwa manhood rituals. His instruction culminated in his official adoption into the tribe.
The Englishman Archie Belaney was, for all practical purposes, dead. Born was Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin - Grey Owl.
With his rebirth, Belaney/Grey Owl's disposition changed dramatically. His hatred of the white man's world changed to indifference.
The old Forest Ranger cabin on Bark Lake. I spent a couple of days there when it was used by a local outfitter.
Carved on the walls are some of the names of various rangers that stayed at the cabin. Archie Belaney's name is among them. The building is in really bad shape and it is a shame that the province does not see fit to restore this historic building.
In the winter of 1909 an event took place in Temagami that reveals two sides of Archie Belaney – the adventurous and the courageous sides.
The Park Management had stopped all trapping in the Park except that by Park Rangers. This obviously affected the many trappers who regularly trapped in the Park. Many trappers including natives were caught in the Park and fined or lost their licence. On a bet Grey Owl decided to protest the rules and cross the Park in mid-winter as a challenge to the authorities of the Park.
The Park Superintendent got wind of the challenge and alerted his Rangers. One Ranger was Mattawa’s Zeph Nadon whose son Maurice was the Commissioner of the RCMP from 1973-1977.
Rangers Mark Robinson and Bud Callighan
The Rangers stationed themselves on the poaching trails. Archie was well into the Park and sitting by his fire when Ranger Callighan arrived. The two men camped the night prior to Archie being charged the next day at Park Headquarters. Archie woke early and slipped away but did not get far before breaking through the ice of a beaver pond and getting soaked in the bitter cold weather. Callighan followed Archie’s trail and saved him with a warm fire and took him to the Superintendent’s office – Archie’s feet were frozen and he was not fit to travel. He was cared for for three weeks and given train fare back to Temagami.
While he was in the Temagami district of Northern Ontario, Grey Owl met a young woman, Gertrude Bernard by name but called Pony. She was part Mohawk, a nation within the Iroquois Confederacy. Her native name was Anahareo, the name by which she is identified in all of Grey Owl's writings. Their brief first encounter stirred Grey Owl's emotions as no one had before. By the winter, he could no longer be without her. In a letter, he asked her to visit him. Anahareo came for a week but stayed for years, leading Grey Owl into the final chapters of his life.
In 1925, Archie met Gertrude Bernard. Anahareo, as Grey Owl soon began to call her, was a Mohawk woman from Mattawa, on the Ottawa River. Anahareo played a key role in changing the direction of Grey Owl's life. She encouraged him to stop trapping and with her support he turned his back on the lifestyle of 20 years. Needing another source of income, Grey Owl began to publish his writings.
Anahario and Dawn, the child that she had with Grey Owl
She lived in Mattawa near the big pines that are still there on hwy 17 East, on the outskirts of Mattawa until she was 19. Her mother died when she was four, and she was raised by an aging grandmother (who died at age 108) and other relatives.
She learned to love the woods from her father who was a bushworker, and who taught her snowshoeing, maple syrup making, etc. Her grandmother also taught her many traditional skills, including making leather clothing and accessories and doing beadwork, which she later did for herself and Grey Owl.
Gertrude was a physically active, intelligent, attractive, strong-willed and adventurous child. She was bored by school and skipped a lot. She had her own little hideaway in the woods. Gertrude taught the boys lacrosse and in the summer went swimming with them, which was frowned upon in those days.
When Gertrude was 19, she got a waitressing job at the Wabikon Resort in Temagami, and was given the opportunity by a rich guest from the U.S. to go to school anywhere she chose at his expense. She also met Angel Belaney and her daughter Agnes, the wife and daughter of the man who would soon change her life, Archie Belaney, a “Native” man known as Grey Owl who occasionally played piano at the lodge.
By the end of the summer, Gertrude and Archie were flirting with each other.
Gertrude was called home suddenly when a young niece died. Because of her family situation, she could not return to Temagami, but she could not get Archie out of her mind. She was about to write to him when the tall, handsome, gentleman dressed in deerskins and a wide-brimmed hat appeared on her doorstep.
Archie stayed briefly, spending most of his time with her father, and returned to Temagami. He wrote long letters every day for a couple of weeks and eventually sent her a train ticket and an invitation to join him for a few days on his new trapping grounds in Quebec. She went, and the rest is history.
For the next 11 years, their life together was a joy and a struggle. Grey Owl found that Gertrude, who was half his age, was not the silent partner he wanted. She insisted on going on his trap line with him, and was soon convincing him that this was not an appropriate way of life.
These were the happiest days of Grey Owl's life, but this love story did not have a happy ending. Gertrude wanted a life and career of her own, and was often away working as a prospector or on other jobs. She would join him regularly and eventually accompanied him to Saskatchewan when he became a Park Naturalist in Prince Albert National Park overseeing a beaver population.
By this time, Grey Owl was writing books and taking lecture tours to England, the U. S. and across Canada.
Gertrude became pregnant in 1931 and their daughter Dawn was born in 1932. By late 1936 they separated permanently.
Late one day, as Grey Owl was checking his trap line, he was abhorred to find three beaver kittens and one missing trap. Upon relating the events of the day to Anahareo, he received an intense rebuke from her. "You must stop this work. It is killing your spirit as well as mine." Grey Owl knew she spoke the truth, but how could he earn a living if he did not trap?
Map of the Temagami Area
The next morning, they canoed to the beaver lodge in search of the mother beaver who they believed had been in the missing trap. Instead they found two orphaned beaver kittens. Grey Owl and Anahareo adopted the pair, christening them McGinnis and McGinty. The child-like antics of the "Macs" completely ended thoughts of future beaver trapping for Grey Owl. After a night in which he slept with McGinnis cuddled to his neck, Grey Owl proclaimed himself: "President, Treasurer and sole member of the Society of the Beaver People." His plans for the society entailed finding a lake far away from trappers and there establishing a beaver colony and refuge.
A rare photo of Grey Owl and Anaherio is Biscotasing. This was his second time in Bisco. A somewhat more tame Archie.
To pass the winter, Grey Owl began to write accounts of the antics of the "Macs" along with his general observations on the wilderness around him. Anahareo encouraged him to submit some of these accounts for publication. Naively, they sent a manuscript to the editors of Country Life, a British magazine for wealthy landowners.
Surprisingly, the material was well received by the Country Life editors. In March, Grey Owl received a hefty cheque with the suggestion that the editors would be interested in a book-length manuscript. Joyfully Grey Owl and Anahareo returned to their cabin, but the elation was to be short-lived. At their cabin, the pair was met by their old friend Dave bearing a gift to help their financial situation: the hides of the beavers from the Birch Lake colony!
In despair, they saw their hopes for a beaver refuge sink. And with spring break-up, the ultimate sorrow descended on the pair. McGinnis and McGinty went out for an evening swim and never returned. Though Grey Owl and Anahareo searched for weeks, no trace of the two beavers was ever found.
Dave tried to console Grey Owl and Anahareo and obtain their forgiveness by presenting them with two newly orphaned beaver kittens. At first Grey Owl was reluctant to accept them, but at Anahareo's urging finally gave in. The male died after a few weeks, but the female seemed to thrive in her new environment. She grew fat and domineering, and soon it became clear that this beaver was to become the boss of the household. They named her Jelly Roll, but her bearing and regal overseeing of events at the cabin earned her the title of the Queen.
Work continued to be difficult for Grey Owl to obtain, and the lack of money again faced Grey Owl and Anahareo. By chance, Anahareo had found the opportunity to show some of Grey Owl's writings to a Montreal woman, Mrs Peck. Impressed by what she read, Mrs Peck arranged a lecture for Grey Owl. He as terrified at the prospect, describing his feelings "like a snake that had swallowed an icicle, chilled end to end." His worries were for naught, however; the lecture was a tremendous success, not only from an entertainment point of view, but also financially. Grey Owl and Anahareo now had a bank account.
With the coming of winter, Anahareo left the cabin went north to prospect for gold. Grey Owl remained at Birch Lake with Jelly Roll to write and to continue searching for McGinnis and McGinty. He wrote several articles recording the life and antics of Jelly Roll and her new consort Rawhide. It was during this winter that Grey Owl also wrote The Vanishing Wilderness, his first book, published under the titled The Men of the Last Frontier in 1931.
Thereafter, events moved swiftly for Grey Owl. His articles and lectures brought him considerable attention on both sides of the international border. The National Parks Service of Canada took an active interest in Grey Owl's dream of a beaver sanctuary. They produced a film The Beaver People that starred Jelly Roll. Now the Government of Canada was willing to establish a beaver sanctuary in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. But Grey Owl, Anahareo, Jelly Roll and Rawhide soon found that Riding Mountain was the wrong place for the sanctuary. Grey Owl appealed to the Park Service for a change in location. As a result, the new colony was moved to Lake Ajawaan in Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan.
Over the next three years, the colony grew and prospered as did Grey Owl's work. He penned his book Pilgrims of the Wild as well as a novel based on the antics of the beavers McGinnis and McGinty entitled Adventures of Sajo and her Beaver People. Grey Owl was soon known and loved throughout North America and Europe as his books, articles and films met great success.
At the heighth of his career Grey Owl gave talks in England and Europe. This particular series of talks was given in his former home in Hastings. His two aunts were present and although they both noticed something different about him, decided not to say anything.
But for Grey Owl himself, life was going stale. He longed for the freedom of the backwoods. Anahareo was restless as well and would soon leave Grey Owl and their young daughter to strike out into the bush prospecting for gold. In 1935 when Lovat Dickson, Grey Owl's English publisher and later his biographer, suggested a European lecture tour, Grey Owl consented reluctantly hoping that the tour might buoy his failing spirits and refresh his mission.
The lectures were highly successful financially and well received although a personal nightmare to Grey Owl. He felt "like a man standing naked upon a rock" when confronted by the huge London audiences. The pressure of the press and public recognition gave him no rest. Perhaps he was tormented by the false life he had been living. By tour's end, Grey Owl was a tired, old man although only in his late forties.
The notoriety he gained abroad gave him no peace at home either. With great effort, he tackled new projects including a movie about the Northern Ontario wilderness and, what was to become his last book, Tales of an Empty Cabin.
This was to be Grey Owl's final book.
In 1937, Grey Owl agreed to a second tour of Britain. The tour again appeared to be a brilliant success, culminating in a private lecture to the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. But with each appearance, a little more of the spark and fire of Grey Owl the man dwindled. As each of the 140 lectures he was to give in a three-month period passed, Grey Owl became less the vibrant man and more the performing machine. Returning home across the Atlantic, Grey Owl faced a twelve-week North American tour. During this lecture series, he predicted: "Another month of this will kill me. If I am to remain loyal to my inner voices, I must return to my cabin in Saskatchewan."
Shortly after returning to the log house beside the still frozen Lake Ajawaan, Grey Owl suddenly fell ill. He was taken to the nearest hospital in a horse-drawn sleigh. There he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Two days later, he fell into a coma, and by eight the next morning, Grey Owl was dead.
As with many other hunters, trappers and backwoodsmen, Grey Owl had became one with the wilderness and its creatures.
Gilbert Oskaboose, was a journalist from the Serpent River First Nation,in Cutler, not far from my hometown of Blind River. For a time he was the editor of the Indian and Inuit News based in Ottawa, until government funding ceased and the publication folded.
Health problems forced him into a retirement but that didn't didn't slow down his writing activities all that much. During his 'retirement' he wrote some of his most insightful articles.
Gib was a fighter. As a residential school survivor, Gib was engaged in a class action law suit against the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the federal Department of Indian Affairs for their responsibilities in the operations of the residential school system. He was an outspoken critic of a shabby cleanup effort of the Serpent River system as a result of the uranium mining activities upstream, and as an outdoorsman he was adamant that native hunting and fishing traditions be respected.
In 2000, Gib suffered a stroke and he was no longer able to continue writing. He was forced to move in a nursing home and not long afterwards after he passed away.
I first met Gib Oskaoose at the North Shore Tribal Council office in Blind River. Prior to that we knew each other only by reputation. I was a reporter working for a small weekly newspaper and he was writing for a First Nations webzine publication. He called to talk to me about an upcoming public environmental meeting that he was scheduled to make a presentation. He had a lot of information that he wanted to share so I decided that the best would be for me to visit him at the Tribal Council office. I took an instant liking to Gib. He was a big man with such a warm smile and since he loved to hunt and fish we had a lot in common.
Grey Owl... Kindred to the Wind
by Gilbert Oskaboose, Ahnishnawbek Nation
Last night I sat down with my grandson and watched Lord Richard Attenborough's recently released movie: Grey Owl.
Didn't know what to make of it. It was a heavy mournful movie of James Bond in buckskins agonizing over who he really was, Grey Owl of the lost and lonely places or Archie Belamey of High Street in London, England.
Richard Attenborough
Who really cares? Grey Owl was Grey Owl. Grey Owl may have been born Archie Belamey out of London, England but he chose to come to Canada. He chose to live with the Ahnisnawbek of Bear Island. He chose to speak our language. He chose to marry into the tribe. He chose to become one with the land and it's people. How many of us get to choose who we will become? How many of us dare to follow our own dreams and visions?
As one would expect the scenery was magnificent, much like that of that other epic: Blackrobe, an insignificant little tale of an insignificant little white priest at odds with the wilderness and the people who chose to live therein. The Ontario woodlands and marshlands at their finest. The changing seasons, each with it's own grandeur. The delight of summer, the high colors of Autumn when the Creator takes a paintbrush to the distant blue hills and paints in crimson and gold. The stark silence of Winter when hunger and death and the spirit of Windigo walks the land. All these things are my beloved homelands, mystic and traditional lands of the Ahnishnawbek people.
Pierce Brosnan as Grey Owl
The only dialogue that touched me was when an old Sioux man spoke to Grey Owl. "Men are made up of their dreams, and you have dreamt well, Grey Owl." Anaherio, the Mohawk woman who followed Grey Owl into the deep woods was played by a young native woman as pretty as a Spring morning. One could only fall in love with her, along with Grey Owl. She was the beautiful, intelligent and nurturing native woman personified. Thank you, Lord Attenborough.
Humankind has yet to learn the truths Grey Owl was here to teach. Canada is still being regarded as a vast and empty land with limitless natural resources to plunder at will. Witness the passing of the Atlantic cod and the threatened extinction of the Pacific salmon. The beaver was saved but the land still grieves under thousands of metric tonnes of radioactive wastes. Our rivers run dark with the discarded effluence of modern industries. The air we breathe has been poisoned and polluted. Great forests are being strip-mined to feed what passes for culture today.
Lord Attenborough, with due respect, has missed the point on this one. There is no mention of the mighty Missasaugi and Little White rivers. There is not mention of the great Benedong River. There is no mention of the Missasaugi delta lands and no mention of the little northern Ontario town of Biscotasing where Grey Owl lived and played. There is no evidence of Grey Owl's mastery of the language and his struggles with alcoholism, and the way he lived life like the Creator meant to be lived - to the fullest. Grey Owl drank deep from the cup of Life.
Grey Owl has walked out onto the Wind to be with the Grandfathers, but his spirit lives on in the hearts of Ahnishnawbek people. He will always be with us, a part of the First People, a shining beacon of great strength and Hope for a better future.
Dream well, Grey Owl, my dearest brother - one who moves by night....
