Carl Crossman

In 1849, the famous poet Edger Allen Poe died in a Baltimore tavern. He was known for such works as “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. Poe was buried at the Westminster Hall and Buying Ground in Baltimore. That’s where the tradition comes in.

Every year since around 1949, a mysterious figure in black dress, white scarf, and wide brimmed hat would leave a half empty bottle of cognac and three roses on the stone that marks his grave. The problem is that this year, the person did not show and has left people who are interested in this mystery bewildered. Many believe the person responsible for this long time tradition was a man named David Franks who died last week.

While the tradition is in jeopardy, there is hope that someone new will pick up the torch and continue to honor the great poet far into the future.

It’s a rare thing when someone finds a true treasure. It happened recently when the Very Rev. David M. O’Connell found one. After becoming the Catholic University president, he found a picture in his bathroom that is reported to be a Rembrandt. The etching turned out to be created by the famous 17th century artist Rembrandt Van Rijn.

While the jury is still out on whether the picture is an original, it could still be worth thousands of dollars. The painting will soon be reviewed by appraisers to see whether or not it is authentic. I hope the world will gain another great work from this exceedingly talented man!

Since last year was pretty much an economic disaster for many people around the country, I decided to take a few steps to improve my own financial situation. Starting with the New Year, I have made a resolution to improve the way I handle my money and find ways to save the money I do have. One expense that I thought I could lower was car insurance. My current rate seems a bit high and so I am looking into going with another company to provide it. It would be nice to shave a few bucks off that bill!

Another thing I have done was to investigate other options. I was lucky to run across a nice little article online that has 30 Ways to Save Money. There were a lot of interesting tidbits of information on the page and they helped remind me of some of the bad practices I had gotten into. It’s amazing how we can waste so much money on little things that don’t seem to cost much!

I was talking with my sister about the situation and she reminded me of another way to save. She told me how she had been using coupon codes from the internet to save money. I checked it out and found that I had missed a lot of opportunities to save money over the past year. I am serious about not letting that happen to me again. I hope that everyone will have the foresight to become more conscious of how we spend our money. I am sure that if you try, you’ll find a few things yourself!

When college is over, that usually means there will be a change in your life. Such was the case with my cousin James. He is ending his college career on a high note by taking a job that was offered to him in Texas. One item that nagged James was that he may have to give up his beloved Direct TV service. He had grown used to having it and wanted to take it with him.

As always, James was in luck. It turns out that anyone can continue to receive their Directv service whenever they decide to move. The service is available in a multitude of states and can be transferred with little trouble. He was glad to find this out as he is a TV fanatic who loves to watch movies.

One good part about the situation was that James didn’t have to struggle in order to continue receiving Direct TV in Texas. It was easy to do it and didn’t take a lot of time, that’s always good as James seems to find many ways to occupy himself. Now that James is off to his new career, we are all proud of his accomplishments. I do worry that he will spend more time watching TV than working at his new job. But after thinking about it, I guess that won’t be my problem.