Toaster

Regarding your story, "Mysterious Poe visitor doesn't show for 2nd year" (Jan. 19), the only mystery is that it has taken the old boy this long to figure out that he needs to toast Poe's birthdays in the city where the happy event took place, which would be, let me see, not Baltimore but, oh that's right, Boston! Rumor has it that the Toaster, having recently moved, has been spotted walking from the Frog Pond on Boston Common, which Poe loved to joke about, over to the recently dedicated Edgar Allan Poe Square, in search of 62 Charles Street South where the great American author and critic was born.

SocialToaster, a Baltimore startup, is doing something that's not terribly easy to do: it's monetizing social media distribution. Here's how it works: If you're a brand or digital publisher, you use SocialToaster to register a bevy of "ambassadors", or "Super Fans", who get early access to your news and promotions. Here's the thing about these ambassadors: They're very socially connected, and they like to share online. A lot. Brands with lots of loyal fans -- think NFL sports teams, for instance -- are using SocialToaster for high engagement with their fans.

Is one of Baltimore's quirkiest traditions -- the Poe toaster -- dead? In the dark of night, on Jan. 19, the author's birthday, a mysterious, anonymous toaster had for years left cognac and roses at his grave outside Westminster Hall. Now that the stranger has failed to show up -- for the third straight year -- some are declaring an end to the tradition. Here are a few graphs from a story by The Baltimore Sun's Chris Kaltenbach writes: Early Thursday morning, a tired Jeff Jerome, curator of the city's Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, "officially" pronounced the Poe-toasting tradition over.

Could it be that the mysterious visitor to the Edgar Allan Poe grave through the years ("Poe's birthday party loses a famous guest," Jan. 20) was none other than the late Morris Martick, the Baltimore restaurateur who passed away in December? Think about it — ever more! Sam Quigg, Fells Point

* Item: Toaster Breaks Melts* What you get: 6 sandwiches* Cost: About $2* Preparation time: One to two cycles in toaster* Review: Television commercials for these bake-in-the-toaster snacks seem to be aimed at the after-school set. If so, the Hot Pockets people who make them have hit their target. While my husband and I liked the meat-and-cheese-filled turnovers, my 13-year-old baby sitter and her 11-year-old sister loved them. We each tried three flavors. My husband enjoyed the Ham and Cheese, but would have preferred something a bit more substantive.

Item: Eggo Toaster Muffins What you get: 6 slices Cost: About $2.25 Nutritional content: Cinnamon - 130 calories, 4.5 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 270 milligrams sodium; Blueberry - 120 calories, 4 grams fat, 0.5 gram saturated fat, 250 milligrams sodium Preparation time: One or two cycles at lowest toaster setting Review: Who would've thought this muffin-French toast hybrid would taste so good? My daughter loved these cut in fork-size pieces and topped with syrup. I liked grabbing one out of the toaster and eating it plain, one-handed, while I tended to the baby, got my oldest ready for school or performed one of those countless other morning "Mom" tasks that usually leave me no time for breakfast.

Pasteries make ideal breakfast for hurried set * Item: Pillsbury Toaster Scrambles * What you get: 6 one-pastry servings * Cost: About $2.20 * Preparation time: Just toast and eat * Review: The idea of egg-filled pastries warmed in the toaster was enough to make me want to put this box of Toaster Scrambles back in the frozen-food case. But after trying Pillsbury's latest a.m. edition, I'm glad I persevered. We sampled the Cheese, Egg and Bacon, and Cheese, Egg and Sausage flavors. Both offered relatively fresh ingredients in a light, buttery crust, making this an ideal breakfast for someone on the go. Even my dad -- who prefers his eggs fried and straight from the frying pan -- gave Toaster Scrambles high marks.

Oster toaster goes a long way toward making perfect slices Burning toast is a time-honored tradition in my household, so you can imagine how surprised I was to learn that getting toast, bagels and English Muffins toasted properly is now just another problem solved by technology. Oster, the folks who have made toasters and other kitchen gadgets for years, have come up with a line of technologically advanced toasters that allow you to dial through buttons and an LCD display how dark your slices of bread should be when toasted.

The thing I like best about being a journalist, aside from being able to clip my toenails while working, is that sometimes, through hard work and perseverance and opening my mail, I come across a story that can really help you, the consumer, gain a better understanding of how you can be killed by breakfast snack food.This is just such a time. I have received, from alert reader Richard Rilke, an alarming article from the New Philadelphia (Ohio) Times-Reporter headlined: "Overheated Pop-Tarts Cause Dover House Fire, Officials Say."

Is there any way to get day-old bagels to taste as fresh at home as they do when they come straight from the bakery? You can come pretty close. First, there is the matter of storage. When I buy bagels, I store the day's ration in a loosely closed paper bag at room temperature. I put the rest into a large resealable plastic bag, suck out the air using a plastic drinking straw, seal and freeze. To rejuvenate a frozen bagel, take it out of the freezer an hour or so before you want to eat it. Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.

Even in a city defiantly proud of its quirks, the Poe Toaster stood out. Every year for more than half a century, in the early-morning hours of Jan. 19, a mysterious figure would quietly leave three roses and a half-emptied bottle of cognac on the grave of Edgar Allan Poe — a birthday tribute to a towering literary figure. But early Thursday morning, for the third year on a row, the Poe Toaster was a no-show, signaling an end to one of the city's most enduring — and most mysterious — traditions.

Is one of Baltimore's quirkiest traditions -- the Poe toaster -- dead? In the dark of night, on Jan. 19, the author's birthday, a mysterious, anonymous toaster had for years left cognac and roses at his grave outside Westminster Hall. Now that the stranger has failed to show up -- for the third straight year -- some are declaring an end to the tradition. Here are a few graphs from a story by The Baltimore Sun's Chris Kaltenbach writes: Early Thursday morning, a tired Jeff Jerome, curator of the city's Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, "officially" pronounced the Poe-toasting tradition over.

This sounds like a terrible way to start your day. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of 300,000 classic chrome two-slice Hamilton Beach toasters after 15 reports of toasters that did not pop up as intended, igniting the contents. In three cases, there was minor damage to kitchen cabinets, but no injuries. How did the fires start? The heating elements continued to heat indefinitely, apparently. The toasters were sold in stores and online from February 2008 through June 2011 for about $30 to $40. According to the CPSC: "The Hamilton Beach recall involves model 22600 toasters with specific series codes.

I just finished reading Paul Lewis' tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor of The Sun ( "Maybe the Toaster finally figured out where Poe was born," Jan. 23), in which he comments on Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious toaster presumably resurfacing in Boston. I at first took umbrage at the tone of the letter, taking Mr. Lewis' comment "...when Poe died there during what was supposed to be a brief stopover... " as an insult to Baltimore, implying that Baltimore has little, if any, claim to Poe's legacy.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Poe Toaster. Now that smoke from the supposed failure of the Poe Toaster to materialize on Jan. 19 has cleared, it is time to consider the fundamental question: Did the Poe Toaster appear, or not? I was among the crowd gathered outside the graveyard at Baltimore's Westminster Hall, hoping for a glimpse of the Poe Toaster — the mysterious visitor who, since 1949, had crept unnoticed into the ancient graveyard on that date, leaving cognac and flowers on the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. The conditions could not have been in better harmony with the event, the wet streets reflecting the dull yellow glare of the streetlights and bathing the entire scene in a Victorian, gas-lit hue. The crowd, however, was solemn — subdued not by the rain or the cold but by the Toaster's unexplained failure to appear the previous year.

Regarding your story, "Mysterious Poe visitor doesn't show for 2nd year" (Jan. 19), the only mystery is that it has taken the old boy this long to figure out that he needs to toast Poe's birthdays in the city where the happy event took place, which would be, let me see, not Baltimore but, oh that's right, Boston! Rumor has it that the Toaster, having recently moved, has been spotted walking from the Frog Pond on Boston Common, which Poe loved to joke about, over to the recently dedicated Edgar Allan Poe Square, in search of 62 Charles Street South where the great American author and critic was born.

Maryland's second-highest court yesterday ordered the state labor commissioner to reconsider penalties he levied against Bethlehem Steel Corp. for safety violations in 1993 after a worker was electrocuted by a defective toaster in a Sparrows Point lunchroom.The Court of Special Appeals ruled that former Commissioner of Labor and Industry Henry Koellein Jr. incorrectly applied state safety codes Nov. 15, 1993, when he fined Bethlehem Steel $3,460 in the death of Raymond Pritts.Mr. Pritts, 53, of Baltimore, was electrocuted Aug. 17, 1990, when he put his right hand on a defective toaster oven while his foot was touching an air conditioner.

Toaster snacks a hit with younger setItem: Pop-Tarts Snak-StixWhat you get: 6 servingsCost: About $1.80Preparation time: Eat from package or warm briefly in toasterReview: Kellogg's is billing its newest addition to the Pop-Tarts line as a snack for kids and parents on the go. The Snak-Stix is basically a traditional Pop-Tart sectioned into three break-apart pieces and packaged in a resealable foil pouch. While I found the frosted sticks with the graham-cracker crust a little sweet, my 2-year-old loved them, as did a 4-year-old neighbor.

Talk about a midnight dreary. Dozens of fans of Edgar Allan Poe were left standing out in the cold Tuesday when a mysterious nocturnal visitor didn't keep his standing date to toast the author at his Baltimore burial plot. The so-called Poe Toaster's absence yesterday for the first time in more than 60 years has renewed the decades-long fascination with the visitor's identity. It's also an ominous indication that a beloved local ritual, a cherished example of Baltimore quirkiness, might be coming to an end - a possibility that the poet's partisans hurry to deny.