Every year, like Santa or the Great Pumpkin, the "Poe Toaster" appears in the middle of the night -- on Edgar Allen Poe's birthday to leave half a bottle of cognac and three red roses on the writer's grave. This tradition dates back -- at the very least -- to 1949.

But on Jan. 19, 2010, Poe enthusiasts who stayed out all night to catch a glimpse of what we can only assume would have been a really, really old dude in a black trench coat and a beret, were instead just hanging out in the freezing cold in downtown Baltimore for no reason at all -- the Poe Toaster never appeared.

Last year was the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth, so it seems possible that the Poe Toaster might have been waiting for a while to have an even number to quit on, but Poe House and Museum curator Jeff Jerome told Fox News that he would continue waiting for at least another few years, because who knows what happened?

"You've got so many possibilities," he said. "The guy had the flu, accident, too many people." We admire his Linus-like faith in the mysterious, anonymous figure, and we've come up with a few other possibilities that kept him out of commission this year ...

He was more concerned with the Ravens' loss to the Colts on Saturday.
The Ravens, who take their name from the author's most famous poem (they even named their mascot after the guy), represent both the city of Baltimore and Edgar Allen Poe himself. Yet the Poe Toaster left a note in 2001, days before the Ravens played the Giants in the Super Bowl, that read:

"The New York Giants. Darkness and decay and the big blue hold dominion over all. The Baltimore Ravens. A thousand injuries they will suffer. Edgar Allan Poe evermore."

Since he's apparently passionate about the fact that he's not a Ravens fan, he might have been busy gleefully making "Flacco sucks" T-shirts in his basement.

He was shooting for the new world record in "New Super Mario Bros. Wii."
The high score in "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" has changed hands five times in the past two weeks, according to official game score-keeping Web site Twin Galaxies, including a Canadian who held it for only 20 minutes. We can attest that the game's pretty fun, and staying in and shooting for a chance at glory seems like a way more pleasant evening than braving the Baltimore cold just to leave flowers and liquor on an old, dead writer's tombstone.

He's really more into Raymond Carver these days.
Poe's stories are undeniably classic, but one can only read "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" so many times before being all, "Yeah, it was totally an orangutan who did it," and wanting something new.

And, while Poe's got a pretty deep bibliography, it makes sense that even an enthusiast like the Toaster would want to move on to some of the writers who the man went on to influence. Maybe he stopped leaving the flowers at Poe's grave in Baltimore because he was getting ready to leave some on Raymond Chandler's tombstone in San Diego.

He's just really old and didn't feel like it.
The evidence -- mostly just a couple of notes that the Toaster left on Poe's tombstone along with the roses and cognac in the '90s -- indicates that the current Poe Toaster isn't the same guy who started the tradition.

On the other hand, the whole tradition is full of mystery, hoaxes and controversies, so who really knows? What is clear is that if the original Poe Toaster is still responsible for leaving the tribute, he's got to be pretty friggin' old by now. Old people are notoriously cranky, and they hate staying up late. It's possible that he fell asleep at 8:30 and forgot all about it.

What do you think happened to the Poe Toaster?