More interesting facts about Grip from the same article:

• Her favorite phrase was "halloa old girl". Like her novel counterpart, she may have also said "Polly, put the kettle on, we'll all have tea", "keep up your spirits", and "bow wow wow".

• She roamed freely around the household until she repeatedly bit the children's ankles, at which point she was banished to the stables, where she slept "generally on horseback".

• Among the items she enjoyed burying are coins, cheese, potatoes, a brush, and a hammer that was apparently stolen from a carpenter.

• She was succeeded in the Dickens household by two other "Grips" who were regarded as impudent and less intelligent.

• Upon her death, she was taxidermied and mounted above Dickens's desk until his death, at which point she was auctioned for 120 guineas (around $20,000 USD in today's money). After which, having had various owners, she was purchased by an American businessman who willed her to her current owner, the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Truly a remarkable bird.

How is a raven like a writing desk?

Poe wrote on both.

Now I'm just waiting for a horror spinoff of Untitled Goose Game.

This made my entire day

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ooks like Grip was a real-life pirate buried treasure and all, but instead of a parrot, Dickens had a raven to keep his secrets safe

My understanding is that Dickens and Poe actually met. I’ve heard two versions. One where Poe actually met Grip and one where Grip had recently died from the paint and Dickens told Poe about it.

Hollywood already bought the rights and they’re doing a movie, Cocaine raven.

What an amazing bird. I've seen birds that know a lot, some less, but nevermore

I bet it was a pound or two Sterling of paint, not a pound in weight.

At that time that would have been a shitload of paint.

Dad, mom said to get off the phone and take out the trash.

Nevermore*

*Next 2 Grips excepted

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He died from eating paint, but went out with a good finish.

Only this and never more.

Imagine how hard it is to become famous as a human. Now imagine if you were a bird.

Just be a famous person's bird.

My grandfather had a monkey who loved to eat toothpaste. He died from eating the tubes of paint my grandfather used for paintings that contained lead.

The monkey was not stuffed and mounted, afaIk

Her final thoughts were probably only regrets about how she could have caused more chaos and mischief

I don't have a great understanding of exactly how much lead was in paint back then, but considering its density as an element, a pound or two is well within reason, if there was enough of it in the paint

"I'll drink a pound or two of lead paint!" - Said the Raven nevermore

My mind is genuinely blown. I feel like I should have known this.

The last part would be fascinating if it weren't for the fact the "the Raven" was originally about a parrot, and Poe changed it.

Nice

Nepo birdy

Take it up with the historians, or the Wikipedia contributors, whichever's easier. Either way, I feel like that's the least interesting fact about Grip, but I had to include it

I’m no expert on Corvids, but I’d have to imagine a raven eating a “pound or two” of just about anything wouldn’t be doing it any favors

Grip buried a heart.

He was mounted, then stuffed.

Here's the thing. <Insert Unidan copypasta here>

So was OP's mom.

Grip needs to be a Graphic Novel.

“Western culture has never been kind to corvids, from Poe's raven to Rossini's thieving magpie.”

Varnished into thin air.

Could have framed it

Telltale.

I blame corvid 19

I have to think 1/120th of a famous taxidermied raven could buy you more than an imperial pound of lead paint back then, yeah

I went to a petting zoo with the kids the other day. There was a big ass Raven in a cage. He was sticking a piece of cardboard out of the fence, offering it to me. I went to take it, and he dropped it with the quickness and bit me. He quickly found another piece of cardboard and did the stuck it through the fence again. Sure enough, I went for it, and he tried to bite me. They are definitely intelligent creatures.

Ravens can talk?

TIL Charles Dickens is from Philly.

"I will nevermore eat lead paint."

"Good bird!"

X_X

If the first Grip wasn’t impudent, imagine how bad the next two were!

I can see Poe being sufficiently freaked out by the stuffed bird of his British equivalent that he wrote a whole creepy ass poem about it.

I watched an old lecture on Poe and the speaker suggests that when Poe realized that there had been a death in the Dickens family and that it was a raven he was THRILLED lol he was obsessed with death. According to this lecturer anyway, but his body of work does support that lol

Tagline: White beak. Black heart.

I was always taught that he was equal parts fascinated and repulsed by death, a truly "morbid curiosity". So he was freaked out by the bird but couldn't get it off his mind and wrote a strange, twisted horror-poem about it.

Makes sense to me! He was surrounded by death growing up so I can imagine there were complicated feelings there

Apparently. Here's a YouTube video called "Ravens can talk!" but he only says a couple syllables at a time. I bet if you dig deeper you can find evidence of longer speech.

Right? If attacking the dog and eating its food and biting the children is respectful, the replacements must have been pretty awful.

….ravens don’t talk

This comment brought to you by someone who didn't Google "can ravens talk?"

i did not 😆

Quoth the raven; "mmmm lead poisoning".

FF hmm z

Maybe it was given treats and associated the desk with good vibes.

She has a good shine. But shellacs permanence.

It did seem like a very intelligent animal, which makes me wonder how delicious lead paint must be.

>"I'll drink a pound or two of lead paint!" - Said the Raven nevermore

Probably went straight to its hips

I recited The Raven to a raven in the Big Bear Zoo. It enjoyed it. Good times.

I also visited Rhode Island last year and randomly came across the house of the chick that PoE was simping for. As I walked down the cold snow lined street past the church graveyard that was literally her backyard, a huge cloud of raven's took off from the trees there and looked quite ominous in the winter night.

Wow.

I find it ironic that the origin of “Baltimore Ravens” is likely lost on most people who are into that sort of thing.

I've wondered this myself, as apparently it was a big problem back in the day that unattended children would just munch on paint chips and get lead poisoning.

Not knowing about the poem is one thing, but I can forgive people not knowing it's ultimately about a sassy bird that Charles Dickens kept as a pet

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…was originally from Baltimore

Lead is sweet tasting, paint is attractive looking.

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Intubated, at least?