MWABBNH=Poe? No.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Who knows? But Esme's coughing reminded sunny of mr poe.

[SnicketFires]

That could have just been a red herring, to throw us off into conversations where Mr. Poe is TMWABBNH. Sorta like this one.

[euromegamouth]

snicketfires,I love your signature!Did you make that up yourself? Back to the topic,I think Mr. Poe isn't TMWABBNH,but he'll play a VERY important part later in the series.

[Luigi]

But Poe's a VFDer, I think. That's why the waiter kept insisting that it was a sad occasion.

[AgentM]

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Why would Mr. Poe have to be in VFD for the waiter to be giving him the code message? If Mr. Poe was in VFD, wouldn't he at least know that the waiter was also an agent? Then he could have explained that he was there for something else, and the waiter would not have kept repeating the coded line. Anyway, the VFD members know that Olaf is evil, as shown by everyone's reactions when 'O' reveals himself in the meeting which we have half the transcript of. As to being TMWABBNH, this seems unlikely. Mr. Poe has apparently had his cough for a long time, as shown in his discussion with his sister at the Anxious Clown. They believed they were having a private conversation; wouldn't his own sister know if the cough was faked?

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[Pester, Rumormonger]

AgentM said:

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Why would Mr. Poe have to be in VFD for the waiter to be giving him the code message? If Mr. Poe was in VFD, wouldn't he at least know that the waiter was also an agent? Then he could have explained that he was there for something else, and the waiter would not have kept repeating the coded line. Anyway, the VFD members know that Olaf is evil, as shown by everyone's reactions when 'O' reveals himself in the meeting which we have half the transcript of. As to being TMWABBNH, this seems unlikely. Mr. Poe has apparently had his cough for a long time, as shown in his discussion with his sister at the Anxious Clown. They believed they were having a private conversation; wouldn't his own sister know if the cough was faked?

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Mr. Poe was dining with his sister, who is a noted enemy of the VFD, as is illustrated by the VFD bashing in TDP. Explaining anything to the waiter who was apparently just asking the same thing over and over would just reveal to his sister that they were in cahoots, and she would probably ruin his reputation/cover as a successful banker if his connection to the VFD were revealed.

As for knowing that Olaf is evil, the outfit that he was wearing when he first greeted the orphans could very well be a disguise, as well as his name. When the Quagmires were looking him up they had trouble finding information, which could have been caused by frequent use of psuedonyms. Maybe in the transcript O stood for something other than Olaf.

While I agree that it's extremely unlikely that Mr. Poe is the man with a beard but no hair, the cough alone doesn't prove that. Remember that volunteers are trained from a very young age, and he could've chosen to affect the cough at any time during his childhood.

This does raise a few more questions though. Is there any reason why the VFD would take Mr. Poe (does he have a first name?), but not Eleanora? Why would he be compelled to fake a cough in the first place?

[SnicketFires]

euromegamouth said:

snicketfires,I love your signature!Did you make that up yourself? Back to the topic,I think Mr. Poe isn't TMWABBNH,but he'll play a VERY important part later in the series.

Thanks for noticing! Yes, I did make it up. And I agree completely that Poe will make a re-appearance later, but I doubt that he will be helpful.

Mr. Poe (does he have a first name?),

His first name is Arthur.

[AgentM]

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Mr. Poe arrived before his sister. "MAN: He keeps saying that. When I was waiting for you to arrive he walked up to me and said the exact same thing." (UA pg. 135) If Mr. Poe arrived first, why couldn't he explain to the waiter before his sister arrived? Also, as Eleanora Poe (as you say) was working against VFD, the fact that Mr. Poe believes her (specifically in the 'don't accept telegrams' issue) could at the very least be taken as not knowing about VFD. As for Olaf, he has been referred to as Olaf by several VFD members. I recall something about Snicket planning to warn Beatrice about Olaf, but unfortunately do not recall where I read it. He is also always referred to as 'O' by other members. {At least, I assume they mean Olaf: "Your review of Funcoot's play has changed everything. O is more dastardly than we ever could have imagined" (UA pg. 96, letter from Jacques to, supposedly, Lemony)} It is possible that Mr. Poe affects the cough (thanks, by the way, as I hadn't considered that). For that matter, it always seems to hit at the most inopportune moments; i.e., when he needs time to think? I must consider this.

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[Pester, Rumormonger]

She's an innocent enemy of the VFD, in that she doesn't know who the true enemies are and was just trying to warn the general public about an organization which (on the surface at least) is very suspicious looking. She is not a bad person, and would probably warn him about the danger of telegraphs if they were actually dangerous. She's sort of like J. Jonah Jameson to spiderman- neither of them are bad guys, the hero is just misunderstood.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

AgentM said:

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Mr. Poe arrived before his sister. "MAN: He keeps saying that. When I was waiting for you to arrive he walked up to me and said the exact same thing." (UA pg. 135) If Mr. Poe arrived first, why couldn't he explain to the waiter before his sister arrived? Also, as Eleanora Poe (as you say) was working against VFD, the fact that Mr. Poe believes her (specifically in the 'don't accept telegrams' issue) could at the very least be taken as not knowing about VFD. As for Olaf, he has been referred to as Olaf by several VFD members. I recall something about Snicket planning to warn Beatrice about Olaf, but unfortunately do not recall where I read it. He is also always referred to as 'O' by other members. {At least, I assume they mean Olaf: "Your review of Funcoot's play has changed everything. O is more dastardly than we ever could have imagined" (UA pg. 96, letter from Jacques to, supposedly, Lemony)} It is possible that Mr. Poe affects the cough (thanks, by the way, as I hadn't considered that). For that matter, it always seems to hit at the most inopportune moments; i.e., when he needs time to think? I must consider this.

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U read about Lemony's warning in the AA. I used to have it in my signature but Lemony approached Beatrice and said "Beatrice, Count Olaf is" but we never finished the sentence. Also the letter from the vineyard specifically mentioned a count(olaf) so of course o is Olaf.
I don't think that Poe is in VFD either, unless he's beardy boy. He's so oblivious and stupid throughout the books that it leads u to think he's doing it on purpose and telling Olaf where they're going. But then why would he show up in almost every book to "try" to stop Olaf? Too many questions but at this point it doesn't seem likely that he's beard man.

[Pester, Rumormonger]

He could be pretending to be so obviously oblivious. It's a very fitting disguise.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

That was what I said, but then why would he come when Olaf's plan was succeeding? He tried to arrest Olaf several times, so I don't think he's in league with him. He's probably just an absent minded banker.