E2 is now a poorer place.
It's not that we have lost our nodes, or mission, or purpose; rather, that whistling sigh that is fading slowly from the door is all we have where once the Conscience of the King did stand, the Play no longer able to catch and hold him here.
Boys and girls, noders all, fish, fowl and plant, knowest this:
I don't know why, in the proximate or long-term causal sense. It's not really important, either; either he will tell us or he won't, and either way we must be content. I felt the need to write this node because for me, E2 has become a noticeably dimmer, frailer place without the acerbic quill and razor wit of this noder. Wharfinger was one of the first who welcomed me here, and one of the first I recognized as an intellectual force, one of those that frequent these our haunts and make of them a special place. The web is full of 'communities' and 'nests' and 'groups' and 'boards' with users, aliases, handles, what-have-you. Wharfinger was who first made this place, for me, a live thing; an arena of intelligence and effort expended on the creation, reporting, study and examination of knowledge as opposed to data, and art as opposed to drivel. Well, sometimes, at least.
This isn't supposed to blow sunshine up his ass if he reads it. Wharf, don't get me wrong; you can be (and were) the most colossal pain in the ass - but, of course, that's one of the reasons you are so valuable to this place.
We need an ombudsman.
Not in the sense of the 'officially sanctioned examiner,' nor the 'Self-appointed Expert' but one in the fashion of Puck and Lampoon and the efforts of Jack Anderson, George Carlin, Spaulding Grey and Garrison Keillor as well as Jim Carrey, Robin Williams,and David Foster Wallace in his dry midwestern dissection of our lives and place, our culture and selves, in footnotes that would fair choke a goat.
That was wharfinger, for me.
And now, apparently, no more. I can only hope that it wasn't what I did that helped to drive him off; indeed, I hope he wasn't 'driven off' but simply chose to take the road less travelled by, but again, not my business unless he makes it so.
I ask you this - all of you - don't let the hole he leaves stay sharp and plain. When you read new nodes, or messages, from now on - help keep our Quality up, and think to yourself "What would wharf do?" Sure, he might skewer it where you would not; I'm not saying do what he would have done. But think about it. Keep the thread of sarcastic self-examination, willingness to go the extra mile and unshaking stoicism in the face of torrential tides of bullshit alive.
Wharf, if you do read this, I'll keep a reading chair warm for ya.
And to all those who may downvote this or (in some cases) celebrate this departure - be my guest; I don't care what you do, but I care that you just don't get it. If that's your take, you simply have missed the point, and I'm sorry.
-the custodian- | 
