Spooky-ists will have greeted the Farewell of Winwaloe with mixed emotions ranging from relief to puzzlement. The question "why?" has been a subject of energetic debate among the intelligencia in the ivory towers of Reigate. Or more correctly "why?" and "who?". 

 

Why did he choose Winwaloe rather than one of the many hundreds of other Cornish saints?  Was there, indeed, truth in the rumours about mackerel/mermaids and french sticks?  Who is he?  Why the anonymity? The suggestions have ranged from the vaguely plausible - that it is the pseudonym of another Spooky-ist, even the VJ himself, to the frankly bizarre - that he is a Jacques Citizen who for professional and/or social reasons has felt the need to hide his identity.

 

Winwaloe himself knows his identity.  Others may have guessed it.  One or two remain who lost interest in the game long before he picked up the ball and refused to play any more.

 

With his departing Winwaloe leaves behind some gaps on the pages of SSI, a much relieved VJ as promulgation is eased and a bemused RT.  One thing, though, is certain, Winwaloe may have departed but he has not gone. Could he resist the temptation of finding out how the world reacts to his going?  Greetings, Winwaloe, from the other side. 

More relief than puzzlement down here. And more a "what?" than a "who?" or "why?".

 

Anyway, don't go around spreading such malicious and scurrilous speculation that Windy might return. Tell you what, if you're missing him and he does re-surface, I'll forward his e-mails straight to you. You can reply to them via me and the two of you can have your own little personal thread on SSI while the rest of us (well, definitely me and Gill so far) get on with enjoying a Winwaloe-free existence.

I wasn't.  It's just that I can't imagine that a bloke like that could resist the temptation to keep sneaking a look at SSI to see what peeps are saying about him.  Its called control. I didn't think you hated me that much.  I gave up reading his/your rants ages ago - they were sooooooo boring.  Don't know why I read the last page.  6th sense must've told be something big was going down.  No, you can keep him, if it's all the same to you.

 

I thought you'd already decided on the "what"  unprintable though it may be.

 

' still, nuff of W and on with life

Well mebbe. But just remember, Winwaloes are like atomic bombs. While it might initially seem like a good thing to be able to able to cow people into submission by threatening them with one, human tragedies of enormous magnitude invariably follow when one is actually used. Of course, I was expecting him to have a sly peek at the post-Winwaloe utopia of SSI but you appeared to be encouraging him to come back. I didn't think you hated me that much!

 

Well, at first I thought he was a bit of a twit but after he revealed his truly offensive colours I realised that it should have been an 'a' not an 'i'.

 

And so says all of us.