I'm not one to ignore a subject -- but in truth, a good number of us in the "411 family" have never actually met one another face-to-face, and thus it can become kind of difficult to keep tabs on people after they've mosied on down the proverbial trail.

Rule of thumb: if a writer "disappears without a trace and without a warning," chance are good that they flaked out without giving the site proper notice, and thus we were forced to scramble, cover for them, and pick up the slack at the last minute. Suffice to say, throwing a full-blown retirement party in a dude's honor is probably not at the top of our priority list.