Explanation 

My revdeleted comment was a bad-tempered response to a deliberately needling statement from someone who has a bit of history when it comes to doling out such statements. I explained this when contacted by  on Sunday, in my message to him at 10:32 UTC. I emphasised that my words were figurative and in the context of what had been said by the other contributor. I also asked Philippe to reassure that contributor of various things, including that I know nothing about them, that I neither have nor have access to any weapons beyond the sort of thing usually found in a UK home, and that there was no intent to do anything in particular except leave in utter frustration of the bad faith etc flying around. I assume that message had been passed on by around 19:55 UTC latest, which is when Philippe replied to me.

I haven't looked at Wikipedia since that bad-tempered retort and would not have looked at it now if it were not for someone asking me to post some sort of comment. I'm not reading through the stuff above, nor looking at the ANI thread that I'm told was opened.

Until certain things happen, some on-wiki and some involving an issue that the WMF are looking at off-wiki, I'm gone from here. I'm pretty sure that those certain things will happen but I doubt that they will do so soon, and it may be that I decide not to return anyway. Frankly - and I know this will seem arrogant - that would be Wikipedia's loss, not mine. 

If/when I do return, I'll be notifying quite a few people that I would rather they stayed away from my talk page, which is something I've always been reluctant to do in the past. I'm fed up of lynch mobs and gangs here, so anything that helps to reduce the baiting is A Good Thing. As a rule of thumb, if you've baited  in the past, you can assume that you'll be on the list because, although often I do not publicly support him, that seems to be the common denominator among those who bait me. The gang can go elsewhere, while I hope that Eric and myself will continue to agree/agree to differ as and when appropriate and in an adult manner. We can get on with improving content; the baiters can carry on doing whatever it is they want to do elsewhere.

My thanks to everyone who has contacted me. It was just a bad-tempered response: I'm perfectly happy in life, if slightly miffed at the increased distances I'm having to travel due to some unfortunate Wiki-related events. -