It had, in the two years since flotation, been rumoured to be in talks with Lloyds TSB, Woolwich, a fellow erstwhile building society, and even an insurer.
However, loyalists claim that he had not fled across the border but had instead been lured "for consultations" with his erstwhile allies and fellow Tutsis.
'Norman is someone who creates a vibe wherever he goes,' his fellow DJ and erstwhile collaborator Gilles Peterson says, 'and in a way that's as much about him and his personality as it is about the music he plays.
Fred Thompson, erstwhile actor and senator, treated his fellow Republican aspirants for president like so many spear carriers Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, my fellow cigar aficionado and erstwhile friend Rush Limbaugh launched the usual outraged, breathless tirades, denouncing the Volt as a typical failed President Obama initiative, on a par, grosso modo, with the dreaded ObamaCare.
The Lib Dems won Sheffield Hallam from the Tories that year by inducing erstwhile Labour voters to rally behind a fellow left-winger against a common enemy.
Harverson set up Milltown Partners with his fellow managing partner, DJ Collins, erstwhile vice-president of public policy and communications for Google in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Both of these struck a transcendent chord: while Birbiglia addressed his youth in the Catholic church, Gopnik discoursed on his daughter's erstwhile imaginary friend and "demigod," a busy fellow named Charlie Ravioli.
