It’s the end of the blogsphere as we know it, and dagnabit I don’t feel fine. Why? Fake Steve is retiring. Former Forbes columnist Dan Lyons, who once panned bloggers and later rose to internet stardom after being exposed as one of the most infamous — and best in some opinions — bloggers of them all, is heading to Newsweek and will be switching his posting over to his own name. No doubt his content will continue to be razor sharp and wickedly insightful — if not inciting — but Fake Steve has become such an icon of the Web 2.0 age that I can’t help but think the loss of Dear Leader, El Jobso, the wake-and-baker himself will leave the net just a little emptier.

Sappy much? Go read his Greatest Hits (scroll down the sidebar) if you haven’t already. iPhone fans may want to start here.

Now let’s all raise our precisely 98 degree organic, monkey-picked health teas (in bone-white #7 porcelain cups) in toast, b’okay?

Namaste Fake Steve. We honor the place where your sarcastic wit and our laughter met.