Mark our words-- a few years down the line, some daring young filmmaker is going to produce a film that will redefine the much-maligned "splatter flick" category. You can forget about I Dismember Mama, Dr. Giggles can take an early retirement, and Three on a Meathook will pale in comparison. Nothing will compare to this film's excess of gore; the elevator full of blood in The Shining will look like a mere rivulet in comparison. And when the sheer extremity of the onscreen carnage gets the filmmaker on the talk show circuit and Regis asks him what inspired such a sick, blood-soaked movie, he's going to reply, "Do you remember what happened to the stock market in late September of '99?"

Seriously, in their analysis The Mac Observer referred to today's trading as a "market bloodbath," and from what we can tell, few people involved in the slaughter first-hand are likely to accuse them of hyperbole. Just about everything was down: the Dow fell over 200 points, the Nasdaq lost over 100, and our recently oh-so-fortunate buddy AAPL suffered another heavy sack beating, losing seven more points to close at a smidgen over 63-- down from 80 early in the week. Apple had already been weakened by the earnings warning it had issued earlier in the week, and today the whole market spun out of control, prompted by uncertainties following the disastrous quake in Taiwan and by the comments of Microsoft prez Steve Ballmer, who came right out and admitted that "there's such an overvaluation of tech stocks it's absurd-- and I'd put [Microsoft's] stock in that category." Ohhhhh boy...

So anyway, as we were saying, Apple's stock is now hovering around 63-- still higher than it was a month ago, but a solid seventeen points lower than where it was on Monday. Now, remember how all those analysts were reiterating their "buy" ratings and calling Apple's recent fall a "buying opportunity?" Well, if 73 was a buying opportunity, then we figure 63 qualifies as a Blue Light Special with double coupons and a free sample of Turtle Wax. Not that we're actually recommending that viewers buy now while the getting's good; we are ignorant of most financial matters and therefore we're completely unqualified to hand out market advice. All we can say is, it's mighty tempting to break into our new server fund while AAPL's this cheap just prior to mass iBook availability and the introduction of the "Kihei" iMacs...