Everybody can relax now, because Mr. Keynote is back in the saddle. Let's get back up to speed, here; first Steve Jobs cancelled his scheduled keynote appearance at London's Apple Expo 2000, which subsequently led to the collapse of the whole show. Rumor had it that his motive was the desire to deliver a different keynote instead-- at Spring Internet World in Los Angeles, five thousand miles away. But then just two weeks before that event, Steve bailed again, forcing the show's organizers to scramble to recruit AOL's Steve Case to fill Jobs's slot. Steve's reason for the Internet World cancellation? According to rumor, he felt that the LA Convention Center's ceiling is too low. Hey, cut him some slack-- the man's mercurial, and mercurial people evidently do goofy things like this from time to time. (Case, on the other hand, is apparently immune to the anti-keynote effects that a low ceiling can invoke.)

Still, while we're the first people to give Steve room to behave, er, "eccentrically," we can't help but get a little nervous when the man known for delivering the World's Greatest Keynotes™ starts cancelling gigs. It's almost like the man's developed a case of stage fright or something. By all accounts he seemed fine on stage during his last two Macworld Expo appearances, but with audiences comprised of thousands of worshipping Macophiles, those are as close to "home turf" as it gets. Apple Expo 2000 may have been a tougher crowd, given the antagonistic stance Apple appears to have taken regarding the U.K. in recent years. And Internet World? Well, who knows-- that's a mixed bag, for sure. And while Steve and his Reality Distortion Field could probably even get the Society for the Elimination of Macs chanting his name in tearful worship, we think he might be getting cold feet as far as these keynotes go.

But fear not; Steve's returning to home turf to get his confidence back. According to an Apple press release, Steve's all set to strut his stuff before the Mac geeks of the world, as he delivers the keynote address at May's Worldwide Developers Conference. It'll be a smaller crowd than Internet World, and probably more Apple-friendly (or at least not Apple-indifferent). Plus, it's taking place on familiar ground-- the San Jose Convention Center. (Don't worry, the ceiling height there is known to be adequate for Steve's purposes.) So don't forget to tune in on May 15th, when Steve is sure to delve into the details of Mac OS X; we assume the keynote will be webcast via QuickTime 4. Provided, of course, that Steve doesn't cancel at the last minute because the barometric pressure is at sub-optimal levels.