Oh, thank heaven-- there we were, wistfully wiping away a tear as we bade the era of "beleaguered Apple" a bittersweet farewell, when a faithful viewer told us we didn't have to say goodbye just yet. See, we figured that Apple had hit the official ceiling of rational skepticism (and even of irrational skepticism) with its fourteenth-or-whatever straight Street-beating profitable quarter, sustained year-on-year unit and revenue growth, and skyrocketing stock price. After all that, we thought, how could anyone not in a rubber room and on a strict diet of antipsychotic drugs possibly still see Apple as being in danger of collapse? And so, despite how good Apple's red ink had been to our little drama in the past, we were locking the "financial strife" plot twists away in cold storage for the time being.

That's when Bob McLennan told us not to retire the "beleaguered" plot device just yet. Have you read Robert Morgan's latest RFI Report, which analyzes Apple's most recent quarterly financial love-fest? As one would expect, Morgan doesn't find anything particularly wrong with Apple's money status-- but one of his readers does. In fact, this gentleman outright calls Apple's recovery a "sham," claiming that Apple's recent revenue growth somehow arose from "selling investments and engaging in the kind of balance sheet slights [sic] of hand that is always the sign of a struggling company." He doesn't use the "B" word directly, but we'll just chalk that up to an obvious lapse in medication.

Now, given that the gentleman in question is obviously functional enough to use a web browser, it appears that we were wrong-- there are people roaming loose in society who actually think Apple's still in dire financial straits. Therefore, we can still hold out hope that in the not-too-distant future, we'll once again get to wallow in the depraved, guilty pleasures of "red ink" drama as we crank out AtAT scripts. Heck, if even just one raving loony out there is entertained by it, we'll have considered it a job well done. Of course, it'll be a little tough to spin "growth that outpaces the growth of the computer industry as a whole" into some kind of doom-and-gloom plot twist, but heck, we love a challenge!