Here we are, facing yet another Monday-- the first day in a brand new week. After a somber weekend, those investors who took a bath on AAPL after it shed half its value overnight are back at work and nursing some nasty hangovers (assuming they reached for the Jim Beam instead of the Drano). For Apple, today is also the first weekday in a brand new quarter; we expect the company would like nothing more than to put the events of last week well behind it, but unfortunately, the effects are likely to linger like a bad cold. A company doesn't just issue a profit warning and walk away from the crash-- especially if the company happens to be Apple, whom the media and financial gurus have been lazily circling like vultures ever since the comeback became undeniable. "How long can it possibly last?" has become "See, we told you it couldn't last forever."

In a way, this whole debacle has been a terrific stroll down memory lane; the panic, the consternation, the way that Wall Street and the media at large have been so quick to kick Apple in the teeth-- not for losing money (it isn't), not for shrinking revenue (it's growing), but for not growing as quickly as the analysts expected. As The Register notes, a "whole bunch of previously pro-Apple analysts" has been quick to downgrade Apple's stock. Hmmm... we should have guessed that eleven or so consecutive Street-beating quarters would come back to haunt the company someday. Apparently you can only prove those guys wrong so many times before they get snippy on you.

The greatest wave of nostalgia, though, comes from the media's resurrection of a term we'd feared long dead and buried. Faithful viewer Michael noted that, in addition to likening Apple to a "sinking ship" (ah, those were the days!), Wired has revived the "B" word: "Analysts hurried to lower their ratings of the beleaguered company's stock." Now, before you fire up the virtual flamethrowers and wave them in Wired's general direction, it's worth noting that the article itself is actually relatively balanced in tone, quoting several fans who cite reasons why Apple's current troubles are merely a temporary glitch, so we've got to assume that the use of the "B" word was strictly for the benefit of all of us old-timers reliving history. And for that we're grateful, because in troubled times, what's more comforting that the old, familiar trappings of the past?

As of broadcast time, AAPL was still slipping to around the $25 mark, but there's some surprisingly good news in all of this bloodshed and carnage. Faithful viewer Michael Norris pointed out a BBC article about how Apple's dive sent the rest of the market into a tailspin: "as expected, technology stocks took the brunt of the falls... there was a knock-on effect for fellow computer makers, with Gateway falling 16%, Compaq 10% and Hewlett Packard more than 9%... but losses were across the board." How about that? Apple's finally got enough pull these days that when its stock tanks, it actually affects other PC manufacturers. Success at last!