Okay, back when longtime Apple-basher Hiawatha Bray started to see the light and began writing positive articles about the Mac, we figured we'd seen it all. In fact, at the time we jokingly remarked that one day John "No One Will Ever Buy An iBook Because They're Too Girly" Dvorak would "say he bought himself a Tangerine iBook and our heads will explode." Well, our heads are still intact, but we can hear the timer on the C4 ticking away as we sit here. For as faithful viewer Tom notes, Dvorak-- that staunchest of bull-headed Apple critics-- has actually published an article called "Defending Apple." Someone call the bomb squad!

If you've finished hyperventilating and you haven't yet burst an aneurysm, it's really worth checking out the article-- for surreality value alone. Did you ever expect to see Dvorak write "fact is, Apple is getting a bum rap"? Or "the key to Apple's good-looking machines is the anomaly known as Steve Jobs... there is no denying his heightened sense of style"? And there's this gem: "Now the question remains whether the rest of the industry can follow his lead. So far the answer is no." Of course, it's not all a love-fest, and there are some criticisms of Jobs and Apple as well, but hey, Hiawatha started slowly, too.

So, cross off another line item on the list of Stuff That'll Never, Ever Happen, Even In A Million Gazillion Years: John Dvorak, the man who insisted that iMacs would flop and that iBooks were too girly to appeal to anyone except Barbie collectors, has gone on the record praising Steve Jobs's wonderful fashion sense. And if Dvorak can make that leap of taste about a computer's exterior, can a realization that Windows is ugly as sin be far behind? Sure, right now he says he wishes that Steve would "bite the bullet and do a Wintel machine," but give the man some time. He'll come around eventually...