Okay, everyone knows that the stock market as a whole is currently in what we like to call "a world of hurt"; truth be told, it wasn't that healthy even before the World Trade Center was attacked, and now it's pretty much just lying there and twitching. When last we checked, the NASDAQ had slipped below 1500, and the Dow was down almost a couple of grand from pre-attack levels. We may not understand exactly what that means (to us the stock market is a bunch of funny guys yelling all at once and waving pieces of paper), but we're pretty sure it's not good.

So you've donated blood, you've given money to the Red Cross, and now you're casting about for yet another way to help out in this time of crisis. Well, we've heard a rumor that might just be crazy enough to be true: apparently, when people buy stocks, their prices go up. If that's correct, since one of the obvious objectives of last Tuesday's attack was to cripple the U.S. economy, it seems to us that buying a few shares of stock in a company you trust might actually qualify as a bona fide contribution to the overall recovery-- in a purely capitalistic sense, of course.

Note that we're not actually suggesting that you buy stock, since that would be unwise on our part, if not patently illegal. But let's say, hypothetically speaking, that you've been meaning to invest in AAPL for a while, now. Well, despite the fact that (as faithful viewer James Hromadka points out) Morningstar.com says Apple has a stronger chance of competing successfully in the home PC market than even the post-Compaq buyout Hewlett-Packard and that, as The Mac Observer reports, an analyst for A.G. Edwards feels that Apple is "least likely to be impacted by recent events," Apple's stock price has been sinking southward ever since the markets reopened on Monday.

Now, if you arrive at the conclusion that investing in Apple is a financially prudent move, a way to ameliorate the effect of last week's attack, and possibly even your sacred duty as a member of the Mac community, we're certainly not going to stand in your way-- indeed, our barely-clinging-to-life stock portfolio (which, we mention in the interest of full disclosure, does include AAPL) might even limp over and kiss you full on the mouth. However, we realize that people don't have a lot of cash to throw around these days-- plus, maybe you're thinking about buying Apple stock as a gift for a fellow Mac maven. If so, perhaps you're wondering, as faithful viewer Lunar Obverse did, how you can purchase a single share of AAPL.

Many thanks to faithful viewer Alan Carr, then, for reminding us about OneShare. Those folks let you order a single share in physical certificate form for a $39 fee over and above the share price, and if you kick in a little more, you can even order it framed. (Getting ideas for the upcoming holiday season?) Remember, owning even one share of AAPL qualifies you to attend Apple's annual shareholders' meeting, and you get the annual report in the mail as well. If you go this route, you're evidently in good company: Apple is first on OneShare's list of its top ten best sellers.

We should also point out that, right now, on every transaction, OneShare is donating 50% of its fee to the Red Cross-- both to contribute directly to the rescue effort, and in hopes of persuading more people to purchase stock and counteract the effect of the attack on the financial markets. While buying one share of stock certainly isn't going to pull Wall Street out of its tailspin, we imagine it's like donating blood: every drop counts.