Gee, why do we get the distinct impression that Apple may have been a premature with its "we sold 36,000 iBooks to the state of Maine, neener neener neener" victory dance at the Expo earlier this month? Maybe it's because faithful viewer Jay forwarded us a Sun Journal article about how the funds to pay for all those iBooks may instead be raided by the state legislature for other purposes. Sounds like Apple might soon be learning a little lesson about getting cash up front. (By the way, did anyone else notice that Steve cribbed our "One Down, Forty-Nine To Go" slogan and threw it into his keynote address a month later? We should be probably be incensed, but we're pretty tired right now, so we've decided to be flattered instead.)

See, apparently there are a whole lot of people who feel that the money set aside for Governor King's pet project to give iBooks to every junior high school student in the state might actually be better spent on "social services such as domestic violence treatment and funding for nursing homes." Faithful viewer William Bonde pointed out one lobby that's particularly vicious in fighting the deal, citing occasionally ludicrous complaints about the iBooks in Henrico County ("Parents feel completely left out"? Geez, folks, pick up a mouse!) in hopes of drumming up further opposition to the mass iBook purchase. For what it's worth, if the plan gets nixed, the governor will go down swinging; he's apparently fighting like mad to keep the initiative alive, saying that to back out now would be "incredibly short-sighted" and "a historic mistake."

Now, if we here at AtAT were given a choice between 1) being fed and medicated (but Macless), or 2) being hungry and deathly ill but having a kickin' new iBook to play with, we'd choose the iBook every time-- but we've been told that we may, in fact, be "not at all normal." And even we aren't about to say that letting a seventh-grader wirelessly tune in to AtAT during third period should take precedence over Grandma's heart pills. At the same time, there's something to be said for King's argument that the long-term benefits of investing in education are crucial to Maine's future prosperity, and shouldn't be derailed for "one year's worth of programs scattered throughout the budget." It's not a pleasant quandary.

Luckily for us, we don't actually live in the great state of Maine, so we don't have to hurt our brains trying to decide who gets the money. Those of you who do just happen to be Maine residents, however, don't get off quite so easily. If you come to any epiphanic conclusions about where the money should go, you might consider contacting your elected state officials and letting them know what you think about the iBook deal. Meanwhile, Fred Anderson may want to rework his quarterly revenue projections slightly, just in case...