Wow, now this one actually is a shock: faithful viewer Garrett tipped us off to the fact that IDG World Expo has apparently concluded that "in-depth study" of the merits of Boston vs. New York as a venue for next summer's Macworld Expo-- er, sorry, Macworld CreativePro. We figured only two outcomes were possible: either IDG would announce that the show was staying in New York after all, or it would cancel the show altogether. We never dreamed that a third outcome was possible, and if we had, we'd probably have identified it as the slim chance that the show would be moved to Dilworth, Minnesota and held at Casey's Carry-Out Pizza on Center Avenue. We definitely didn't think there was a Ballmer's chance in Bally that the show would actually happen in Boston, as originally promised.

Apparently miracles do happen.

IDG has officially announced that, yes, the show will take place in Boston next summer after all, and one can only wonder just what kind of staggering bribe Boston city officials had to throw their way (or what sort of heinous dirt they're blackmailing them with-- we're guessing Polaroids depicting "questionable subject matter") in order to come out of all this with the Expo clenched tightly in its teeth. And yes, we said "Expo." Despite IDG bigwig David Korse's recent assertion that even if the show did move to Boston, it'd be Macworld CreativePro, not Macworld Expo ("Macworld is only going to happen once a year, in California," he insisted), now IDG is once again referring to the confirmed Boston gig as "Macworld Conference & Expo." He's even going so far as to say "we have decided to continue the Macworld tradition on the East Coast as originally planned." Hmmmm... "Wishy, meet Washy. You two are going to get along famously."

Of course, all that jabbering about carrying on the "Macworld tradition" rings a little hollow, considering that certain minor aspects of the traditional Macworld Expo will be conspicuously absent at next summer's show-- like, oh, we don't know, let's say... Apple. MacMinute reports that Apple has reiterated its "We Hate Boston" position: "When IDG initially announced its plans to move summer Macworld to Boston in 2004, we were very clear that we didn't think it was a good move." (Uh, yyyyeah... too bad they reportedly never bothered to mention that in the months before the deal was inked, despite the fact that they were allegedly in the loop the whole time and had even approved the move as late as two weeks before the announcement, but hey, whatever.) "Our position stands and Apple will not be participating in Macworld Boston."

Meanwhile, Apple confirms that Bostonians should take this personally, because it's still "100 percent committed to Macworld San Francisco in January every year." (Apparently as a city we don't bathe enough.) Too bad Charlie Greco's not still there to pull his insane "you know how badly they want to do San Francisco; we don't have to let them" stunt again. That one was great. Ah, good times...

Without Apple's participation, there's still a pretty hefty chance that the show will fold before next summer, since there's a precedent of Appleless Mac trade shows going belly-up due to low exhibitor counts and lack of attendee interest. But if it does happen, who knows? Maybe IDG will have such a tough time signing up exhibitors for its Apple-free show that even AtAT will be able to afford a cheap booth. (Hey IDG-- we've got twelve bucks. What can you give us?) And now that it's a good ol' Expo again and not a CreativePro, we presumably don't have to worry about that stupid new "no kids under 12" rule and Anya can come, too. And the way things are shaping up, we'll have the whole place to ourselves! Mmmmm, spacious!