Heads up, Nervous Nellies: it's time to get antsy! There are now only twentyish days left until next month's Macworld Expo keynote address, the one event with the greatest potential to be the most Mac-significant speech of the year-- and IDG still hasn't actually told us who's giving it yet. Oh, sure, Steve has handled the honors every year since his Amelio-booting return (well, as far as we can recall-- if there were any non-Steve January keynotes since then, we've managed to repress all memory of them), but if his participation is such a given, then how come IDG is still playing coy with that spiel about the keynote's "long-standing tradition of delivering high-powered luminaries that set the pace for the future of the Mac OS platform"? Sheesh, talk about evading the issue. We can certainly understand why skittish types are starting to worry.

But fear not, friends, because Think Secret rides to the rescue with confirmation that the speech in three weeks' time will indeed be a Stevenote, not a Philnote or a Gregnote or a GeneShalitnote. Okay, fine, this "confirmation" has absolutely zero significance from an official standpoint, but in lieu of IDG actually bothering to update its web site with a freakin' name already, we're willing to take what we can get-- and really, Think Secret tends to have a strong track record about things like this. Reportedly Apple sources assure us all that Steve "has committed to doing the address," and whatever he plans to say is important enough to justify a satellite broadcast which "has already been booked." So relax already.

Of course, it's not in your nature to relax, or else you wouldn't have worked yourself into such a tizzy about this in the first place. So now, even though you're kind of at ease about Steve making his appearance, you're a little troubled as to why, if Steve has indeed "committed to doing the keynote," neither IDG nor Apple has actually bothered to tell anybody. To be honest, we're a little wigged out over it, too, especially since Think Secret claims that Steve himself "has instructed Apple's public relations department to delay an announcement until he gives his permission." Nobody seems to have any clue why, short of one Apple source who simply says, "That's Steve. He does what he wants."

True enough-- but the question is, why does he want his participation in the keynote kept under wraps, even this late in the game? Is he hedging his bets in case a better offer comes along? Because we're going to be sorely disappointed if, at the last second, he bails to go speak at the Mid Atlantic Nurserymen Trade Show in Baltimore. We're told the man can't pass up a chance to speak publicly about shrubbery.