Holy feral cats in a hot pink Volkswagen, can it really be possible? Can Apple actually be trying to sell Macs in Best Buy yet again? That's the buzz according to MacMinute, as pointed out by faithful viewer Krishen; analyst Steven Milunovich over at Merrill Lynch cites an unnamed "Best Buy retail manager" as his source for claiming that the Mac mini will be making its way onto the chain's shelves "by the end of February." And since then, if you mosey on over to Best Buy's web site ("Just like shopping in our stores, but less dank, better-lit, and without the 'employees' straight out of Deliverance!") and search for "Mac mini," you will indeed find both models available for preorder with a "4 to 7 weeks" delivery estimate-- and a little note that says "Store Availability Coming Soon."

If you're not up on the history between Apple and Best Buy, you may not realize just how absurd this whole situation really is. See, Best Buy was selling Performas way back in the mid-to-late '90s (actually, to be perfectly accurate, let's say they were "stocking" them; we don't think any actually got sold, per se) until a newly re-Steved Apple pulled the plug because Best Buy's Mac sales and presentation skills were slightly subpar-- meaning, as a matter of store policy, display Performas were set on fire and used to direct shoppers' attention to the asbestos signs hanging above them with the big arrow and the words "WINTELS THATAWAY." A year later Best Buy came crawling back, hoping for a ticket on the iMac Gravy Train; Apple let it onboard, only to discover some months later that not only was Best Buy having trouble selling the hottest computer on the planet, but the chain was also refusing to stock all five fruit flavors. So Best Buy left the Mac fold again.

After that, Apple seemed to have regained its sense for a few years; we got a little concerned when Best Buy signed on to sell iPods in 2002, but luckily even Best Buy hasn't been able to screw that up. But back in the summer of 2003, Apple once again suffered a momentary lapse of reason and launched a "pilot program" to evaluate whether Best Buy might actually be able to sell Macs if Apple put its own full-time sales reps into the stores to keep the Best Buy staff from dousing the merchandise with gasoline and taking a Zippo to them. A year later, Apple announced that the test was over, and no deal to put Macs back in Best Buy was forthcoming. (We're guessing that the financial aspects of continuing the program were untenable once the Apple-badged employees demanded combat pay for constantly having to protect the Macs from torch-toting Best Buy employees with arson on their minds.)

But now suddenly Best Buy is once more an official Mac reseller, soon to be pimping Mac minis in its gazillions of stores all across the country. And don't get us wrong; we're all for the extra exposure and wider availability. Plenty of people who would have to drive two hours to the nearest Apple retail store can spit out their window and hit three Best Buys without trying. We have every hope that this latest deal turns out spiffy for both sides, but it's hard to ignore Best Buy's less-than-stellar history with the whole Mac sales thing, you know?

But there's one fact that really gives us hope that this time, both companies can make it work: the key to the success of this venture may well be the fact that Best Buy will only be selling the Mac mini-- which is so small that it burns up way too quickly to keep the staff amused. Ahhhh... now that's progress!