Caution: too much peace and contentment over the weekend can turn the following Monday into the emotional and psychological equivalent of Brazilian needle torture! (Or, indeed, needle torture from any culture, really. Your pick.) To avoid excessive pain when returning to work/school/life on Monday, we here at AtAT prescribe a solid dose of psychic unease to fester throbbingly at the back of one's mind, always preventing fun from reaching dangerous levels. Let's see, now... seeing as you're all Mac fans, how about a lawsuit against Apple which alleges to have proof that the company's retail stores aren't doing nearly as well as Apple has told Wall Street and the feds? Ouch, now there's some ickiness to make the prospect of Monday seem like a leisurely saunter through the Lollipop Forest.

The good Lollipop Forest, we mean. Not the Lollipop Forest of Death. Because, you know, if it were that one, it would wreck the whole simile.

Anyway, here's the deal: faithful viewer Bernd Schnitker dropped us straight into a seething well of dread over at Think Secret, in the form of an extensive article detailing what appear to be "anomalies" in Apple's retail accounting policies. Surely you've heard Apple mention repeatedly that its own stores aren't shown any special treatment when it comes to access to in-demand products or the wholesale prices they pay for them, right? Well, now some former Apple dealers suing the company allege that "Apple is defrauding shareholders and misleading the public by misrepresenting the profitability of its stores," and they claim they've got the invoices to prove it.

These invoices, claim the plaintiffs, prove that Apple "has engaged in unfair and deceptive accounting practices and... [has] amassed unlawful profits and/or ill gotten gains" (oooh, we love that phrase!) by revealing that Apple's own retail stores pay far less for Apple's products than other resellers do. Third-party resellers reportedly pay over $100 more than Apple's retail outlets for the same iMacs, over $200 and even $300 more for PowerBooks, etc. The price differentials get even more extreme when it comes to software and service: whereas AppleCare Protection Plans cost resellers $115 to $250, Apple retail store pay only-- and we have to assume this isn't a typo-- "$2.70 to about $10." A copy of FileMaker Pro (remember, Apple owns the company) that costs dealers $261.50 allegedly costs the Apple stores "$5.81."

Given that Apple has explicitly told the SEC and anyone else who'll listen that "the company's retail stores pay the same dollar amount for products" as its third-party resellers, this could indeed be a teensy little problem. Think Secret stops short of accusing Apple of fraud, noting that "idiosyncrasies of Apple's accounting" may be making things look worse than they are, but they've posted scans of the invoices themselves, and it's tough to argue with numbers in black and white. This whole issue may turn out to be a lively subject of discussion at Apple's annual shareholders' meeting next month. If you go, we suggest you bring a riot helmet; things could get ugly.

So there you go: a healthy dollop of angst to dwell at the back of your mind throughout the weekend so that your inevitable confrontation with Monday doesn't seem that bad. Don't forget: too much ha ha, pretty soon boo hoo. No, don't thank us; your beaming smile is all the gratitude we need.