You're not going to find any Twitter gossip from the Apple folks or some under-the-radar employee like Scoble passing him or herself off as the voice of the company before anybody notices. We know about as much about Apple's inner workings as we know about North Korea. For the rest of the consumer tech companies, it's a recurring nuisance that pops up occasionally with some new weapon of mass destruction, like the iPhone, and then disappears back into its underground bunker. Â

The New York Times has a good take this morning on Apple's obsession with secrecy. I mean, how could one of the most famous men in America simply disappear for two months, have a liver transplant, and the public and Apple shareholders know nothing about it. I can understand how the fruity governor of a southern state could disappear four four days and nobody know, or much care, where he was. But, the fact that Apple was able to keep a lid on the whereabouts of one of the most famous and recognizable people on the planet for several months is truly extraordinary. It's almost as unlikely as the vice president of the United States shooting somebody in the face and then simply pretending it didn't happen. What? Well, you get the idea.

Okay, the man is a brilliant marketer and his comeback is among the great revenge-is-sweet epics ever. I'm rooting for him to beat the odds again, even if he did muscle himself to the front of the organ transplant line. But, he is a known and identified prick.

And, btw, Steve, should you see this: Don't worry about that time in 1983 when you agreed to appear on the cover of a magazine I was editing at the time, kept me and a very expensive photographer and his assistant waiting in the lobby for seven hours, and then decided you didn't feel like doing it. I've completely forgotten about that. Â