Every time I write about Apple, I feel like I have to do a little preamble about how I don't hate them and how, in fact, I've been an Apple guy for way longer than any of you good people. In sum, I started working at Apple in 1987, I bought the first iPhone and the first iPad on the days of their introduction, and my videos about Steve Jobs border on hero-worship.

Part of my love of Apple, of course, is the astounding amount of passion and polish behind their products. There have been rare exceptions to this. One was the "hockey puck" mouse from the original iMac, shown below. At the time, Jobs bragged about what a great mouse it was, but after a few minutes using it, you pretty much lost all feeling in your hand. It was ergonomically wretched.

But that mouse was killed years ago, and just about all their products, be they the iMac, Powerbook, iPhone, iPad, or whatever else, are outstanding. Except for………the earbuds.

I used to think something must be wrong with my ears, because the damned things just wouldn't stay in. But when I got a pair of third-party earbuds, which fit like a glove, I realized how piss-poor the Apple earbuds were.

So, err, there's no actionable trading idea in this post. But I just wanted to get this off my chest – – or out of my ears, as the case may be – – to tell you that the next time one of the earbuds drops out of your earhole, don't worry that you've got some kind of physical deformity. Apple clearly made these things for some alien creatures and not us.