In the greatest unrequited love since Éponine’s pavement shined like silver, headline writers at Slate continue to drop Apple’s name into the teaser of any story having to do with electricity.

Earlier, it was to confidently predict the mythyness of an Apple iTV in an article about how crappy Windows Media Center PCs are. Now they’ve headlined Apple in a piece entirely on Hewlett Packard advertisements. Which is pathetic. For both HP and Slate. It’s also confusing, as regular Ad Report Card readers know that Seth Stevenson’s review of Apple’s current campaign was an unfavorable C+, finding it smugly annoying. Is the headline writer saying that HP’s new “Apple-quality” ads are arrogant? No. Seth’s review of the HP commercials is complimentary. He thinks they make good use of special effects and celebrity endorsements. How boring.

No wonder Slate’s Apple-envy-Tourette’s-headline syndrome kicked in again.