Two years ago some blog friends were hosting a Happy Hour with the theme “It’s Just a Little Crush.” While a business trip kept me away from that particular boozefest, I extrapolated the concept to propose that the date* be declared International Crush Day.
Among the things I wrote at the time:
I endorse, embrace, and enthusiastically support the crush.
In the same way that some would argue that the single cell organism is the purest form of life, I argue that the crush is the purest form of affection. It is perfect, wholly contained, and needs no augment. It can exist in a personal vacuum absent acknowledgment or reciprocity. The Crush can be romantic, professional, artistic, vocational, social, bloggerational, and can even exist within the confines of a healthy relationship. The crush is perfect.
To have a Crush is to engage whimsy, to embrace possibility, and in the extreme case to wrap oneself in the courage of romance.
So it’s that time again. I encourage all of you to spend some time next Friday, 11 March, declaring your appreciation to someone you’ve been crushing on. It doesn’t matter what kind of crush it is, or whether it is based on affection or admiration. What matters is telling someone that you like the way they make you smile when they enter a room, bend a phrase, play a horn, or curl a lip when having the first sip of coffee. Whatever it is that makes you tingle, tell someone – across the room, or across the country, embrace the notion.
* yes, I realize that the initial proclamation decreed that ICD was 20 February. However, the trouble with trying to invent a holiday from whole cloth (unless you’re Hallmark) is that you have to remember it, and I forgot /wasn’t really blogging at all much in early February. The good news about inventing a holiday is that you can just change the date since it hasn’t exactly gone viral yet… and oh yeah, it was too close to Valentine’s Day anyway.
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Funny thing about the photo montage at the top of the page: before York reprised their “When I eat a Peppermint Patty, I get the sensation…” commercials, they were mainly known to those who came of age in the 70s and early 80s. Back in the mid 90s I was dating a substantively younger woman – the first time I had such a large age gap in that direction. At one point during our courtship, I left a Peppermint Patty in her purse with a note that read “When I think of you, I get the sensation.” She didn’t get it. It was a missed reference too far and I stopped dating her.
… and few people who have known me for more than a cup of coffee would be surprised to learn that Eva Cassidy has an emeritus place on my Crush List. The last frame is a picture of her before her last concert at Blues Alley.
p.s. please feel free to re-blog this, tweet about it, Facebook it or whatever other new media thingamabob you wish. I really love this idea and would be thrilled if it spread.
Posted by restaurant refugee 
