Totally Geek to Totally Chic: Celebrating Brainiacs

I think we've all established that I have a thing for Javier Bardem.

And who wouldn't, really?

Have you seen Eat, Pray, Love?

This is how I like to think it ends, just in case you haven't gone to the theatre yet:

You can thank me later for summing it all up so nicely for you--

thus saving you the $8.50 you would have spent at the multiplex.

Dear Javier, you can be my champion any time.

But enough about Javier and me.

Did I ever tell you about my affinity for geekish-ness?

About how I think the sexiest part on a man is his brain?

How intelligence gets me a bit hot and bothered?

Because it does.

Very much so.

Take, for instance, this guy:

Host of NPR's (and now Showtime's) This American Life.

Radio personality, master story teller.

Dear Mr. Glass, I have a crush on you and always will.

I'm hoping to run into you (or your brain-alike) at the bookstore.

And I can't deny it...

Dr. Drew Pinsky is a stone cold silver fox.

No one can change my opinion on this.

See:

AND he offers psychological savvy and know-how to boot.

And what about the witty banter of the one and only Mo Rocca?

I just think he'd be a most excellent dinner date.

(And he wears dark rimmed glasses.

Some folks are odd about the fellas in spectacles--

not me.)

As long as I get to keep my beverages

from exploding through my nostrils

whilst laughing uncontrollably--

which sometimes happens when Mo's on TV.

If Mo's busy, I could always settle for him:

That pensive/furrowed brow thing lets me know dear Jon is thinking. A lot.

And if we haven't already established this

Intelligence = Attraction

Lest you think Jewish men are the only ones who stand a chance--

and because we really shouldn't forget the brilliance of some of my favorite writers.

I have to give a few nods to some of my favorite minds.

You see, sometimes I exit the world of a novel or a poem I'm reading

and the whole thing is just dripping from me.

I can't help it,

I've fallen in love with whomever it is that wrote the thing.

Left smitten with their words, their ideas,

the images they've introduced to my mind,

the fluid music of their prose.

Seamus Heaney: I bow in obeisance to you.

You brilliant, brilliant man.

(By the way, if you still looked like this photo

and used that strong Irish accent of yours

it would all be over for me.)

And while I don't usually go for the wild-haired,

"Barbaric Yawp"

Walt Whitman look,

Cold Mountain and The English Patient

have me considering these two authors:

Charles Frazier

and Michael Ondaatje

Because the boys have talent and soul and

let their perfect words fall on the page like a lovely summer rain.

And because good haircuts are easy to come by.

Intelligence, on the other hand, is rare.

And oh-so-much more satisfying.