"Crush," as defined, means a variety of things: to compress or squeeze, to overcome or defeat, a crowd or throng, and infatuation or puppy love. This week’s stories relate to the first and last definitions – and as a reminder, the upcoming StorySlam on October 25th has a theme by the same name, providing opportunity to explore the word in all its multitudes.
When our first teller, Philip Cruz Warren, was a child, he developed a self-described irrational fear of heavy objects falling on him. Little did he know that his first job as a member of the grounds crew at the Wisconsin State Fair as a teenager would put this phobia to the test. Somehow he complied when asked to go under a lift to attach a chain from a huge dumpster to the trash compactor, but would his worst nightmare come true?
Few celebrity crushes are so intense, so deep, as those associated with pre-teenage girls and their favorite members of boy bands.
Our second teller, Deserae Constantineau, had been nurturing a dream since her adolescence: meeting Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block at a bowling alley for a romantic date. A quarter century later, she discovered the group were hanging out at Landmark Lanes on the East Side during a visit to town for a concert. It was as if fate had intervened! Would the fangirl in her attempt to play out her fantasy, or would Deserae write a different ending for her love story?
Listen to these two different takes on "crush" here:
