Crush of the Month: Nerds!

What is it about the geek that gets us going? His jaundiced sense of humor? The perspective that comes with having your face repeatedly slammed into a locker? Or the cred, bank, and power he stands to earn just as the prom king is getting thick around the middle? Whatever it is, we're smitten.

Some standouts:

Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, the directors of The Darjeeeling Limited and Margot at the Wedding, respectively, drop Truffaut references the way most guys cite Animal House, and male lankiness and tweed-wearing hallmarks of sexy.

As the voice behind NPR's This American Life, Ira Glass swaddles us weekly in his knowing nerdiness. That he looks like Buddy Holly is just the icing on the cake.

After spending his youth afraid of bees, urinals, boomerangs, and fish hooks, Jonathan Franzen — author of The Corrections and the deliciously cringe-y memoir The Discomfort Zone — now boasts an obsessive love of bird-watching.

Kevin Rose, a 30-something with chipmunk cheeks and a boatload of cash, founded digg.com, every egghead's favorite bookmarking site, where users geek-out over online news stories. Death Cab for Cutie's bespectacled front man, Ben Gibbard, is the quintessential indie-rock crush — bed head plus the soul of a poet. (Consider: "Our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds.")

When our favorite science geek and Nobel laureate Al Gore

holds forth on the global environmental crisis, his passion and enthusiasm make us want to drive a Prius, buy carbon credits, support his non-presidency, and kiss him really hard on the mouth.