For Mr. SZ – with love and squalor

The man I like to call Dr. Science is not one for romance. In fact, when he sees this list he might well roll his eyes. Tough: in honor of Valentine's Day, here's a short-distance dedication to the best guy I know.


1. "You're the Top," Ella Fitzgerald. It's not easy to pick a wedding song when at least one of the parties involved shudders at any sort of sentimentality. That's where the genius of Cole Porter comes in. How awesome was it to have our first dance to "You're an O'Neill drama, you're Whistler's mama, you're camembert?" Very.




2. "Did I Tell You," Yo La Tengo. When you're dating a grad student, you spend a lot of time waiting for him to come home from the lab. As the song goes, my brain was impatient but my heart was still willing to wait. (Say it with me, people: "Aw!")




3. "You're So Great," Blur. Again, no sappiness here. It's a song about being sad, drunk and poorly, about a sky that's mud and grey, about dogs digging up the ground... and about feeling the light when you tell me it's OK.




4. "The First Day of My Life," Bright Eyes. "I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you" kinda says it all.