Tony's Diary Package — page 100

There are other crushes of the coronavirus crisis, most notably New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose daily press conferences in state-branded attire have become appointment television for people living in the epicenter of the country's outbreak. Vogue has praised his competence and "imaginary boyfriend" potential, while the New York Post spoke with moms on Long Island who gushed about eating ice cream in bed, watching him speak calmly and convincingly of New York's ability to overcome the pandemic. While descriptions of Fauci dwell on how "adorable" he is, Americans' fascination with Cuomo is openly grimier. Last week, for instance, Twitter was abuzz with speculation as to whether a strange-looking wrinkle under the governor's polo was, in fact, a nipple ring. A fake dating profile written for the governor by City & State didn't mention sweetness or charm, but interests such as "fishing" and "yelling," as well as the personality type "laid-back, loose dude, who is always in a cool mood." In a recent blog post titled "Help, I Think I'm in Love With Andrew Cuomo??" the Jezebel writer Rebecca Fishbein ran down the list of things she despises about him politically, then confessed, "When I stream his presser on the governor's website--every day around 11:30 a.m., complete with a PowerPoint presentation--I feel comforted. I feel alive. I feel protected. I feel ... butterflies." She's heard from plenty of New York women who agree. "A lot of women who are older than me have been emailing me being like, No I really love him; he has all of his hair," she told me. Fishbein lived in New York City during 9/11, and she remembers people feeling similarly about then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, she said, she knew people who thought that then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was heroic enough to feel gooey over. "It [does] not last long, but I think there's this feeling that somebody is telling you, in what seems like a straightforward manner, what's going on," she said. This can mutate into a crush with ease. "It's just your mind playing tricks on you." Read: Why people are confessing their crushes right now This is literally true, says Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist who studies dating and relationships at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute. "In times of crisis, people have a fight-or-flight response. That drives up the testosterone in the brain," she told me. "Testosterone triggers various brain systems that can trigger sexual arousal. Testosterone also has a positive correlation with dopamine, and dopamine is linked with feelings of romantic love." You don't need me to explain that the past month has been saturated with feelings, or that your nerves can only tap-dance for so long before your brain starts to do strange and shocking things. Similar hormones are involved in both crushing and panicking, and rushes of adrenaline can lead to attraction, which is presumably why The Bachelor involves so much bungee jumping and helicopter travel.