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I heart Joey McIntyre. Yes, I realize "heart" isn't a verb. I'm reminded of that nearly every time I use it in front of a particularly articulate friend.

But I don't care.

Just like I don't care that Joey McIntyre isn't so Joey anymore. And by that I mean he's not the 14-year-old, too-adorable-for-words, youngest member of my favorite group ever.

(That's probably a really good thing, actually, because if he still were, I'd have much bigger problems than a slang use of a noun.)

When I say that I heart (sort of love) Joey McIntyre - who, for anyone who wasn't an adolescent girl in the early '90s, was the cutest member of New Kids on the Block - what I really mean is that I love the memory of hearting him. (And yes, who actually was the cutest member of NKOTB totally depends on who you ask. But it really was Joey McIntyre.)

Joey McIntyre was my first celebrity crush.

Sure, the rest of the boys in NKOTB were pretty cool, too. There wouldn't have been a Joey McIntyre without them. Then there wouldn't have been "Please Don't Go Girl," which was not even their best song (hello, "Hangin' Tough"), but to an 11-year-old me, Joey's not quite developed voice crooning "You're my best friend, you're my life within," was the best thing I'd ever heard.

Listening to that song - and yes, I played it over and over by rewinding the cassette tape in my boom box - with his poster on my bedroom wall was a nightly occurrence in the fifth grade.

Seeing him in concert - my first one ever - even from what seemed like miles away in our seats at Foxboro Stadium, was the first time I ever got that "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm so close to him" rush.

Thinking about seeing Joey McIntyre - now a married man and a father - on stage this weekend at the KISS Concert? Whoa.

So, yes, I still heart him. I don't have that cassette tape anymore. Or the boom box. Or the posters.

But I still have Joey McIntyre. And he still has my 11-year-old heart.

rebecca keister can be reached at 508-236-0336 or at rkeister@thesunchronicle.com.