CUMBERLAND, R.I. — In any competition to crown the world’s geekiest musical instrument, the accordion would be a top contender. Invented in Germany in the early 1800s, it’s most closely associated in this country with polka music and Lawrence Welk’s bygone television show, the epitome of postwar squareness. If anyone can confer sex appeal upon the stodgy old squeezebox, though, it just might be 23-year-old Rhode Island native and jazz accordion wunderkind Cory Pesaturo. Last month Pesaturo won the World Digital Accordion Championship in New Zealand, dazzling judges with his rapid-fire playing style and showmanship. It marked the first world accordion title won by an American in 25 years, earning Pesaturo, who’s been playing professionally since age 11, $1,500 in prize money and a priceless measure of coolness. He’s versatile, too. In some circles, Pesaturo is even better known as an amateur meteorologist and Formula 1 race-car nut.

Move over Vinny Pazienza because Rhode Island has a new folk hero! I mean I don’t want to say that this is as big as the Miracle on Ice, but it’s close. Sure we still have problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sure the economy still sucks. But I know I’ll sleep easy tonight knowing the World Accordion Championship is back home in the States where it belongs after 25 long, hard years. There is just nothing quite like an American waltzing onto foreign soil and beating them at their own game. And to think it was Cory Pesturo of all people who pulled the trick. Because I don’t know about you, but I only knew him as an amateur meteorologist and race car fan. I had no idea he had this type of accordion showmanship sitting in his back pocket. Let’s just hope all this new fame and fortune doesn’t go to his head because the future of making the Accordion sexy again rests on his broad shoulders.

PS – Bill Clinton 100% has a restraining order on this guy.