1 post, anywhere, anytime

How the heck do i get WP to display 1 post of my choice, anywhere on the site at any time?!? I am pretty strong with php, sql, css, xhtml, and all that. I know that wp is querying the DB in an include. What i am looking for is a way to get only 1 result that would let me pick any post, and display it anywhere i want. As if i were writing the SQL “WHERE” clause myself.
I don’t want to start the process of building my own plugin, as i don’t have time. Nor do i want to re-invent the wheel. WP is great, but I must admit that after MT (yes, i used MT) I am not impressed with the templating and document structure.
For example, i should be able to do something like this:
get_post(‘7’)
and have it return a post (or category) with the ID of 7. Similar to the $cat=# hack.
Sorry for the long question, any help would be great.