i just don't know if i have another taylor swift essay in me

on role models

Hi folks. This was going to be a culture recap (Matt Rife being named the new face of e.l.f. cosmetics simply took my breath away (derogatory)) but then this piece of the recap—on Taylor Swift and Sally Rooney and Ms. Rachel—got away from me. And here we are.

Before we get started, I did want to share a few links where you can donate to help people in Gaza. Thank you to The Cut, which put together this list a couple of weeks ago—I have tried to confirm that the below organizations are still functional and able to carry out their stated missions, but due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Palestine, please be mindful that circumstances may have changed.

• Reviving Gaza, which distributes filtered water, hot meals, and dry-food parcels to victims of the war. It also offers cash aid to Gazans. You can back its efforts by donating here.

• Amal for Palestine, which provides financial help, supplies, water, and meals to people in north Gaza. You can donate here.

• Gaza Soup Kitchen, which provides meals to displaced families by sourcing ingredients from remaining farms in north Gaza. You can support Gaza Soup Kitchen by donating here.

• Dignity for Palestine, which supports displaced Gazans with food parcels, clean water, and medications. You can donate to its efforts here.

• Oxfam, which works with local partners to provide a wide range of humanitarian aid and is fundraising to scale up its response wherever it’s allowed. You can donate to its emergency appeal here.

• World Central Kitchen, which has resumed its hot-meals service in its Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen. You can donate to support its efforts here.

• UNICEF USA, which is on the ground providing services including clean water, malnutrition treatment, and cash aid to children and their families. You can donate here.

• Save the Children, which is partnering with local groups to provide nutritional support, essential medical services, and basic supplies. You can help its efforts by donating here.

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So there's a new Taylor Swift album coming out October 3. As a casual fan who's been listening to her for, at this point, over half my life, I'll say it: I'm cautiously optimistic. I thought Tortured Poets and Midnights were, on the whole, mediocre, projects that would’ve benefited from significant culling and an audacious friend willing to point out that a two-hour album is perhaps subject to the law of diminishing returns, but maybe, who knows, she'll turn it around with The Life of a Showgirl. I’m hopeful. Even if it sounds like the name of an album cooked up by a high school sophomore who's just read The Great Gatsby for the first time. I say that with love, respect and, most importantly, empathy—given Everything I’ve Shared About Me, I imagine you won't find it hard to believe I was once that exact girl myself.

taylorswift

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The funny and notable thing, of course, what everyone’s been discussing, is that Swift revealed the news of her upcoming album on New Heights, the sports podcast hosted by Travis and Jason Kelce. From football. The fact that I even know who these two men are is, on its own, a somewhat surprising development. The fact that I know they have a podcast? Criminal. One of the clips that’s been going around from this podcast announcement/episode revolves around Travis’s knowledge/awareness/understanding of words like “fortuitous” (Taylor Swift: “he knows what that means”). Which means that now we have another round of discourse that essentially boils down to: is Travis Kelce smart and actually, does it matter?

I thought we’d gone over this already.