I don’t think a junior pairs figure-skating competition falls into any third grader’s definition of an ideal Friday afternoon. But there I was, against my will, watching a friend struggle to maintain her footing through elementary moves. Just as I was about to declare the day a total bust, another pair took the ice to a guitar intro that immediately reclaimed my attention.
I sat in awed silence for the duration of the song, which raised a host of questions in my nine-year-old mind. What was a “prerogative”? Did she really just bark? And who was the goddess behind this masterpiece? A Best Buy detour on the way home to pick up Shania’s album Come On Over thankfully answered all of these questions, cleared up the gender-bending ambiguity of the song’s title and left me with a CD that I still listen to. Eat your heart out, T. Swift.
