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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment

Should I pay heed to this Swift dismissal?

Taylor Swift's new album is advertised on a billboard in Times Square, New York, on 4 October 2025.
Taylor Swift's new album is advertised on a billboard in Times Square, New York, on 4 October 2025. Photograph: John Taggart/EPA

Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I’m not sure what value to attach to that of a bloke in his mid-50s about the latest album by Taylor Swift, an artist whose songs resonate with a massive core audience of women up to two generations younger than him (Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl review – dull razzle-dazzle from a star who seems frazzled, 3 October). Other than to warn off other blokes in their 50s.
Ian A Anderson (bloke in his late 70s)
Cambridge

• I was very pleased to see Adrian Chiles’s appreciation of Aztec broccoli (2 October). I discovered it last year, and though it’s not as tasty as real broccoli, it’s much easier to grow and doesn’t attract the dreaded cabbage white butterfly. I’ve been happily eating the abundant little shoots from just two plants for the past month.
Hannah Hyam
Batheaston, Somerset

• Walking past a supermarket last week, I noticed that the government crackdown on “buy one, get one free” offers was already being obeyed. Posters in the windows now advertised many of these products as half-price!
Sarah Horrocks
Sampford Peverell, Devon

• My favourite TV subtitle used to be “up stray aliens” for Australians (Letters, 3 October). Then a couple of weeks ago President Putin became “prison pudding”. Bliss.
Pamela Ellis
York

• Bread-and-butter pudding hacks (Letters, 30 September)?. That left over and slightly stale Christmas pannetone is even better – lighter and with lots of citrus peel.
Lynn Wiseman
Lewes, East Sussex

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

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