Did this L.A. Times story inspire Taylor Swift's new single?

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Set us as preferred “Taylor Swift is patient zero for emotional contagion.”This was an evocative turn of phrase from former L.A.Times columnist Amy Kaufman, in a 2024 article assessing the cultural impact of the whirlwind romance between Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Kaufman’s column might also have entered into Swift’s songwriting canon, as many of the singer’s fans seem to believe today.Swift announced on Tuesday that a surprise new single, “Patient Zero,” would come out on Friday.

“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!) and it’s available to pre-order now on my website for 24 hours,” Swift wrote on her social media accounts on Tuesday.Swift recently popped up in a pretaped skit with Emmys host and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay, drolly noting that a rumor she would appear at the Emmys “Isn’t adding up.

Our perp has a clear MO.A lot of this doesn’t fit the pattern, and I don’t think everything is a clue.”Yet Swift, who famously leaves nothing to coincidence in her songwriting and named her cat after Hargitay’s detective character Olivia Benson, may indeed have left some clues.

Entertainment & Arts Revisit the roots of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s whirlwind romance turned generational love story, from the Kelce brothers’ ‘New Heights’ podcast to a romantic garden engagement.While neither the track nor its lyrics have been released yet, Swift fans, who typically hit the red-string board upon release of new material, are feverishly pointing back to Kaufman’s column as a possible inspiration for the new single.Kaufman’s column is a sweet celebration of a coupling that captivated music and football fans alike: “I found ...