Before she was astronomically famous and more careful with her words, the pop star Lorde once described being close with Taylor Swift as akin to “having a friend with an autoimmune disease.”
“It’s like having a friend with very specific allergies,” the New Zealand singer elaborated in a 2017 interview. “There are certain places you can’t go together. Certain things you can’t do.”
What she meant by this, of course, is that it’s impossible to go out in public with Swift without being mobbed by hundreds of screaming fans eager to get a glimpse of her. Lorde’s observation—still resonant, six years later—was in full effect this past weekend, in a particularly amusing setting: a small beach town in New Jersey.
