"Why You Gotta Be So Mean?"

I was sleeping during most of the Grammy Awards Sunday night. I woke up just in time to see Jennifer Hudson's stirring tribute to Whitney Houston...whatever Nicki Minaj did...and Adele being all adorable and British.

Monday morning one of our local news stations posted something like this:

"Tell Us! Taylor Swift dissed Branson last night while singing her song "Mean" at the Grammy's. She mentioned being "washed up in Branson." How do you feel about it? Is she getting a little too big for her britches?"

 And so it began...

Everyone picked up on, and "weighed in" on this...

I don't think anyone bothered to actually listen to the song:

It's at about the 2:50 mark...Allegedly she says "washed up in Branson."

To which I say...um, no.

The lyric is "washed up and ranting about the same old bitter thing..."

I clearly hear a "t" all up in there. RanTing. Or, rather, "rantin.'" Either way, T-Swift is not dissing the family-music capitol of the country. Andy Williams can rest easy and the Haygoods can get their fiddle strings out of a bunch.

Besides: "washed up in Branson 'bout the same old bitter thing." That might make sense if Justin Moore was singing it, but most of Taylor's lyrics are actually, you know, semi-intelligent.

I'm not a Taylor Swift fan. I don't hate her. She's not country. But she doesn't offend me.

I'll keep my opinions about sensationalism and research and newsy matters to myself.

So...let's all just calm it on down, and read the more juicy conspiracy theory behind "Mean:" whether or not it was written about one of my favorite bloggers.