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I’m just reading this now, thanks for linking it in your newsletter. It’s glorious. And correct. I listened to the National for years in a vacuum (strangely, one semi adjacent to the band: my ex-roommate’s ex-roommate in Red Hook is Ada from the song), so it was a complete shock to me when I saw them live in Boston -- I’ve never seen so many brewski bros at a sad bastard concert! Backwards hats, tallboys, scream-singing along with MY OWN PERSONAL SONGS that I, a twice-divorced lady, also heavily identified with. It blew my mind, I’m telling you. This essay would have cleared up so much!

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