Where everybody knows your name...

My favorite stories to read in the Sunday papers are those that give you the feel of going home to a place, even if you’ve never been there. Today, two stories create a strong sense of community and transport readers to local gatherings endemic to two very different cultures.

If I were working for Hillary Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s campaign, I would be on a plane to a beauty parlor in South Carolina right now. An article in The New York Times today shows that it is these women—the black Southerners for whom the beauty parlor is a kind of social epicenter—who are crucial voters and still remain very undecided. The article begins with a conversation with one such woman who highlights the many reasons that leave her and her demographic conflicted about the candidates, from the fact that Clinton they would again get two Clintons for the price of one, so to speak, to their belief that Obama would not be safe, because the country is not ready for a black president. The article reaffirms its main points several times throughout and develops the focus clearly over the course of several conversations in beauty parlors, portraying the voters in a setting in which discussion comes naturally to them. The quotes stay true to local dialect, making them sound particularly genuine, but they also reveal that for many of these women, faith or other intangible influences may ultimately decide their vote for them. The challenge is out there now for both campaigns to give Southern black women tangible reasons to choose their candidate. Good luck to them.

On a completely different note, The Boston Globe today profiles fans of English soccer who gather in Cambridge’s Phoenix Landing pub to watch the weekend matches. The lede creates a vivid picture of the place and develops a sense of solidarity with fans across the pond by drawing attention to the time difference. Rather than wonder why people would be staggering to a pub at 9 a.m. on a Sunday, readers can understand the fans’ devotion by listening to their chants and noticing their different colored team jerseys. The article captures the sense of intense rivalry between fans back in the U.K. by pointing out the uniqueness of gathering so many different teams’ supporters in one place. There are several interviews with fans from all over the world, including Massachusetts, but I would have liked to hear more about what drew the Massachusetts natives to English football.