From Crystal Club Soda to Gertrude Hawk Chocolate

This bleak former coal town in northeastern Pennsylvania occupies a unique perch in this year’s presidential contest.  It’s the hometown of “Obama Girl,” the New York City model of YouTube fame whose racy videos proclaiming her crush on Barack Obama are definitely not campaign-sanctioned. Her parents still live here, and her unlikely career break has gotten older, working-class whites talking more than they otherwise might have about the young black politician from Chicago.  [McClatchy]