Friday Night Lights

The NYT is guiding a discussion about the Bissinger book here with a series of essays on the book's 20th. Pretty cool idea. Check out Dan Barry: Could the Odessa, Tex., of 1988 be anywhere in this country? I don't know, anymore than I know whether only Cawker City, Kan., could obsessively create the world's largest ball of twine, or whether only San Francisco could embrace Barry Bonds.

A few months ago I visited Crandon, Wis., where the community banded together to tear down – the initial plan was to burn down – a house in which six teenagers and young adults were shot and killed several months earlier by the ex-boyfriend of one of the victims. Would every other community in this country do the same thing? Would no other community?