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Happy Fourth of July everyone!
Along with reveling and reflecting this holiday weekend, we’re probably doing some grousing too. Yet even with all the pain and disruption this year, it’s easy to overlook how much we have to celebrate in America.
Back on July 4, 2010 when I was editor of Fortune, we put together a list of the 100 Greatest Things about America. Pretty much anything could be on the list — national parks, TV shows, favorite foods — subject to just one rule. People could be included, of course, but we decided only the living. (Ditto for dogs, cats etc.) A group of us brainstormed and in short order, we had our 100. In fact we came up with many more than that. No worries, we could and did create another list the following year, (which led to another rule, no repeats.) So, we listed 100 more great things about America in 2011, and then again in 2012, 2013 and 2014, until I decamped to Yahoo pastures.
Now after a six year hiatus, it seems especially fitting this year to remind ourselves about America’s positive side. Same rules apply: Only the living and no repeats from previous lists.
One measure of our country’s greatness: Even with five hundred items already identified, it was pretty easy to come up with 100 more.
(NB: A few people from previous lists have passed away over the years. Also picks from older lists may have not “aged well,” as they say, but we aren’t going to edit previous years’ lists.)
Here then, without further ado and in no particular order, (no judging), are Yahoo Finance’s 100 Greatest Things about America 2020:
1. Voting
2. Poll workers
3. Dwayne Johnson
4. Triple Berry Pie
5. Water parks
6. “Friday Night Lights” (the book, the movie, and the show)
7. Our flag
8. “Shark Tank”
9. Ava Duvernay
10. Neil Diamond singing “Coming to America”
11. Eddie Murphy starring in “Coming to America”
12. Frontline workers
13. Hip hop
14. Meryl Streep
15. Tom Hanks
16. Southern accents
17. Brooklyn accents
18. Charleston Chews
19. Roadside diners
20. Sandra Oh
21. “Hamilton,” the musical (and the book too!)
22. Fireball
23. Black Lives Matter
24. Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Falling Water”
25. Second-line parades in New Orleans
26. Reed Hastings
27. Deviled eggs
28. Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich
29. Whoopi Goldberg
30. Plant nurseries
31. Queer Eye’s Fab Five
32. Kellyanne, George and Claudia Conway
33. Banana bread
34. White Claw and the spiked seltzer trend
35. Matthew McConaughey
36. Pennsylvania sweet corn
37. Speakeasies
38. C-SPAN
39. Elmo and Elmo’s dad
40. “The Office”
41. Promposals
42. Tax refunds
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44. Block parties
45. Mike Trout
46. First Black Bachelor
47. Peloton
48. Innovation
49. Potlucks
50….
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Read More: The 100 Greatest Things about America 2020
