Around July 4th, Fortune Magazine issues 100 great things that Americans can be proud of. This is the third year Fortune is doing it and no repeats are allowed. Moreover only living things are eligible. In this year list, I personally like only about 30 items. The rest are baloney and not great at all, and not even worth mentioning. How about you? Read the list below and let me know what you think. Your opinion is highly welcome. I also added five items in the list as my personal favorite at the bottom of the page.
1. Resilience 2. Title IX 3. The Ford assembly line 4. Batman 5. Bald eagle 6. The G.I. Bill 7. Smithsonian 8. Idaho potatos 9. Brooklyn Bridge 10. Smokey Bear
11. Groundhog Day 12. Tupac's hologram 13. Polio vaccine 14. Omaha Steaks 15. Bob Dylan, 1965, Newport Folk Festival 16. Pete Seeger 17. Mini golf 18. The White House 19. Pictionary 20. Snuggies
21. Basketball 22. Scooby-doo 23. Sleepaway camp 24. Mormons 25. The DynaTAC "brick" 26. Capture the flag 27. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" 28. U.S. Open 29. Hollywood sign 30. Lady Gaga
31. Saturday Night Live 32. Charlotte's Web 33. The cheeseburger 34. I have a dream speech 35. Jukebox 36. The Triple Crown 37. Roller derbies 38. Campbell's Soup cans 39. Megamillions 40. Texas linedancing
41. Marshmallow Peeps 42. Skateboarding 43. Polaroid (and its successors) 44. Teddy bears 45. Woody Allen 46. Microwave 47. Credit cards 48. Beach volleyball 49. Twister 50. QWERTY
51. Silicon Valley 52. Pride Week 53. The Blues 54. Flapjacks 55. Kickstarter 56. Peanut butter 57. Hershey's 58. Pacific Coast Highway 59. Comic-Con 60. Swanson
61. NASA 62. Trick-or-treating 63. Dolly Parton 64. The soda shop 65. NPR 66. Moore's law 67. Crayola 68. Human Genome Project 69. Rube Goldberg machines 70. Maine Lobster Festival
71. The Dougie 72. Rodeos 73. Muppets 74. Lucas films 75. Cheer leading 76. Shark Week 77. Internet memes 78. Ticker-tape parades 79. Kool-Aid 80. Dr. Seuss books
81. Key Lime Pie 82. Tailgating 83. Pop-tarts 84. Tipping 85. Stephen Colbert 86. Fender guitars 87. Chevrolet Corvette 88. Instagram 89. Play-doh 90. Top Chef
91. Potato chips 92. Happy hour 93. ProPublica 94. Appalachian Trail 95. Star Trek 96. New England Clam Chowder 97. WiFi 98. The GIF 99. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition 100. American Psycho
As Ronald Reagan was so fond of saying: "There you go again." That's right, there Fortune goes again with another 100 great things about America. This is Fortune's third annual list -- our favorite way to kick off the high-summer season -- and we're still following the house rules: No repeats from previous years' lists, which is why you won't see The Mighty Mississippi (it was included last year) or the Ford Mustang (it was on the list the year before). Also, only the living are eligible, so apologies not only to the Great Communicator himself, as well as Andrew Carnegie and Amelia Earhart, but also to Lassie, Flipper, and Mr. Ed.
On this year's list you will find an iconic bridge (we have a bunch of those in this country), a cartoon dog (ditto) and a certain Valley to the south of San Francisco that just happens to be the cradle of global technology innovation (there’s only one of those).
The list is great fun to argue about with friends. Just please remember that we are now up to 300 great things cumulatively with our three years of lists and we aim to keep going (for another seven years) until we hit a thousand! Somewhere, I think the Gipper -- and FDR too -- are smiling in approval.
Can you add your own favorites in the list: Mine are:same sex marriages, obamacare, the dream act immigration law, Anderson Cooper( coming out) and Romney and Mormons.
Happy July 4th to All and Happy Birthday America
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