By Coral Gables Gazette staff
America’s semiquincentennial has produced plenty of solemn tributes. This one counts lawn mowers, cowboy boots and Hanna-Barbera cartoons among the nation’s finest achievements, and it makes its case with a wink rather than a flag.
Ryan Baesemann and Alex Perez, managing editor and associate editor of County Highway, appear at Books & Books Coral Gables on Friday, July 17, at 7 p.m. for 250 Great American Things: A Semi-Quincentennial Celebration, a new collection of short essays marking the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary. The event is free and open to the public with RSVP, though seating is not guaranteed. Books will be available for purchase, and the evening includes a reading, discussion and audience Q&A.
A list built to argue with
The book gathers 250 short entries from writers and editors connected to County Highway, each one nominating some overlooked, ordinary or unlikely piece of American life worth celebrating.
The entries run alphabetically rather than by rank, a choice the editors frame as a response to a country too divided to agree on much of anything, let alone a top 10. The result mixes the practical, including chicken-wire fencing and catcher’s mitts, with the culturally specific, including Hanna-Barbera cartoons and hairspray.
The tone is deadpan, mildly tongue-in-cheek and intentionally argumentative, in a stated line of descent from Mark Twain. The point is not to settle what makes America great, but to make the list itself part of the fun.
The newspaper behind the book
County Highway styles itself as “America’s Only Newspaper,” a print-centered broadsheet founded in 2023 by writers David Samuels and Walter Kirn. Published six times a year and modeled visually on 19th-century newspapers, the publication has built its identity around long-form writing, small-town reporting and an affection for print culture.
Its visual design, created with Pentagram, looks back to the heyday of 19th-century newspapers, with typography and headline treatments meant to evoke older newspaper forms. The masthead incorporates work by Lisa Orth, the original art director of Sub Pop Records.
250 Great American Things extends that sensibility into book form: part patriotism, part provocation, part catalog of American objects, habits and inventions too familiar to notice until someone puts them in a list.
Two editors, two paths to the page
Baesemann, County Highway’s managing editor, is a writer, editor and farmer. Perez, the paper’s associate editor, is a Cuban American writer from Miami.
Both have spent the past two years helping shape the newspaper’s print-first, roadshow-style relationship with readers, a philosophy that carries naturally into live events like Friday’s Books & Books appearance.
What to expect
The event is built around conversation as much as promotion. Baesemann and Perez will read from the book, discuss the project and take audience questions.
Because seating is not guaranteed even with an RSVP, organizers recommend arriving early. Copies of 250 Great American Things will be available for purchase at the event.
What to know
Ryan Baesemann and Alex Perez appear at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, on Friday, July 17, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public with RSVP.
