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Now for the unquantifiable bit.

There is also the unquantifiable but, I believe, vitally important American “luckiness” vibe, which makes some of us believe that even while others are struggling, those we love will evade problems as a result of personal merit, or—as things worsen—that we can indeed find a way to bargain with the dictator that will save our own skin.

Something unquantifiable happened in 1990 that went far beyond winning a single match.

It’s often claimed, I’m not sure on what authority, that the Beatles’ arrival in America, three months after the assassination of President Kennedy, in some unquantifiable way lifted the spirits of a depressed nation, allowing it to move forward into the light.

And it imbues the foodstuffs, home goods, clothes, paraphernalia and tchotchkes that hail from here with a sort of unquantifiable, ineffable, sun-kissed, surf-adjacent vibe that wraps around you like a cartoon bear hug.