If it’s a new day, there must be a new “best” list for something

It's a different day and of course it brings forth a multitude of new "Best" lists skewed to the target audience of the sponsoring publication. Today in my internet stumbling I ran across Money magazine's "100 Best Places to Live" which focused this year on small towns and Travel + Leisure magazine's best airlines ratings - each catching my eye for the list components and the evaluation criteria that clearly was set forth based on the magazine's advertisers and the lifestyle of their core 25-45, upper income readership.

You would figure with a list of 100, that Money's best small towns would at least have one town in all of the fifty states or at least the lower forty-eight - but it seems editor's flew right over about 12 states - I guess the beauty of the landscape of the heart of the south, the majestic plains of the upper Midwest, and the grandeur of the desert southwest were not factors in being the best. Don't know about you - but the natural beauty that surrounds a small town is a core element of the charm in my opinion.

I will admit up-front that I am stung by the sting of my adopted home state and her commonwealth neighbor to the north, Kentucky, being overlooked. How can the magazine overlook Franklin, TN from its list? Money listed it as one of the top 10 places to retire; Sperling listed it as best place to raise a family and one of the most affordable. Travel magazine even had the quaint Franklin on its list of 1000 Places to see before you die - but the towns not on Money's 2009 list.

Money claims that the Franklinwasn't overlooked, but was now viewed as a city and not meeting the criteria of this year's list. Franklin, located 18 miles south of Nashville, will always be a small town in its look, feel community and culture even as the expanding sprawl of Nashville creeps toward and across the city limits. It is the perfect small town of our new millennium keeping those southern tradition and charm but also meeting the needs and wants of the modern family or yuppies!

Money's list also slights the state of my college days, South Carolina. (I went to Clemson - NOT USC). The beautiful low country towns and the coastal splendor North of Charleston and the outer banks of Hilton Head - come on Money get out your offices and really explore America for your list! But instead of research your list gives us Madison, AL, Brandon, MS, Bryant, AR - nice places I am sure but just don't hold a candle to their left off southern state friends.

Even the land of my birth - New Jersey, home of the Turnpike, Xanadau at the Meadowlands and the toxic chemical burial place of Jimmy Hoffa had THREE towns on the list! (And I totally agree that Montville, NJ belongs on the list - it's beautiful and is Jersey at its best!)

Speaking of Jersey we can head over to catch a flight at Newark Liberty International Airport and look at Travel + Leisure's "ten best domestic airlines."The magazine and polling group HARIS Interactive used a survey to reader's travelers, and experts to form their list. The survey covered affordability, on time performance, customer service, in flight amenities, cities served and schedule.

So, which airline topped the Travel + Leisure rankings? That would be Virgin America, which was named the best domestic airline for the second consecutive year. In fact, the Travel + Leisure list seems to skew heavily against the nation's traditional "legacy carriers." Curiously, not a single of those so-called legacy carriers made Travel + Leisure's top 10 list.

That's the first thing I find interesting about his list - the top ten are all what the industry calls low-cost or limited-service carriers. Limited meaning number of cities served. Many of the top ten winners can't even be evaluated in areas like in-flight meal services, entertainment, business class cabins, etc... because they don't offer those services. What does that mean for Delta, United and American that still provide those things? Does it mean that those services are not needed by the average flier or do the legacy carriers offer it in such a poor fashion that in a choice of have or have not consumers choose NOT!

Rounding out the top ten list of domestic carriers were No. 2 JetBlue, No. 3 Midwest, No. 4 West Jet, No. 5 Southwest, No. 6 Sun Country, No. 7 Hawaiian Airlines, No. 8 Frontier, No. 9 Alaska Airlines and No. 10 USA 3000. Another curiosity: West Jet made the domestic list, even though it's a Canadian carrier that offers no intra-USA flights.

Virgin American's two-year reign on top is also perplexing and may be more a result of perception that actual experience by the surveyors. Virgin America is the low cost carrier that didn't forget the in-flight amenities and even kicked it up a notch with special lighting, contour seating and more! The problem is- Virgin America is struggling to survive and is flying just above bankruptcy. It also only touches a handful of cities like NY, Boston, Chicago, LA and San Fran - and even there its struggling to stay in Chicago and Southern Cal due to lack of fliers.

I think I am going to develop a "Top" list just like these that is self-serving and skewed - what do you think the topic should be? Comment and let me know!