People, remember the conversation we had last week about making September great again after such a bad-news-filled August? Did you listen? No. And now we have another massive hurricane on its way. Think positive! And, by all means, to those of you in Florida and all points Southeast, please be safe. In fact, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re out of Florida by now.

Here are a few interesting, if relatively unimportant, things we’re seeing this week:

Even as overall sports viewership is in decline, fantasy sports seem to be holding steady. Our data found this to be especially true here in my hometown of Pittsburgh, where fantasy sports are played at a rate more than 50% higher than the national average. I suppose it’s easier to be a die-hard sports fan when you have more Super Bowl trophies, more NFL Hall-of-Famers, and more professional championships-per-team since 1970 than any other American city. But I digress…

McDonald’s big move into specialty coffee should have the execs at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts staying up at night, you know, drinking coffee. We ran a study of over 90,000 U.S. consumers who imbibe coffee drinks at any of the three establishments and compared them across all sorts of dimensions. There are some clear areas of vulnerability for Starbucks and Dunkin. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, our data indicate that Dunkin may be facing the greater threat. McDonald’s scale is no joke. (And no, I didn’t know this was coming when I shared all of those random coffee stats last week, I swear).

Millennials and African-Americans are increasingly bearish on the value of home ownership. This trend doesn’t require a ton of added commentary. Shifts toward renting, particularly in urban centers, are well documented. But I did find it interesting how centralized among those demos the trend appears to be.

I’m optimistic about Chipotle for the first time in a long time. Their move to sell queso in all their U.S. restaurants has the preliminary signs of a winner. As much as 33% of their customers in the next several months could be new, lapsed, or less frequent diners. Those percentages look uncannily similar – if on a much smaller absolute scale – to figures we saw before McDonald’s launched all-day breakfast. We all know how that turned out. Just keep in mind that way more than 34% of Americans eat at McDonald’s.

Entrepreneurs and business owners are birds of a different feather. Remember the study I told you about in June – the one about the lifestyle and psychographic attributes of entrepreneurs I was working on? I finally finished it. There are all kinds of interesting discoveries, from how we watch TV differently to how we use social networks. We like to cook more than most people but have a greater likelihood of living with someone who has heart disease. Are we happier overall? I won’t give that away. You have to read the full report and write-up here.

Just one Random (but thought-provoking) Stat:

Your future is going to be awesome. There, I told you.

Hoping you’re well,

JD