Had I made a list of my top-ten most widely read blogs at the end of 2023 each post would have shared the same subject, Benjamin Moore chief executive Dan Calkins. After 2024 that same list would leave #Dan without a mention, pushed from the spotlight by the tumult of a year in paint no one anticipated.
Which leaves more room for me!
It was last year at this time that Kelly pushed the other Moores from paint’s front pages, allowing Charles Gassenheimer to replace Dan Calkins as the industry’s greatest clickbait.
Months later it would be PPG keeping #Dan in the shadows when they announced their intentions to divest their architectural coatings division, that news bringing inordinate attention to these pages.
Maybe Dan had been holding me back?
Last week my post on Irick’s sacking went viral by my standards, becoming second most-read less than one week after posting. That kind of attention will conspire with my vainglory ensuring that for at-least the next few weeks topics I’ll be following up that topic.
Which might leave Dan craving my attention even more, maybe someone should do a wellness check?
In my next post I’ll answer one of the two most frequent questions I received this week regarding Pittsburgh: What does American Industrial Partners’ acquisition of the brands mean to independent retailers in both the short and long-term and why has AIP been so quiet since acquiring the brand?
THE Best Team
In the days leading up to the College Football National Championship played earlier this week, I came into a few dollars providentially enough to justify laying it all on the Ohio State Buckeyes to win the game and to cover the spread.
Though a few more things would have to happen to turn my windfall into a bounty!
Once deposited in my FanDuel account I began the days-long stint of laying out my bets, covering more than 20 parlays in hopes of watching the Buckeyes win the Natty and add to my daughter’s inheritance.
Though only one of those came to pass.
This year the National Championship tournament included 12 teams, the largest field to ever to compete for a championship in football. That new format allowing for more compelling match-ups and games than in previous years, and I was not the only one who noticed.
So maybe that sport has finally solved its problem crowning champions?
THE new format had seeding enough for any team with a reasonable chance of winning to battle for trophy, including teams with imperfect records as was the case with both teams who played in this year’s championship game.
Under previous formats Notre Dame would have given up any hopes of a championship dreams in the season’s second week after an unexplainable loss at home to Northern Illinois.
Ohio State was allowed into the tournament despite two losses, one in the final seconds to a top-ranked Oregon team which could easily be forgiven. THE other a confounding late-season loss to arch-rival Michigan; this year the lessor team.
That new format saving #BuckeyeNation from bearing THE the scar left by an agonizing loss to a rival.
Because the Buckeyes surged after that Michigan loss, going on to beat four top-ranked teams on their way to the championship, with none of the games ever really in doubt.
But from the mid-fourth quarter, my windfall was.
