Memorial Day mailbag

Upvotes, O'Malley, and my scoldy no-fun views on gambling

Hope everyone is looking forward to the long weekend — enjoy some cookouts and maybe a little Top Gun sequel.

Something I learned living in Logan Circle is that the Memorial Day federal holiday was created thanks to the legislative initiative of John Logan, a former general and U.S. senator who was important enough in Gilded Age politics to have a bunch of stuff named after him but who is now quite obscure.

David Muccigrosso: Does Matt select questions based roughly on upvotes? If so, how does he account for the fact that most questions are upvoted in proportion to how soon they've been posted?

I don’t select them that way at all; it’s all about whether I think I have an interesting answer and how the questions work with the flow of the whole column.

Doug Orleans: Have Martin O'Malley's chances been hurt by the unflattering references to him in the show We Own This City?

I do genuinely think that the unflattering portrayal of Carcetti, the O’Malley stand-in in The Wire, made it hard for…