Other than that, Mr. Leopold, how was the mall?
There's a perfectly innocent explanation for the Abe Lincoln-impersonating Anne Arundel County executive's activities in the Westfield Annapolis mall parking lot: John Leopold's stimulus check came early.
Maybe he dropped the check and was groping for that sort of stimulation in the back seat of his county vehicle, so he could go inside the mall and do his patriotic duty.
Perhaps the 911 caller who thought he'd spotted "naked people" in the county Chevrolet had merely glimpsed Leopold's balding head, mistaking it for flesh that's less socially acceptable to flash.
It took the cops seven minutes to locate Leopold's car in the mall parking lot, The Baltimore Sun's Julie Scharper reports. That's good news for retailers and perhaps for Leopold, too. Officer-come-lately determined that the report was unfounded.
By that account, Leopold was waiting for Cordish's casino to get lucky at a mall.
No telling if the bachelor exec was alone. Leopold and his Police Department - sticking together because a house divided against itself, yada, yada, yada - won't say.
"I am rather inclined to silence," as Leopold's favorite president once said.
Leopold dressed up like Lincoln yesterday and went to a mall, of all places, marking the president's 200th birthday with one of his first public appearances since Car-ma Sutragate broke.
(There's a whole Web site, Car Kama Sutra, if the exec or anyone else out there is interested. But I digress.)
Showing up at a mall dressed like Honest Abe - an act of political chutzpah not seen since Sheila Dixon attended Barack Obama's Baltimore whistlestop in fur.
Marley Station mall trumpeted Leopold's appearance with a news release that said the exec "bears a striking resemblance to President Lincoln without formal attire."
So they've seen him in the buff at that mall, too?
Not yesterday, anyway. The release assured us that Leopold "will be adorned in full Lincoln dress."
The boss and The Boss
A rock 'n' roll governor - how cool is that?
Not so much if you head the state agency that horned in on Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl halftime show.
As Springsteen sang, he also shrank, so WBAL-TV could devote half the screen to not one, not two, but three Maryland Lottery drawings.
Lottery bureaucrats like us, baby, it's a good time to run.
