Photo by Flickr user dbking

“What’s the deal with the statues on horses? Is there any significance to them? I’ve heard that there’s some significance when their front leg is lifted.” - Liz Palmer

Several readers were wondering the same thing, Liz. With help from a reference librarian and good old-fashioned Internet digging, we’ve got it covered.

The change of the guard at the top of the Washington Post has sidelined some big Redskins fans.

Post Company head Don Graham, who was publisher for 21 years, tries to attend every Redskins home game. He’s been spied sitting at the 50-yard line in the upper deck. A Washington native, he’s been a Skins fan his whole life. Ditto Boisfeuillet “Bo” Jones, publisher until February and Graham’s longtime friend.

Katharine Weymouth, Graham’s niece, has taken over as Post publisher. A native New Yorker, she has been to a few games but says, “Don is the real sports fan in the family.”

Departed executive editor Leonard Downie had a heart of burgundy and gold. He tries to go to every home game, and he paid special attention to Redskins coverage. It was Downie who reserved a spot on the front page for game coverage the morning after the Redskins played.

Downie’s replacement, Marcus Brauchli, grew up in Boulder, Colorado; he’s a Denver Broncos fan.

Photo by Flickr user jasonb42882

Up and at 'em, Washington! Lots going on in the next few days. Tonight is the much-anticipated vice presidential debate, and there's lots of other fun stuff going on this weekend as well.  

Speaking of the vice presidential candidates, are you at all curious about Wasilla, hometown of Sarah Palin? Wonkette has an interview with the "only Wasilla resident living in DC." 

Food poisoning struck a dining hall on Georgetown's campus.  

DC Blogs rounds up a few bloggers' thoughts on the sad closure of local bookstore chain Olsson's. 

The closest Gregg Levy ever came to a football field was when he sold popcorn and Cracker Jack at Ohio State games in his native Columbus. But now the head of litigation at Covington & Burling could be the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player.

Levy made the winning argument in a landmark case that cemented the teams’ right to negotiate as one entity with apparel makers, fighting off a charge that the policy violated federal antitrust laws. Challengers wanted the right to try selling apparel to individual teams; the league and clubs had an exclusive deal with Reebok to manufacture all hats and jerseys.

It was the latest in a string of victories for the NFL since Levy took over the bulk of its legal work in 1993. In 1996, in the Supreme Court, he bested Kenneth Starr in an antitrust challenge to the league’s method of paying players on practice squads. In 2007, Levy won reversal of a $1.2-billion judgment against the league for allegedly interfering with the Oakland Raiders’ attempt to build a stadium in Los Angeles. That pays a lot better than selling popcorn and hot dogs.

More than 8,000 votes were cast in September's transportation-themed photo contest. Congratulations to Tim Kelley, whose photograph “Rosslyn Metro” won with 50 percent of the vote! We loved the colors and lighting. Tim’s photograph will appear in our November issue, on sale October 23, so be sure to pick up a copy. Check out all the past winners here in our winners' gallery.

Think your photograph has what it takes to win? Try entering this month’s contest. Our theme is light—interpret it however you’d like!

Here’s how the contest works: You submit photographs, and our panel of judges selects the best to run on our Web site. Then you, the reader, vote for your favorite. The winner be featured in the December issue of The Wshingtonian.

Submit as many photos as you’d like to photocontest@washingtonian.com. Please attach only one photo per e-mail, and include the photographer’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and place of residence along with a sentence or two about where the photograph was taken. Photos should be 300 dpi and at least four by six inches. The deadline for submissions is noon on Tuesday, October 21. Finalists will be contacted when the reader voting goes live.

Oh, and one more reminder: All photos must be taken in the Washington area—including the Maryland and Virginia suburbs—and the photographer must be local.

Good luck!

Patrick Gavin at Tryst in Adams Morgan. Photograph by Chris Leaman

Patrick Gavin has been tracking Washington’s media scene for nearly three years on FishbowlDC. Why? “I’m clearly a glutton for punishment,” he says. “No, but seriously. Like Representative Robert Wexler and cocaine, ‘It seemed like a fun thing to do.’ ”

Gavin uses the blog to offer insight into Washington’s media culture. But what makes FishbowlDC interesting is that Gavin talks about it all as an insider: He's a columnist at the Washington Examiner.

The 30-year-old was born in New York City but has lived in Massachusetts, Florida, California, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. (No, he says, his parents weren’t in the military, and they weren’t criminals.) Gavin came to DC five years ago to woo an ex-girlfriend. He didn’t win her back but says it was for the best—it gave him the perfect excuse to start a career in Washington as a political journalist.

We recently caught up with Gavin to get the scoop on all things media. We talk headlines, sources, and front-page news. Plus, we get his take on the plight of the Washington Post and Election ’08 media coverage.