Everyone is guffawing right now on the exact same subject. Men’s fitness magazine has named Baltimore as America’s fittest city this year, after ranking 25th last year.

What?!

I think the editor’s of Men’s Fitness statement is the most telling. When the AP asked him the prerequisite WTF?, he was “quick to point out that the survey is far from scientific, and he says it took additional factors into account this year that worked in Baltimore’s favor.”

So basically, his answer was that such magazine surveys and statistics are completely meaningless. Okay, I’ll buy that. Anyone who actually reads or pays attention to a junk magazine like Men’s Fitness, which only exists to provide advertising space for exercise machines and Viagra, and feeds off the ignorance and insecurities of its target demographic, deserve to receive whatever junk data they are willing to pay for.

Of course, Mayor O’Malley lapped it up like a Double Cinnamon Dolce Latte and responded with this equally empty statement: “You see some neighborhoods starting to grow again, and attracting younger people. With those younger people coming, there’s a number of gyms now. In every growing neighborhood, you look for two leading signs — one is a gym and the other is a Starbucks.”

Of course, I’m sure that quote will play very well to Montgomery County in the primary. I say leave both Starbucks and Men’s Fitness in Montgomery County where they belong. Will someone please pass me the butter?