Fun City U.S.A.: Time for another installment of meaningless national rankings and arbitrary statistics! Today’s focus: Fun! Which is why we’re using exclamation marks on every sentence in this item! Trident, the chewing gum company, asked residents of big cities how fun their area was, and D.C. ranked 7th! In the country! For some reason, Atlanta came out on top! But hey, at least we beat Houston! +1

That’s Gov. Salahi To You: There’s one way for Virginia winemaker/person who is now mostly famous for being famous Tareq Salahi to get an official invitation to the White House next time—go as a governor. Perhaps that’s why Salahi says he will file papers to challenge Gov. Bob McDonnell in the state’s Republican primary next year. The declaration is irrelevant until 2013, under state law, since that’s when the election will actually happen. No word on whether Salahi’s wife Michaele will leave Journey guitarist Neal Schon, who she left Salahi for, if he wins. -2

Love And Marriage: New Census stats out today show the District has a higher percentage than the national average of racially mixed marriages and relationships, both straight and gay. The stats also show the District and Alexandria are among the national leaders in the percentage of young people living alone—44 percent of households here consist of only one person. How you think that affects the fun rankings listed above probably depends on whether you’re single or not. +2

Beat Boston: The Washington Capitals play the Boston Bruins tonight in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series. Some ardent Caps fans are trying to organize a boycott of all things Boston in order to show their support—which has Boston-based Legal Sea Foods, across the street from the Verizon Center, caught in the middle. The restaurant’s chef says they’re Caps fans. Regardless, probably best to stay away from Sam Adams beers while watching the game tonight. Let’s go Caps! +2

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 41 Today’s score: +3 Today’s Needle rating: 44