  The mean metallicity of the thick disk of the Galaxy is 0.5 dex higher than
that of the damped Lyman alpha systems. This has been interpreted to argue that
stars in the former do not arise out of gas in the latter. Using new
metallicity and H I column-density data we show the metal-rich damped systems
do contain sufficient baryons at the thick-disk metallicity to account for the
stellar masses of thick disks. Comparing our kinematic data with the
metallicities we show that damped Lyman alpha systems exhibiting the largest
profile velocity widths span a narrow range of high metallicities, while
systems with small velocity widths span a wider range of metallicities. This is
naturally explained by passage of the damped Lyman alpha sightlines through
rapidly rotating disks with negative radial gradients in metallicity. The
systematically lower N(H I) of systems with high velocity widths indicates (a)
the gaseous disks have centrally located holes, and (b) an apparent
inconsistency with the protogalactic clump model for damped Lyman alpha
systems. The higher metallicity of systems with low N(H I) further implies that
stars rather than gas dominate the baryonic content of the most metal-rich
damped systems.
