Stephen Colbert Day declared in Oshawa after Saginaw hockey victory

Mark your calendars and book your air travel; in a couple of months, "Stephen Colbert Day" will be celebrated in Oshawa, Ontario.

Last week, you may have heard Stephen Colbert play a statement by John Gray, the mayor of Oshawa. Gray stated that if his city's Ontario League hockey team, the Generals, lost to the Saginaw (Michigan) Spirit -- home of team mascot Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle -- that he would declare a day in the near future "Stephen Colbert Day."

The reason for the challenge? Colbert's rips on various teams in the OHL, including saying that the Oshawa team's annual teddy bear toss was "an obvious attempt to taunt me." (He hates bears, you know.) The Spirit came through, winning the game 5-4; Colbert is requesting that his day be celebrated on March 20, which is Gray's birthday. If the Generals won, by the way, Colbert would have had to wear the team's jersey throughout one an episode of The Colbert Report.

Where are Colbert and his writers coming up with this stuff? Sure, the Spirit likely e-mailed the staff and told them they were going to name a mascot after their boss. But to go from that little nugget of information to having a city of 150,000 declare a day for him takes some pretty deft writing skills. I kind of think of it as the comedy equivalent of the guy who managed to trade a red paper clip for a house. First a bridge in Hungary, now this. If that tall building in our nation's capital is called the Colbert Monument by the end of 2007, I wouldn't be surprised.

[via digg]