Was this Sunday's Maureen Dowd op-ed written by "Stephen Colbert" real? A genius pisstake? Who cares anyway. It was a fun read:

I was in my office, writing a column on the injustice of relative marginal tax rates for hedge fund managers, when I saw Stephen Colbert on TV. He was sneering that Times columns make good "kindling." He was ranting that after you throw away the paper, "it takes over a hundred years for the lies to biodegrade." He was observing, approvingly, that "Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream is driving a bulldozer into The New York Times while drinking crude oil out of Keith Olbermann's skull." I called Colbert with a dare: if he thought it was so easy to be a Times Op-Ed pundit, he should try it. He came right over. In a moment of weakness, I had staged a coup d'moi. I just hope he leaves at some point. He's typing and drinking and threatening to "shave Paul Krugman with a broken bottle."

1. Writing in the Times that isn't dry? According to some theologians, that's a sign of the impending apocalypse.

2. The urge to inflict bodily harm on Paul Krugman is surprisingly common. We've never felt it, but this isn't the first time the fantasy has been mentioned (though it usually involves Thomas Friedman and a bloody chainsaw).

3. Editor & Publisher isn't sure whether it's real or not, but the Colbert fans at No Fact Zone are all about it.