How did Stephen Colbert end up writing Maureen Dowd’s most-emailed column last week? Colbert was duped, he admits to Frank Rich at an interview last night at the 92nd street Y:

She didn't know I was going to run for president when she called me up. She said, 'How would you like to write my column this weekend?' And I said, 'Why?' And she said, 'Why did Tom Sawyer want that boy to paint his fence?"

That just might be the funniest Maureen Dowd anecdote of all time.