How do florists respond to a TV personality's "Send me flowers" request? With not one or two bouquets, but dozens of get well wishes in the form of flowers, gift baskets, cookies and stuffed teddy bears.

Stephen Colbert, comedian and host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, appeared on TV at the end of July, looking very sad and sporting a wrist cast, claiming that he injured himself by falling on the set of his show while doing a warm-up lap. He started his request with the words that no florist ever wants to hear, but he quickly retracted the phrase and said: "In lieu of flowers, you can just send donations to ... you know what? To hell with that, I would love some flowers," Colbert said.

Fans of the show implored viewers -- via sites such as Colbert Nation, Salon.com and Yahoo! Answers -- to answer the funnyman's call and send him flowers.

To his surprise (or maybe not), he received get well bouquets following his national plea. "As you know by now, I severely injured my wrist last week. In lieu of flowers, I asked that donations be made to be made to florists who would then send me flowers, and you, the heroes, responded."

Colbert aides then paraded the assortment of flowers on the set and placed them atop his set desk. "Give it up for the heroes ... Thank you America," Colbert said.

So, Colbert received a ton of flowers, but did you know that he's unable to smell them? According to the Stephen Colbert/Trivia Wikiality Web page, among his many personal factoids is: he cannot smell flowers.

To view the video clip of Colbert receiving his get well wishes, visit this link.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

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