Stephen Jr hatches!

My boy Colbert is a new Dad. Stephen Jr the bald eagle hatched at San Francisco Zoo yesterday. Tonight Nyx and I went to a taping of the Colbert Report, and we saw the birth notice. I'll post it tomorrow. The video from yesterday's show (stay with me) is here, tagged 'Stephen Jr hatches'. Congratulations!

And there's intrigue in the backstory: the offer to name an eagle after Stephen was apparently unauthorised, but in a sweet way. From the SF Chronicle (and with a bonus genuine Bond non sequitur, no less!):

"The offer letter came from an enterprising volunteer who e-mailed Colbert's Webmaster. The outcome -- so much jolly publicity -- has been terrific, so congratulations to her. But, ummm, did she really have the right to make the offer Colbert couldn't refuse? "We had a little internal discussion about that,'' said the zoo's Alexander Winslow. "Bless her heart. Her heart was in the right place.''

And what if she had sent the same offer to someone a little more controversial than Colbert, say Howard Stern, or perhaps even Bill O'Reilly? Winslow laughed. The bird will be identifiable forever, but chances are it won't ever know its name. Identifying tags on the eagles' legs have numbers only; 007 might be a moniker the eagle could really enjoy."

Eh?