Wife-Swapping And Game Fixing

Some clever guys at " The Beast," a satirical newspaper in Buffalo, made some truly legendary prank phone calls to the mayors of both Ottawa and Buffalo as the Sabres and Senators go head-to-head in the NHL playoffs. They ended up propositioning the wife of Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, and then getting Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli on tape conspiring to fix an NHL playoff series. Not a bad day's work there.

Starting with Chiarelli, he claims he was just "going along with the joke," and given certain things in the phone call, you'd have to assume that's true. I don't want to give much away, but he certainly doesn't sound like he's joking. He's a convincing fellow.

And in talking to mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo, The Beast guys suggested that they up the ante of the previous bet (chicken wings vs. beavertails) to, um... well... "services" from their respectives wives. Mrs. Brown wasn't having it, but Mr. Brown... well, he never gave an official 'no.' I love the enthusiasm and accent of the fake Bob Chiarelli here.

I don't want to say much more, because if you do anything today, you should go read the transcripts and listen to the calls for yourself. They are priceless. Start here.

A Prank of Two Cities [The BEAST] Prankster offers mayor NHL win [Globe and Mail]