Congratulations, Kyle MacDonald!

Who is Kyle MacDonald...and why am I congratulating him?

Well, Kyle is responsible for one of the most ambitious and entertaining projects thus far in Internet history. About a year ago, the Canadian came up with an idea to make a series of trades with the ultimate goal of trading for a house. The dream started with the most usual of items...one red paperclip. Hence, Kyle started a blog devoted to his quest at www.oneredpaperclip.com.

Kyle posted the picture of the one red paperclip on his Web site on July 12, 2005, and wound up trading it for a fish-shaped pen. The pen was traded for a door knob, which was exchanged for a camping stove. The stove was traded for a generator and the generator swapped for a Budweiser beer keg, which was exchanged for a snowmobile. The snowmobile was traded for trip to Yahk in remote British Columbia and swapped that for a supply truck, which was exchanged for a recording contract. The recording contract got Kyle and his girlfriend close to a house...it was traded for a year's rent in a duplex located in Phoenix, Ariz.

And that's when the project began to reach epic proportions. The year's rent was exchanged for an afternoon with rocker Alice Cooper, who was brought into the project by the woman who lived in the other half of the Phoenix duplex. However, Kyle's next trade raised eyebrows among many of those who followed his exploits...the afternoon with Alice Cooper was swapped for a KISS—as in the rock group—snow globe.

There was a reason for this trade. Earlier in the process, actor/writer/director Corbin Bernsen (of "L.A. Law" and "Major League" fame) had offered a speaking role in a movie he is making as a trade item. But Kyle never mentioned the offer on his site because he didn't have anything Bernsen would really want in a trade...

...until he came across the KISS snow globe.

You see, Bernsen is a huge snow globe collector. How huge? Apparently, he owns more than 6,500 snow globes. And Kyle traded Bernsen the KISS snow globe for the movie role.

And on Wednesday—one year to the day that the red paperclip first appeared on his blog—Kyle will realize his dream of trading that one red paperclip for a house.

The city of Kipling, Saskatchewan, has offered Kyle a three-bedroom house in exchange for the movie role...sort of. The town is going to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the project and stage an open "American Idol"-style audtion for the movie role. In addition, the town is going to erect the world's largest red paperclip to mark Kyle's achievement.

So, congratulations, Kyle MacDonald. Well done!

AP Story: Blogger's quest ends with keys to house