I could use a banana, a cap, and some fish (also, some words on false advertising)

Happy birthday to Bill Thomas, who leads us into spring and away from fall as the executive director of Chanticleer Garden, a place that brings us breezes, blooms, and birds and is featured in my two ghost books: Ghosts in the Garden (a memoir) and Nothing but Ghosts (a young adult novel).

Of course, there are no actual ghosts in either book, which is to say that Casper does not make an appearance. Once a reviewer took me to task for putting the word "ghost" into my novel's title (about a daughter missing her mother).

False advertising, wrote the critic.

Angrily.

Like Truman Capote, I did not respond.

I prefer to wish Bill a happy birthday.