Mrs. Publicist: Time for What’s In A Name, where Pete discussed a #character name from one of his books. How about Fairbanks, the gator who plays a supporting role in Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue?

Pete: Ah, Fairbanks – one of those characters who will take over the whole story if you let him. I knew there had to be a gator and the name just popped into my head, a pleasant development because the banks part conjures up watery things, like “the banks of a blue lagoon” from that #beatles song. Plus a bit of irony in the fair part, although Fairbanks does turn out to be fair in his own way. And then of course there’s Douglas Fairbanks, swashbuckling star of the silver screen. That opened the door to how this gator got his name.

Mrs. Publicist: Chapter Three, page 19. I happen to have it here, as follows: “Like many gators in the ponds, lakes, springs, and backwaters of Florida, Fairbanks had been given a harmless-sounding name by the locals, in his—or possibly her—case by Ms. Pietsch of condo #9, a retired professor of film history who’d been the first to encounter Fairbanks on a morning kayak paddle some months before and sold out soon after.” So we come full circle?

Pete: I’d say semi.

Mrs. Publicist: Of course you would! See you next month for more of What’s In A Name!