Several years ago, I took a job as a gossip columnist for my local newspaper. In this role, I was to invent fake gossip.

In my column, which is called "Heard by a Bird," I began to transcribe amusing bumper stickers I saw on Main Street.

One day it struck me that I could write my own messages, and pretend they were real -- just as Jorge Luis Borges suggested it was superior to write reviews of imaginary books, rather than actually write the books.