News-Record.com

Occasionally, someone who writes a letter to the editor has the same name as someone else.

And occasionally, that someone else calls the newspaper and shares a frantic tale that the comments in the letter have been noticed by his friends, family and business acquaintances. "I didn't write those things," he or she will say. "I don't even believe those things."

That happened the other day. The man was good-natured, but he was mildly concerned that his name was attached to words he did not write.

As a guy named Allen Johnson, I can sympathize. There are a lot of guys named Allen Johnson. When once staying in a hotel in Atlanta, I was stuck with a bar tab from a guy named Al Johnson. The one from Charlotte. I have been confused with him before.

But I digress.

When letter writers complain of their namesakes, especially ones who regularly write letters to the editor, we have tried different approaches to help them draw clearer distinctions between one another.

If it happens to you, we'll try to work with the parties involved to come up with a mutually agreeable solution.

Sometimes the solution is as simple as a middle initial.

Sometimes it's the attachment of "Jr." or "Sr." or "III."

In at least one case that wasn't enough.

So this letter appeared in the June 6, 2003, edition of the News & Record:

As general manager of the Greensboro Bats and vice president of the Greensboro Sports Council, I am very aware of the many challenges and issues involving professional sports teams in Greensboro.

I want the readers of your newspaper and the citizens of Greensboro to know that the writer of the letter, "Brown expands reach too far at coliseum" (June 2), is not me, but another individual in this community by the same name.
For future reference, if I were to write any letter to this publication, it will be signed as I have signed below, Donald C. Moore, General Manager, Greensboro Bats.

Donald C. Moore
Greensboro

Donald C. Moore, of course, is now the president of the Greensboro Grasshoppers (uh-oh, more namefoolery).

For the record, according to our letters data base, three Donald Moores have had letters published in the News & Record in recent years.

Two live in Greensboro, one in Eden.