I’ve noticed something odd. Or odd to me, anyway.

It’s happened a couple of times. And it relates to how people view this blog.

Harvey wrote a post recently. And someone, in the comments, referred to him as “Frank.”

It’s happened more than once. Thinking someone else was Frank J. And it’s happened to more than Harvey. It’s happened to Cadet Happy. It even happened to me.

Now, how someone could confuse me and Frank J. is beyond me.

For one thing, I’m older. And taller. At least, I think I’m taller. I don’t know for sure. I’ve never met Frank J. I suspect he’s, oh, 5’11” or so. Heck, he might be taller. I’m 6’2″ … but I could be short next to Frank J. He might be 7’4″ and play for the Celtics. Except they pronounce it “SELL-tix” when it’s actually “KELL-tix” so what do they know.

Anyway, this strange phenomenon means that people either…

a) don’t read the byline on the post. I mean, it says clear as day “posted by Harvey” or “posted by Frank J.” or whatever the name of the person posting is. Do people not read that part? Is it because it’s the boring part?

Actually, it’s the only part that bloggers care about. “Posted by Basil” for instance is the only part I care about.

All that nonsense that follows the byline? Junk. Means nothing. Just words. Heck, I don’t even know what I’m talking about half the time. Okay, three quarters of the time. Oh, alright. All the time.

But it doesn’t matter. It’s the byline that’s important. It has my name. Or Harvey’s name, if Harvey wrote it. Or Frank J.’s name. Or Cadet Happy’s name. Or SarahK’s name. Or SpaceMonkey’s name. Or… well, you get the idea. And a good understanding of why the part after the byline is crap. I mean, have you even read this post?

For all I care, I could be writing Latin nonsense. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. See? My point, exactly.

Oh, yeah, there was another possibility, wasn’t there. It was…

b) people think Frank J. posts everything here. And that could be it. Maybe people think that all the little voices in Frank J.’s head come out to play sometimes, and write their own posts.

Like we’re all Frank J.’s sockpuppets. And maybe “sockpuppet” is the wrong word. In its earliest form, it was simply an alias; today, it’s more like a fake identity to praise another identity.

So, maybe I’m simply an alias for Frank J. And you are Frank J.’s sockpuppet, telling him how great he is and how much you enjoy his posts. Ever think about that? Scary, huh? Like a Twilight Zone episode.

But what’s the answer?

Are Harvey, SarahK, SpaceMonkey, et al, simply pseudonymns for Frank J? Or are people simply not reading the bylines?

No, they are real people. Every one of them.

At least, that’s what we want you to believe.