What's in a name?

I just read an article in the Spokesman about country singer Keith Urban suing some guy from New Jersey with the same name for leading visitors to believe that his site www.keithurban.com is the singer's site. The site reportedly implies that Urban, the singer, is also Urban, the artist.

I visited the site and checked out the artwork, which is actually kinda nice. The artist's style has a touch of Norman Rockwell in some of the paintings. Now, I don't know if he's consciously trying to mimick Rockwell's style and use the famous country singer's name to make a little money, but I guess we'll learn more as this suit goes before a judge. According to one article I read, the guy established his website back in 1999.

Possibly his subtle suggestion that he may be Keith Urban, country artist and hubby to Nicole Kidman, is a ploy of late, and maybe that's precisely why he's being sued by the well-known Keith Urban. Could be the country singer or some of his assistants did some googling to discover the existence of all other Keith Urbans in the world and to check up on whether or not they were trying to capitalize on the name.

I'm certainly hoping that all the other Marianne Love's of the world don't go trying something like that on me. They do exist. I know this because I've googled my name. Before I knew I was googling, I "searched" for my name. Now that I know it's googling and not searching any more, I stick to googling as a pastime for those moments when it's pouring rain outside, the work is done inside, "Huckleberries Online" is having a slow day and the TV's full of reruns.

So, I google. While googling and searching over the years, I've run across several Marianne Love's and have even communicated with a few. The most recent Marianne Love sighting actually occurred on my website guestbook. Possibly she was writing in to take advantage of my name for her upcoming garage sale. I don't know, but she did put that she lives on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona.

She also noted that her middle name was Elizabeth. I don't know why she did that because other than my family, I don't think I've told anyone what my middle name happens to be. She also informed me that she grew up in the "small Idaho town of Lewiston." Well, I kinda chuckled about that because when you grow up in Sandpoint, you don't think of Lewiston as small. She suggested that she'd like to read one of my books and asked for my suggestion on which one would be best.

I'm still not sure if this Arizona Marianne Love exists cuz I wrote back and told her about a few other Marianne Loves in the world, but I forgot to tell her which book to read. She never wrote back to me. Maybe she's still waiting for my suggested title or maybe she's busy with that garage sale. Maybe she wants my books to sell at her garage sale. I've heard of other people who've unloaded them that way.

A few years ago, I ran across a Marianne Love who grew up in Oregon. Since she was a 4-H alum, we formed an instant bond. I can't remember if she's the same one who worked in an art gallery in Scotsdale, but I do know that we exchanged a few letters. I'm wondering why so many Marianne Love's in Arizona. Could be something to do with our affinity for sunshine.

The Marianne Love who's seemed the least impressed with my invasion into her space lives in Southern California. She's a feature writer for a much bigger newspaper than I've ever written for----except the article about parents attending a day of school in their kids' places which appeared in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. I didn't write it as an assignment for the New York Times, but the editors liked it enough to pick it up from the Associated Press and run it. No Marianne Love byline, though.

The Southern California Marianne Love has written back to me a couple of times, but I think she's a lot busier on her news beat than I am. I believe she's still connected with the Los Angeles Times. Depending on what kinds of stories she writes, maybe I'd better capitalize on her name down there in the LA area when I promote my book.

I'm pretty sure she would never stoop to doing to me what Keith Urban of New Zealand lineage is doing to Keith Urban of New Jersey. After all, this North Idaho Marianne Love is such small potatoes that any money-hungry Marianne Love wishing to capitalize would do well to plan a garage sale rather than a lawsuit cuz she'd make a heckuva lot more money.