Who's your Google twin?

A Seattle Times colleague, Elizabeth Rhodes, sent me this funny note:

Gosh darn, Brian.
You have all the fun. You get to go to Ireland to meet the other Brian Cantwell.
Instead of actually working, I Googled my name.
Here are my possibilities:
-- Nacodoches, Texas, where I'm a dance instructor;
-- Cleveland, Ohio, where I'm a traffic reporter:
-- Baltimore where I'm a law librarian.
I'm also, variously a professor of Hispanic studies (then why can't I speak Spanish when in Mexico?), a Cervantes expert, a small-town politician and the CEO of something suspiciously called "Playmore Industries."
Yours was a really fun read (I'm part Irish so I identified), but still I'm jealous.

Yours in name confusion,
One Elizabeth Rhodes among many

In Western Washington, I'm an accomplished watercolor artist and teacher.

In New Orleans, I'm a surgeon specializing in plastic surgery, but in Southern California I'm a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner.

In Pennsylvania, I'm a Pastor.

I'm married to Jim, Neal, Don and Tom.

I'm a sports writer, an exotic dance teacher, a bartender, a teacher, a photographer and a lawyer.

I'm a soprano in the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In Australia, I'm a Senior Ranger with the National Parks and Wildlife Service,

And in "Return To Jamie's Kitchen," I'm one of Jamie Oliver's traineets from South West London.

It's rather entertaining to see how many Tom Auers there are on the Internet. One is a lecturer in architecture at Yale; one or two (I've seen a much older and a much younger Tom Auer at different times) are professional or amateur ornithologists in the Midwest, and one is a German tourist who posted pictures from his trip to New Zealand. A long time ago, I heard there was another Tom Auer in Seattle, who worked as a minister. It's odd to see what relics of my life are still listed in Google: one is an article on university campus parking, which quoted me more than fifteen years ago.

At the UW, I was in the Husky Band. In my fourth year, I decided it was time to get a real job, which meant I didn't get into the football games for free anymore. So, I bought season tickets and went to pick them up. Two games into the season, something was weird about my tickets... they weren't anywhere near my friends. (The University coordinated blocks of seats for student groups at the time.) So I thought it was odd that I wasn't sitting anywhere near my group. Asking the ticket office about this strange thing, they said there was another Daniel C Johnson. Wow! What a coincidence, I thought. Turns out he lived in a fraternity just two blocks from my house. His frat's name: Theta Chi. My frat's name: Theta DELTA Chi.

I laughed about that for a few years, but the story continues.

Just this year, I began a continuing education class at the UW again. Turns out that one of my classmates works with the very same (other) Daniel C Johnson.

Small world!

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Second story...

I've been an active participant of a business networking group in the area for three years. Being involved in radio, I became "the radio guy". A pretty distinct differentiater in most crowds.

One day, I got an email from a friend that addressed a topic that I knew nothing about. Turns out that another Dan Johnson had joined the business group. Furthermore, he has a very similar personality, ambitions, temperment, and career. On top of that, he and I both became unemployed this year at nearly the same time.

As we look for new jobs, we're both networking with the same people... and even asking for help getting on the inside track for jobs at Nordstrom. He and I seem to be using the same contact who keeps getting emails from Dan Johnson... but not knowing which one of us it's coming from.

I fought Muhammad Ali for the American Heavyweight Championship in 1966.

Unfortunately or fortunately, I am the only Keith Gormezano in the world. I think I will keep it that way.