My mom used to forge my dad's sig in order to deposit his paychecks. Which was utterly ridiculous because it looked NOTHING like his sig (it had all the letters!) but it was never questioned.

One place I worked at did handwritten checks (small business) half the time the owner couldn't spell my last name right and occasionally she just left it off completely but the bank still cashed the checks.

My mother, for an honest person, is quite the forger.She wouldn't even have to trace Don's signature to get it right.

My signature has only passing relations with my actual last name. I tend to become Norah SheMNllly.

Talk of forging signatures always reminds me of perhaps my absolute favourite West Wing exchange:

Margaret: Can I - can I just say something for the future?
Leo: Yeah.
Margaret: I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good.
Leo: You can sign the President's name?
Margaret: Yeah.
Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?
Margaret: Yeah! Or... do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?
Leo: I think the White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat!
Margaret: Well...I'd probably end up doing some time for that.
Leo: I would think! And what the hell were you doing practicing the President's signature?
Margaret: It was just for fun.
Leo: We've got separation of powers, checks and balances, and Margaret vetoing things and sending them back to the Hill!

I kept my married name cause I didn't want to go back to signing my 14 letter/2 hyphen maiden name. Though, I think I can still forge my dad's signature. My current signature sometimes ends in a star. Too lazy to pick up the pen to go back and cross my t's.

This is what CJ did today.

I have trouble signing my first name -- the w followed by an n is hard.

It's funny this came up because my colleague was comparing a bunch of signatures of the same person over a four-year period and was trying to argue that someone started forging it because he started dropping a terminal letter. We all made fun of him. It's common! They otherwise looked exactly alike! It's weird that he started doing that in his 60s, but still.

My dinner is salmon poached in orange juice with tarragon and something else. Nummy.

Connie! The package came today! And it is awesome! Did you have it in your house before sending it? Because Kato sniffed it thoroughly, and I was wondering if he was smelling the kitties.

Anyway -- and most importantly -- THANK YOU!

I think my signature may be more useless than most when it comes to validation. It's all about how soon I get bored or tired. It's all over the place, seventeen different sizes and angularity and number of letters in my surname. I doubt there's a pattern except at the most grand level, maybe decades.