When I lived in Seattle, 

Bill Gates was just starting 

Microsoft. Now that he's a big 

"macher" (Yiddish for a "mover 

and shaker") I get asked if we 

are related all the time. My 

response is a characteristic:
            
"He's my evil twin..."

   Living just outside 
   
Washington, DC, I've often 

had to fend off queries about 

my relationship to Robert 

Gates, former head of the 

CIA (NOT!). And, now that 

I'm thinking about it, 

I walked with a cloud over 

my head when I lived in LA and 

in close proximity to Darryl 

Gates, former Chief of Police 

(do you see a trend here?)
               
   When my wife and I recently 
   
moved to our first house we 

didn't find out until after we 

moved in that the couple next 

door was also named Gates. Not 

only that, but her name was 

Betty, the same as my mom's.

   But all in all, things 
   
quieted down quite a bit until 

last week. I got a call from 

CitiBank. They were looking 

for a Jeff Gates who had decided 

he no longer wanted to pay off 

his credit card after making

numerous calls to 900 and 976 

numbers. Then, my aunt sent me 

one of those "get rich quick" 

magazine ads, you know, the ones 

where people just like you and 

me become tycoons overnight. 

Hmmm...things could be looking up.