Call Me Mr. Secretary

By now you probably have heard that Obama is going to nominate Jacob “Jack” Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury. And by now you’ve probably seen his signature which, if his nomination is confirmed, will appear on all of our newly printed paper currency. In case you haven’t seen it, the squiggle of loops below is Jack Lew’s signature.

Note that the name “Jacob Lew” contains 8 letters and the squiggle contains 8 loops.

It turns out that I have been signing Jack Lew’s signature for years and didn’t know it. I thought I was simply trying to get the ink to start flowing out of my ball point pen, when all along I was forging the signature of the man who may soon be our next Secretary of the Treasury. If Jack Lew knew just how many Post-It notes and grocery lists I’ve signed his name to, I might be in trouble. So, just saying: sorry about that, Jack. I won’t forge your signature again.

In the future I will use this entirely different squiggle whenever I need to get the ink to start flowing. Anyone can see that it bears no resemblance to Mr. Lew’s signature, thus eliminating any confusion as to which of us signed his name on my paper money and which of us scribbled out my grocery list.

You’re welcome, Jack.