DEAR ABBY: This may seem trivial to you, but the more I encounter this the more it annoys me. It seems that almost every form to be filled out -- organization, business, government agency, etc. -- asks for first name, middle initial and last name.
Abby, there are thousands of us (maybe hundreds of thousands) who don't go by our first names. We use our middle names. When I try filling out forms using just the first initial and writing in my middle name, they invariably reverse it in subsequent correspondence.
Have these people never heard of T. Boone Pickens, H. Ross Perot and J. Paul Getty? It would be so simple to just put in the spaces and ask for first name OR initial, middle name OR initial and last name. Am I being petty? Sign me ... J. QUENTIN PUBLIC, NOT JOHN Q. PUBLIC
DEAR MR. PUBLIC: You are not being petty, and I empathize with your frustration. You are a square peg who doesn't quite fit into a round hole. Console yourself that at least you are in good company, because it's unlikely that the forms will be changed -- even for H. Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens or J. Quentin Public. (J. Paul Getty is beyond those worldly concerns.)