The problems of being called Beard

I have never much bothered about having the surname "Beard". In fact, there are considerable advantages -- like being near the start of the alphabet, and being easy to spell. And when it comes to jokes, they are for the most part pretty anodyne/juvenile. "Ho ho, the bearded lady.." etc, or the not hugely imaginative insertion of a beard onto a picture of yours truly. In short I can think of worse names to have.

But I have come across an extra little problem.

I have, as some of you may know, the occasional habit of looking under the line of online newspaper articles that I have written (or less often written about me). I dont intervene if people just say that they disagree, or even fulminate about what a ghastly person I am. But if they raise points that need a reply, or if they say that I said something that I didn't ('"this woman thinks the Roman empire fell because of the lead in the pipes"), I do tend to say words to the effect of "nang on, I really dont think I said that". Whether this is a good idea or not, I dont truly know. But if people comment, then I think that if you've written the piece, then replying can be construed as part of the job.

There has, however, turned out to be a problem. I have from time to time replied to comments in one particular major national newspaper (nameless), which has a tradition of, shall we say, forthright comments. And it has proved harder than I reckoned. Yesterday was a typical example. There was  an article about the style of tv presenters, me included. And someone commented on my recent Pompeii documentary as follows: "The documentary was great, she was bloody awful. Way out of her depth."

"She was bloody awful", was fine by me (free country and all that). "Out of her depth" (on Pompeii? or even on telly?) I thought was simply wrong. So I politely said so.

The trouble was that my comment never appeared, over hours and hours, while other stuff was pouring in to the site. I had been here before, so I guessed the problem. "Beard" -- for the innocent -- is a slang term for women who knowingly pretend to date someone to conceal their sexual orientation. So on this paper, one of the means of moderation is simply to block for later (much later) human moderation, any comment that comes from someone supposedly called "Beard" as their on-line name  (quite why the same doesnt happen to those who  simply attack "Beard" is a mystery to me).

I had got a bit wise to this, so I emailed one of the moderators and he sorted it (they have always been very helpful, I must admit). But why the hell "Mary Beard", who is actually replying in her own name to people being a tad inaccurate,should be prevented from keeping her end up, I really cant imagine! That's my problem, I guess.