Bob and Bob

N.Y. Bob Morris If you live in Southwest Florida, you may think you know Bob Morris.

But chances are, you're wrong. There are at least two Bob Morrises, and both of them are writers. Both have published books. Both have written for newspapers. And both have written travel stories for Condé Nast magazines.

Not the best situation, if you're trying to make a name for yourself as a writer.

If you know Bob, you probably know the Bob Morris who wrote for

The News-Press for a while, then moved on

to the Orlando Sentinel.

A freelance writer now, he also writes comic mysteries set in tropical settings - three, so far: "Bahamarama," "Jamaica Me Dead" and "Bermuda Schwartz."

But he's not the Bob Morris who wrote "Assisted Loving." That Bob Morris lives in New York City and wrote "The Age of

Dissonance," a weekly column for the New

York Times. It was urbane and witty, and, as Morris himself says, he said things in print that other people only thought.

Fla. Bob Morris On February 26, 2006, he wrote about the other Bob Morris - the Florida one, in a column called "The Man With My Name." The Florida Bob Morris had written a sixpage advertorial for Marriott Timeshare Vacation Villas, which, unfortunately, ran with his byline. (Serious journalists generally don't write advertorials, because it's considered degrading to their professional image; journalism and advertising don't mix.)

Of course, everyone who knew the New York Bob Morris and saw the ad thought he'd written it.

"Call me self-involved," he wrote, "but I suddenly found myself fiercely believing that my clean reputation as a journalist was irrevocably sullied."

The New York Bob Morris e-mailed Florida Bob Morris, then called the corporate office of Mariott. But he couldn't get the byline removed. New York Bob wound up calling Florida Bob, whom he calls "gracious and sunny."

As he wrote in his column: "'I often get compliments for things you write,' said my Doppelnamer, who has been married 27 years, with two sons he's working hard to support through law school. 'And I always thought our situation was kind of funny.' He even thinks it's funny when old girlfriends call up after reading my columns about my gay partner to ask him clumsy questions."

The two did meet in person when Florida Bob was doing a book tour.

"He's a great guy," New York Bob says. "He's been getting a ton of e-mail to his Web site [about my book.]" He adds that a friend of his mother-in-law read a review of "Assisted Loving" "and was freaked out that he was gay!" Of course, she didn't realize she was reading about the other Bob Morris.

Things will even out, eventually. The Florida Bob Morris is coming out with a new book.

The New York Bob Morris expects to get a lot of e-mails about it.