I'm no handwriting analyst (although I do come from handwriting analyst stock), but I thought it would be interesting to compare the handwriting of what I will call 'individuals of note'. If you haven't made this list, do not fret, as I have only included a few individuals. If you would like to have your signature included among these individuals, send me a scan and I will add it to the list.

Let's start with current President of the United States, George Bush:

This looks almost like Syw Bol, but it's not, it's George Bush. Good thing I am here to tell you these things. There's not a lot to go on here, but I'm sure an experienced graphologist could glean something from these scribblings. Since we're waxing presidential, why not look at the challengers to America's Chief Officer.

John Kerry's signature looks like this:

And here is the signature of another man with the initials, JFK:

Not exactly the same, I suppose, but pretty similar. Jack Kennedy actually signed his name in a number of different ways. We can't forget the shadowy Ralph Nader, whose John Hancock befits his people's candidate image:

It is doubtless written in soy-ink.

But none of these men, stately as they may be, penned or quilled their names onto say, the Declaration of Independence, or led our country out of a Civil War...

Thomas Jefferson, the man who for me acquired my particular piece of property 201 years ago, must have had little practice in signing his name:

That is Thomas Jefferson, although you'd hardly know it to look at it. Other founding fathers took a little more pride in their names. No signature list would be complete, for example, without the legendary John Hancock:

That really is a great signature.

Lincoln's is clean and simple:

Evidently latter day statesmen like Bill Clinton

Ronald Reagan

And even Tony Blair

Have opted for that Lincolnian simplicity.

What do the signatures say? If I have any graphologist readers, I would love to know.

My favorite signature of all is not so much a signature as a rune, and it belongs to that famous South African, J.R.R Tolkien:

Does it get any cooler than that? Not to me.

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