Way back in the day when I joined Free Republic I was trying to pick a screen name and no matter what I picked, it said that it was taken. So I thought I would try something absurd to see if it worked and it did. But, it turns out I was doing something else wrong like using a password that didn’t have enough letters or something. I went and changed password as well as the new test screen name and it went through. I finally figured out that it wasn’t the screen name that was taken. It was whatever the other thing was. It’s been so long I don’t even remember anymore.