The messages on the H.J. Heinz Co. Yahoo message board began at 10:42 a.m. Jan. 29, two days after the New Hampshire primary.

"Will HNZ give raise if Kerry wins?" asked a poster who identified himself as colonel_kurts, a 40-year-old male from Clinton, Arkancide. "Ketchup will be back on the vegetable list at the school cafeteria," railed lumpen_proletariat of Houston, attempting to link Democratic presidential contender John Kerry with junk food and obesity issues.

In the manner of anonymous message boards, the discussion flails along with bad typists spewing insults back and forth, and desperately trying to get something going with the fact that Kerry -- suddenly looking like a winning candidate -- happens to be married to Teresa Heinz Kerry.

In the real world, the first lady contender has little financial connection anymore to Pittsburgh's H.J. Heinz. She was married for 25 years to a member of the founding family, Republican U.S. Sen. John Heinz, until his death in a plane crash in 1991.

She chairs the Heinz Endowments, which still own stock but not enough to meet the 5 percent ownership threshold that requires notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission.

There's been no Heinz family member involved in the management of the business since the late 1980s, said company spokesman Jack Kennedy. And the family drastically reduced its holdings in 1995 in a secondary stock offering.

Even the Heinz Co.'s foundation is separate from the Heinz family endowments.

"There's no real relationship," said Kennedy, beyond those at the company being respectful, of course, of anyone related to the founder, Henry John Heinz, who came from Sharpsburg.

But a little mix-up on the national scene is understandable.

Even in Pittsburgh, it's hard to keep relationships straight when the football team plays in the corporately sponsored Heinz Field, and the symphony plays in noncorporate Heinz Hall, and traffic reporters still mark North Side backups by the "Heinz plant" even though the sprawling facility is now owned by Del Monte Foods Co.

Bloggers and message board participants might be interested to learn that while the Federal Election Commission's Web site listed a $2,000 contribution on Dec. 31, 2003, by Teresa Heinz Kerry to the "John Kerry For President Inc." cause, it also lists a $5,000 contribution on June 3, 2003, to "Bush-Cheney '04 Inc." by the H.J. Heinz Co. Political Action Committee.

Depending on how Kerry fares in the remaining caucuses and primaries, even more people will likely wonder at the connection between his wife's personal fortune and the company selling Bagel Bites and Ore-Ida fries.

"We think whoever wins this election ...," a diplomatic Kennedy said, "we thoroughly endorse any kind of support for ketchup."