Thanks for the great tips, Gretchen. I've used the "introduce the other person" one successfully several times (I think it was successful - maybe they saw right through me. Especially if they saw me saying hi to someone else.)

I also like that advice from Manager Tools (http://bit.ly/5xv5R), which boils down to saying "I'm so sorry, I've forgotten your name", which, if said sincerely, has a chance of disarming the other person's (involuntary) ego reaction to you having forgotten their name.

I just discovered this blog, you have some interesting entries!