The Marcellus Mystery, described in the October mini-AIR, concerns a research paper that seems to have been co-written by three (3) people each named Lenora Marcellus. It prompted this letter from Alan W. Harris:
I don’t know about Marcellus, et al., but here’s another for you:
If you check the article, you will find the following footnote:
1. Since the authors’ contributions to this work were equal, the order listed is alphabetical. And yes, the middle names are both “William”.
So this is a case of duplicity of three names. I leave it to the readers of AIR to decide if two authors with three identical names is more unusual than three authors with two identical names. I dare say the odds of either is less than being hit by an asteroid. Actually, both AWH’s specialize in that very question.
Cheers,
Al the elder
P.S. We’re not related.
P.P.S. If you cite the article, you can refer to it as “Al et Al”.
NOTE: The other Harris was honored in a splendidly backwards gesture: with the naming of an asteroid.