Regular readers of the Annals of Improbable Research are accustomed to seeing photos of the man known as Mel. Some find their thoughts dwell on Mel. They write us letters and letters and letters and letters. Here is a letter that arrived this week:
The photos of Mel, the bearded man that appears so often in your journal, have intrigued many people, including myself. Is your Mel in any way related to the Mel of this story? As a computing scientist I was left very impressed by the story of this pioneer programmer, and I have a feeling the two Mels must at least be related:
http://muse.linuxmafia.org/lost+found/mel.txt
With best wishes
Alle Meije Wink
Brain Mapping Unit
Dept. of Psychiatry
University of Cambridge, U.K.