ANYONE who has e-mail will have been annoyed daft by spam -- the electronic version of junk mail. But why is it called spam?

Well, fans of Monty Python (above) will doubtless know and love the Spam Sketch, in which a . Others Those of you too young or lacking in taste and/or judgement to actually be Python fans should know this features a hapless customer in a cafe populated by a party of Vikings and a hideous owner reciting the menu, in which every meal includes spam. The Vikings burst into song: "Spam, spam, spam, spam... , spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam,wonderful spam, lovely spam". You get the idea.

This insight into the minds of the pioneers of the internet got me thinking about the mighty Python, which , as you may expect, has an enormous presence on the tri-W (a quick Google search rendered 127,000 results).

Pythononline is an modest but enjoyable example, featuring a variety of Python-related information, links, cartoons, downloads and biographies of the Python team by John Cleese.

www.pythonline.com