Markdown and ... email?

[petite_abeille]

Hello,

"... the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is 
the format of plain text email."
-- John Gruber, Introduction to Markdown, 2004

Considering Markdown's syntax roots, has anyone tried to render a 
sizable amount of, well, emails with it?

If yes, how did it go?

I would be interested to add something like a Markdown + SmartyPants 
renderer to a MUA I'm using [1].

TIA.

Cheers,

PA.

P.S.

Anyone working on a Mail.app bundle for Markdown? E.g. "View -> Message 
-> Markdown Alternative" or something :)

P.P.S.

Anyone working on a Java implementation of Markdown?

[1] http://zoe.nu/itstories/story.php?data=stories&num=27&sec=2