diff --git a/lib/showdown.js b/lib/showdown.js
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/lib/showdown.js
+++ b/lib/showdown.js
@@ -1026,6 +1026,8 @@ var _DoItalicsAndBold = function(text) {
   text = text.replace(/(\*\*|__)(?=\S)([^\r]*?\S[*_]*)\1/g,
     "<strong>$2</strong>");
 
+  text = text.replace(/(\w)_(\w)/g, "$1~E95E$2") // ** JT **  "~E95E" == escaped "_"
+
   text = text.replace(/(\*|_)(?=\S)([^\r]*?\S)\1/g,
     "<em>$2</em>");
Another GFM thing: don't italicize a_b_c