On 2/20/2012 11:52 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull<step...@xemacs.org> wrote:
Steven D'Aprano writes:
> Also, "Czar" is commonly used in US politics as an informal term for the
top
> official responsible for an area.
I think here the most important connotation is that in US parlance a
"czar" does not report to a committee, and with the exception of a
case where Sybil is appointed czar, cannot bikeshed. Decisions get
made (what a concept!)
I'm curious how old that usage is. I first encountered it around '88
when I interned for a summer at DEC SRC (long since subsumed into HP
Labs); the person in charge of deciding a particular aspect of their
software or organization was called a czar, e.g. the documentation
czar.
In US politics, the first I remember was the Drug Czar about that time.
It really came into currently during Clinton's admin.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
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