Yes, good and fair questions. Indeed, Common Lisp isn't flawless or beautiful in every respect, and Steele would surely admit that himself. The Lisp concept is

Yes, good and fair questions. Indeed, Common Lisp isn't flawless or beautiful in every respect, and Steele would surely admit that himself. The Lisp concept is pretty beautiful, and CL, for better or worse, has been more ubituitous than most other dialects of Lisp. When I hear people (including myself) wax eloquent about the beauty of Lisp, even Common Lisp in particular, I don't take that to mean that every detail of the design is beautiful, but rather, the whole of Lisp / Common Lisp is a beautiful programming system. I can look out my office window here and see a beautiful tree, though I know upon closer inspection I could find some flaws and imperfections in the tree. Perhaps a branch has broken off, or maybe an animal has gnawed away at some bark. That doesn't do away with its overarching beauty.