Credit where credit is due; PG never said anything bad about C, quite the opposite. It may be at the bottom of the abstraction pyramid, but it's right up there

Credit where credit is due; PG never said anything bad about C, quite the opposite. It may be at the bottom of the abstraction pyramid, but it's right up there with Lisp in the power pyramid. They choose different ways to get there, which makes them orthogonal; knowing both means you'll find your way around most languages/problems.