If you're already familiar with SQL (which your average C# programmer likely is), select/where/aggregate look familiar to you, so less of a mental leap to under

If you're already familiar with SQL (which your average C# programmer likely is), select/where/aggregate look familiar to you, so less of a mental leap to understand them. And being able to say 'it's like in-line SQL!' makes Linq more acceptable to pointy-haired-bosses at the same time.