Functions and other values are stored in separate namespaces so when you want to call a function that is stored in a "regular" variable you must write (funcall

Functions and other values are stored in separate namespaces so when you want to call a function that is stored in a "regular" variable you must write (funcall (function variable) arg1 arg2 ... argn) Or shorthand (funcall #'variable arg1 arg2 ... argn) Basically, some people find this ugly, I mostly find it to say "HEY!! We're doing this specific thing right here". To me it's more helpful than ugly.