Lisp isn't really the only attempt to work with the lambda calculus. Look at Haskell, Agda, and others, which are based on an a slightly extended form of LC.

Lisp isn't really the only attempt to work with the lambda calculus. Look at Haskell, Agda, and others, which are based on an a slightly extended form of LC. I doubt anyone would claim that these extensions are "hairy".