For syntax, ugly yet familiar is more successful than obscure yet beautiful nine times out of ten.
How can you possibly substantiate that statement?
java:lisp
perl:python
Hey this is fun! Now you do one again.
Please. Python is so wildly C-like that it uses zero/non-zero for conditions.
You're either being willfully ignorant or insincere now. Allowing non-boolean values in boolean clauses originated with lisp back in 1960. Furthermore, GvR is on the record as saying that his main influence for python was ABC.