<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">[Barry Warsaw, on the origin of BDFL]</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I’d put my money on Uncle Timmy coining that term, </blockquote><div><br>Don't be insulting, Barry.  I have no patience - let alone love - for frivolous wordplay.<br><br>It wasn't me, but Guido doesn't remember either.  Here's his best guess:<br><br></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><a href="https://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=235725">https://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=235725</a></div></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><div><br>Short course:  BDFL first appeared in a 1995 email sent by Ken Manheimer summarizing a PSA meeting.  Guido was apparently named at that meeting as 

</div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><pre style="font-family:"Lucida Console","American Typewriter","Courier New",Courier,monospace;font-size:0.88em;color:rgb(33,35,36);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>First Interim Benevolent Dicator</b> [sic]<b> for Life</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></pre></div></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote">

and<br><br>

<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><span style="color:rgb(33,35,36);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">While I can't prove my title (with or without the First Interim prefix) was never used before, I'm pretty certain that it originated in this meeting. Given what I know of how their minds work, it was most likely invented by Ken Manheimer or Barry Warsaw, though it may well have been a joint invention by all present.</span>

</blockquote> <br>Some titles just _fit_.  Like Kim Jong Il's<br><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote">Great Man, Who Is a Man of Deeds<br></div></blockquote>

<span style="font-size:small;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">and</span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"> Dear Leader, who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a leader should have</div></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><br>More inspiring ideas where those came from:</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kim_Jong-il%27s_titles">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kim_Jong-il%27s_titles</a></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">

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