[Python-Dev] PEP czar for PEP 3144?

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/20/2012 11:52 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull<stephen at xemacs.org>  wrote:
>> Steven D'Aprano writes:
>>
>>   >  Also, "Czar" is commonly used in US politics as an informal term for the top
>>   >  official responsible for an area.
>>
>> I think here the most important connotation is that in US parlance a
>> "czar" does not report to a committee, and with the exception of a
>> case where Sybil is appointed czar, cannot bikeshed.  Decisions get
>> made (what a concept!)
>
> I'm curious how old that usage is. I first encountered it around '88
> when I interned for a summer at DEC SRC (long since subsumed into HP
> Labs); the person in charge of deciding a particular aspect of their
> software or organization was called a czar, e.g. the documentation
> czar.

In US politics, the first I remember was the Drug Czar about that time. 
It really came into currently during Clinton's admin.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy