History of 'self' and why not at least 'my'?

[Roy Smith]

Karl M. Syring <syring at email.com> wrote:
>"Steven Majewski" <sdm7g at Virginia.EDU> schrieb
>> As a homage to Intercal, and to promote a more sensitve, less selfish
>> Python programming style, I propose we change the convention to use
>> "please" instead of "self", as in:
>> 
>> def somemethod( please, arg ):
>> please.append(arg)
>> please.sort()
>> please.reverse()
>> 
>> It would sure make my day of reading code more pleasant!
>
>Steve,
>I would propose the use of the C preprocessor. Adding a
>#define please self
>at the top of file should be pleasing enough.
>
>Karl M. Syring
>
>

How about:

def foo (self):
    self.referential = self
    if (self.referential.referential == self.referential):
       return self
    else:
	return self.referential