Unix is like a toll road on which you have to stop every 50 feet to pay another nickel. But hey! You only feel 5 cents poorer each time.
In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency.
Now, I'm not the only language designer with irrationalities. You can think of some languages to go with some of these things.
Even the White House has a press agent.
Though I'll admit readability suffers slightly.
I'm reminded of the day my daughter came in, looked over my shoulder at some Perl 4 code, and said, 'What is that, swearing?