You could always do map(lambda s: s.capitalize(), strlist)

That I could, and in fact, I do give an example like that in the accompanying analysis article [1]. However, it's not simple as Ruby. This is a comparison, after all.

The two essays I've written are essentially describing what is natural in each language, not what is strictly possible.

[1] http://allthingsprogress.com/posts/the-ugliness-of-python