There was a time when I would have wanted this - I was a python guy for years. But I've found I can be just as dynamic in scala (perhaps even more so, given implicits), without having to give up type safety. E.g. his example looks almost identical in scala:

    List("Rob", "Christopher", "Joe", "John").filter{ 
      _.size <= 4 
    }.foreach {
      println _
    }