Explanation of list reference

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.7074.1392591962.18130.python-list at python.org>,
 Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:

> Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> writes:
> 
> > Chris Angelico wrote:
> > > Because everything in Python is an object, and objects always are
> > > handled by their references.
> >
> > <beginner_thought> So, we have objects... and we have
> > references to objects... but everything is an object...
> > so does that mean references are objects too?
> > </beginner_thought>
> 
> My response: No, because references are not things :-)
> 
> I've never known a programming beginner to express such a question. Have
> you?

You make light of Gregory's point, but he's right.  That's exactly the 
kind of thing a beginner would get confused about.