The Function memoize looks like a python decorator to me(http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0318/ ),

IMHO, code can be more pythonic and still minimalistic if we declare fib this way using decorators

@memoize fib(n)

also we don't need to use the line : fib = memoize(fib) after this change

I don't know though if decorators were not used on purpose..

Update: I have commented updated code on recipe's page - http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577219-minimalistic-memo...