I agree with the post that Scala has bits that seem straight-forward (or at least seem like they'd be straight-forward once you learn what the crazy shortcut syntax means) but have little quirks that take a bit of background knowledge to understand. Of course, I'd fully expect Python's BDFL to have a few criticisms of any non-Python language.
Reading through the comments did lead me to discover that
Al3x Payne and Dean Wampler are co-authoring a Scala book for O'Reilly. Al3x claims the book will be made freely available online. Much excitement.