[MIT] A common rhetorical maneuver at MIT is to use any of the
canonical {random numbers} as placeholders for variables. "The max
function takes 42 arguments, for arbitrary values of 42.:" "There are
69 ways to leave your lover, for 69 = 50." This is especially likely
when the speaker has uttered a random number and realizes that it was
not recognized as such, but even `non-random' numbers are
occasionally used in this fashion. A related joke is that p equals 3
-- for small values of p and large values of 3.
Historical note: at MIT this usage has traditionally been traced to
the programming language MAD (Michigan Algorithm Decoder), an
Algol-58-like language that was the most common choice among
mainstream (non-hacker) users at MIT in the mid-60s. It inherited
from Algol-58 a control structure FOR VALUES OF X = 3, 7, 99 DO ...
that would repeat the indicated instructions for each value in the
list (unlike the usual FOR that only works for arithmetic sequences
of values). MAD is long extinct, but similar for-constructs still
flourish (e.g., in Unix's shell languages).
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {random numbers}]