for values of
[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 pi
equals 3 -- for small values of pi 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).