hysterical reasons: n. (also `hysterical raisins') A variant on
the stock phrase "for historical reasons", indicating specifically
that something must be done in some stupid way for backwards
compatibility, and moreover that the feature it must be compatible
with was the result of a bad design in the first place. "All IBM PC
video adapters have to support MDA text mode for hysterical
reasons." Compare bug-for-bug compatible.
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