Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Lasherism
     
         (Harvard) A program that solves a standard
        problem (such as the {Eight Queens Puzzle} or implementing the
        {life} {algorithm}) in a deliberately nonstandard way.
        Distinguished from a {crock} or {kluge} by the fact that the
        programmer did it on purpose as a mental exercise.  Such
        constructions are quite popular in exercises such as the
        {Obfuscated C contest}, and occasionally in {retrocomputing}.
        Lew Lasher was a student at Harvard around 1980 who became
        notorious for such behaviour.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1994-12-07)