I once read a letter from an old WWII soldier ... he recalled they were tidying up the base in readiness for a visit by Winston Churchill. He and a mate were painting something white, literally the morning of the PMs arrival. Running back across the parade ground, he dropped the tin of (white) paint onto the (black) surface. a passing sergeant saw it all and let rip a stream of expletives.
"What'll we do sarge?"
A momentary pause. "Straighten up the edges, paint it into a square, everyone'll think it's for something."
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Some 40-odd years later, now an old man, the ex-soldier attended a reunion at his old barracks, and there, on the parade square, was a gleaming white square ...