My dad told me a story about how, during World War II, he was assigned to “Kitchen Patrol” (KP). One particular day, his job to fill the coffee carafes and set them on each table. He saw these large vats and filled all of the carafes.

Within minutes of setting the carafes on the table, my dad heard a lot of screaming and saw men spitting all around him. An instant later, the cook ran out of the kitchen yelling, “Who drained the beets? My damn beets are burning.”

With that, my Dad realized what he’d done. He had filled the carafes with beet water and not coffee! After the men got their “real” coffee, all was well in the mess hall. Needless to say, they never again asked Dad to fill coffee carafes. I suppose that’s one way to get out of KP duty…