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An amusing anecdote I heard about this a few weeks ago: he came up with "P" and "V" when explaining the concept to his students at Eindhoven University. He looked outside the window of the classroom he was teaching in and saw the name of the local soccer club on a nearby stadium which is PSV.

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That anecdote is amusing, but it seems unlikely things worked exactly like that. They are near each other in the center of town, but the stadium and the university are a kilometer apart and separated by an elevated railway. At the time EWD35 was written (prior to 1963) the stadium had just installed 40 meter lights, so while it's possible the initials were written on the back of these, it seems more likely that this is a fanciful urban legend. Do you have any more information?

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