Things like this did happen. Read about a spy who was busted eating his pie from the wrong direction. Americans start at the tip, Europeans start at the “back”.
No idea of this particular instance, but there is a general idea of a shibboleth as a normative indicator someone is a member of a group by common tradition or custom or something not done by taboo. The way you say a word, react to a sneeze, count on your fingers, pronouncing it sequel vs S-Q-L, etc
Did this actually happen?
Not to my knowledge, though there was a great deal of effort put into ferreting out spies by using common shibboleths, especially during the European theatre in late 1944 and 1945, when German commandos were using American and British uniforms to infiltrate Allied lines.
Things like this did happen. Read about a spy who was busted eating his pie from the wrong direction. Americans start at the tip, Europeans start at the “back”.
This was WWI or WWII and may be apocryphal.
No idea of this particular instance, but there is a general idea of a shibboleth as a normative indicator someone is a member of a group by common tradition or custom or something not done by taboo. The way you say a word, react to a sneeze, count on your fingers, pronouncing it sequel vs S-Q-L, etc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shibboleths