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Comment by sterlind | Hacker News Reader

the joke I heard growing up is they'd ask suspected spies to sing the Star Spangled Banner, and shoot them if they knew the lyrics beyond the first verse!

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In Issac Asimov's 1980 short story "No Refuge Could Save", the suspected German spy is identified by a word association test based on the third verse of the national anthem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Refuge_Could_Save

What are the last two words of the star spangled banner? "Play ball!"

reminds me of a spoof game show I saw once.

It was something like Are you as smart as a 5th grader?

A question would be something like "Who was the 5th president?" and the answer was "Benjamin Franklin" or similar. :)

Maybe a spy could finally explain to me what it means for light to be donzerly.

I think you may have misheard the lyrics. It's "donzer lee lights". Obviously, "donzerly" is not a word, but all lee lights are donzer.

Oh, it makes so much more sense now.

Implicitly, I suppose that makes the lights on the windward side blitzen.

Ok, I found the German imposter right here.

Oh no! Damn you, Gene Autry!

The general don zerlyite was an important figure in the defense of Ft McHenrry

dawn's early light :-)

I don't remember the name of the film, but there was one where (Soviet I think?) spies were caught because they threw away their copies of National Geographic.

I have my grandmother's NGs from the 1920's.

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