How The Monopoly Game Helped British POWs Escape.

The game Monopoly was used to free British POWS during World War II.
Many of you know that I have a great interest, a real passion for people stories as they struggled on all home fronts during World War II.I have read well over 100 books about what was going on in the US, the UK, France, Italy, Greece, Australia, Hungary, Budapest, Germany, Japan, and more. I have read about Internment camps for the Japanese in the US, Jewish Internment camps all over Europe, Internment camps in Japan for mostly British POWs, the work camps in Hungary for the worker soldier (Jews) the holding camps in Israel for the Jews during and after the war. The list of camps goes on and on. The story of how the Monopoly game is new to me. I think you will be surprised. You'll never look at the game the same way again!

Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape...

Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and shelter.

Paper maps had some real drawbacks -- they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly, and if they get wet, they turn into mush.

Someone in MI-5 (similar to America 's OSS ) got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever.

At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort.

By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U. K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category an item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the International Red Cross to prisoners of war.

Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of "sworn-to-secrecy"employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were. When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.

As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!

British and American air crews were advised, before taking off on their first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set -- by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square.

Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still another, future war.

The story wasn't declassified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's , as well as the firm itself, were finally honored in a public ceremony.

It's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail' Free' card!
I realize most of you are (probably) too young to have any personal connection to WWII
(Dec. '41 to Aug. '45), but this is still interesting.

Story verification: http://www.snopes.com/military/monopoly.asp http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/11/19/wwii-pows-perk-monopoly-with-real-money/


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Most Important Skill for Getting a Job, Skills Listed as Number One

Patti was quoted in Fox Business News on the "Importance of Strong Verbal Skills in Relation to Getting a Job." Verbal skills is listed as number one on a survey by the National Association of College and Employment.

Check the link below for Patti's insights!

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/03/03/um-like-college-grads-lack-verbal-skills/



Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Charlie Sheen's Body Language, Melt Down or is He Winning, Kids

Here are my rough, unedited notes on Charlie Sheen's body language and paralanguage in various recent interviews. I used these notes as a guide for my interview this morning with AOL online. Please go to the link below for the full interview. Charlie Sheen, body language of latest interviews. One clip shows him before the interview officially begins. He thinks he is off camera. In ths "off stage" clip Charlie Sheen is rubbing the back of his neck. In fact rubbing it quite dramatically. This is a comfort cue typically done by men, the touch is to create comfort. Tactile stimulation effects the nerve endings in the skin and does comfort us. Rubbing the back of the neck is is actaully a cluster of cues. The rubbing is self touch a comfort cue. Rubbing the back of the neck, where the hair stands on end when we are frightened also shows clear fear, but the hard rubbing and or grasping at the back of the neck rather than a touch shows that the person wants to action and defend themselves, perhaps wishing the strike out at what or whoever is upsetting them. In another clip with his goodesses, notice how he is standing bent over the kitchen counter hiding his Pelvis (the sexual portion of the body) and leaning over awkwardly so his elbows rest on the counter, protecting his ventral front (the belly) from whatever media scrutiny he could get from living with two “goddesses” in his house to take care of his children. Also note that his hands are out in front placed in prayer position (prayer that this will go well) Then when the goddesses don't listen to Sheen's request to "Not go there" he uses a displacement behavior for his stress by odly getting up and going to eat an OREO cookie, taking it apart and licking it. Eating is also a displacement behavior used to deal with the stress of the day. Then same tape different interview Nothing “Broken” here “but the paralanguage delivery he actually broke the words. He shakes hands but then crosses his arms placing his hands in a fig leaf. This again protects him from sexual attack. You don’t see this fig leaf in celeb interviews (occasionally when speaking about sex scenes.) As Charlie Sheen says, "My assistant Regan (he does a tongue thrust) was putting the children to bed." The tongue thrust defies your judgment that the assistant is a former model and or porn star . When Charlie says, "I do not know where my children are." He looks suddenly frightened and lost, notice his unfocused eyes. He continues talking giving tongue erasing cues then rubbing his lips bouncing in his chair. The chair moves are odd as there are nice arms on the chairs. In the interviews where Charlie is wearing a brown shirt his face is white and drawn and he looks deschelved, his body language and voice are manic and to top it off he uses extreemly bizarre referances such War lock,tigers blood In the interivews with the blue shirt notice the manic moves and odd gesturing. Blue shirt sitting on the sidewalk drinking water As he says, "Drug tests don’t lie." " I don’t know don’t care." Charlie is choosing not to answer the question he was asked. His hand over his mouth as he talks about his dads concern for him show Charlie is blocking what he really wants to say. More rough notes. Holding a piece of paper.III and and and I I will not let you down. Agressively taking the paper with the negative comments from viewers who had seen his brown shirt interview. Charlie Sheen looks how he is sitting at the beginning.... feet out in a big..... feet pointing out. Brown shirt interview When was the last time you did drugs. “Look at me DUHHHH” pointing at himself, “ More about his goddesses, more on children. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/03/experts-evaluate-charlie-sheens-body-language-is-he-lying/ Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Recent Trip to Austin, Texas

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of Judges in the Austin, TX area on "Establishing the Credibility of a Witness." Their interest and enthusiasm for the topic of body language and deception detection was such a tremendous joy for me. One of the participants shared with my assistant today his appreciation for the program and told her that he had put photos from our meeting on his blog. He was also kind enough to put a link to my website on it too. On his blog, he covers all the political news in the San Antonio area. Below is a link to his blog which is called the "WalkerReport" covering the pulse of San Antonio.......check it out!

http://www.walkerreport.net/

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Body Language of the Young Royal Couple, William and Kate

I was asked to read the Young Royal Couple, William and Kate, for several Canadian Publications. As the wedding approaches, you see the "look of love." They look at each other often and there is lots of mutual gazing but not for approval as Diane often did when she was first engaged to Charles but with respect and affection.

The "look of confidence" as Kate watches him closely when he is talking, she stands back slightly to show her place, but she doesn’t bow down her head in submission or lack of confidence as Diana would do in Charles' presence. Kate keeps her head and chin on what I call the mid-line for the throat window, showing her confidence and ease in the high stress media moments.

They are "in sync." You often see William and Kate in photos taking on mirrored body language poses of each other. That frequent matching and mirroring shows they are in sync. In a recent interview they did "tit for tat" matching. This is another kind of isopraixism in synchronous relationships. It's a dance of tit for tat movement. For example, one would move their upper body forward while the other would move an arm forward, one would move their head up and down, the other would move an arm up and down. Their body language shows synchronicity.

A "love story" - If you watch and listen as William tells the story of their proposal, you will notice that he is truly happy. His smile is large and his voice is animated and playful. He enjoys telling the story of the proposal. The words flow out smoothly and enthusiastically. When I am with couples, I often ask about their first date, when they fell in love and or their proposal. You can tell so much about a couple by how they tell and or listen and chime in as they tell their “love stories.” Kate didn’t chime in, which is appropriate to her role, but she certainly beamed and he wasn’t tired of the tale! When Kate speaks, her voice is happy and she too has a nice smooth flow in her speaking which shows ease and a true positive feeling.

Royal couple to wed April 29 at Westminster Abbey
Patrick Jephson, longtime private secretary to the late Princess Diana, say the austerity argument "doesn't cut it." "This is a future king and a future queen, this is the most famous young royal couple in the world, and it will indubitably be compared to his mother's wedding, so for all these reasons, the palace won't want to be seen as downgrading it," Jephson said.
William and Kate are making moves to put their own stamp on their big day. The couple, who Lowther-Pinkerton described as being "over the moon," are taking an active role in planning all the details — including the guest list. "I've never seen two happier people," he said.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.