Gilda’s Guide to the International Spy Museum

Hi! When you read my latest adventure — GILDA JOYCE: THE DEAD DROP — you’ll discover some intriguing spy objects and clues. You can see some of them first-hand at The International Spy Museum in Washington DC! Take this list with you: I’ll give you some hints, but you’ll have to use your spy eyes and detective skills to find the mystery objects and record them here. (Note: don’t peek; the answers are at the end!):

• The Cold War ended, but the father of the KGB still hangs around the Spy Museum. What was his name?
• “Do YOU have what it takes to be a spy?” I suggest you ask yourself that question after watching the museum’s Briefing Film. My strengths as a spy include my natural curiosity and attention to detail. What are your own strengths and weaknesses as a spy?
• My Grandma Joyce would say this spy tool goes “where the sun don’t shine.” What is its real name? (And no, Grandma Joyce never used one, as far as I know.)
• Who knew cosmetics could be so deadly? If a woman takes this out of her purse to “freshen up,” you’d better duck. Find the _________ in the School for Spies exhibit.
  
• A spy colleague of mine once joked that the one problem with this hidden camera and staple of the Cold War spy wardrobe was that “you can’t wear it with a bikini.” Find the ____________ in the School for Spies exhibit.
  
• I’m thinking of styling my hair in some sausage curls so I can hide the secret notes my friend Wendy passes to me during class. Hey, it worked for female spies during the Civil War! List some other objects those southern belles used to conceal their top-secret communications.
• This object resembles a giant wooden rolling pin, but it’s actually a coding device invented by a U.S. president. Find the ___________ in the Earliest Espionage gallery.
• With the Enigma Machine, it was humans versus machine in the race to decode messages. Who won?
• Find the Loose Lips Sink Ships Poster. What does this catchy phrase mean?
• Go to the Wilderness of Mirrors gallery. Look up at the ceiling and check your hairstyle. Now name a mole who infiltrated the U.S. Government: ___________
• What is a dead drop and why is it important for spies like us?
• Who knew the pooper scooper used on the sidewalk just might be picking up classified information? Find the ______ in the School for Spies exhibition area.

Do your own spying!

• Whatever you do, don’t call the executive director of the Spy Museum “Jasper.” What is his name?
  _______________________
• What is the name of the museum historian? _____________________
• How about someone in the education department who runs the kids’ programs?

If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out THE DEAD DROP and my other mysteries!

Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator
Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake
Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata
Gilda Joyce: The Dead Drop

SO HOW DID YOU DO?

1. The “father of the KGB” was Feliks Dzerzhinsky; his statue is suspended in the lobby area of the museum.

2. Only you can determine your own strengths and weaknesses as a spy. An ability to blend in with the crowd or a knack for making conversation with strangers might be strong points. A tendency to blab secrets could be a tiny liability.

3. The name says it all: it’s the rectal concealment kit.

4. Dolls with hollow heads and small Bibles were a couple of the objects used by women to hide secret messages during the Civil War.

5. The lipstick pistol, of course!

6. The button-hole camera.

7. Thomas Jefferson invented this wheel cipher.

8. Luckily, the humans won. My friend Wendy Choy wants me to tell you that the mathematician Alan Turing played the major role in deciphering the Enigma code during World War II. Go math kids!

9. “Loose lips sink ships” became a slogan during World War II. The goal: remind soldiers and ordinary people not to blab information that might be useful to enemy spies.

10. Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen were two moles who sold classified government information.

11. A dead drop is an agreed-upon location used by spies who need to pass secret information to each other without meeting in person.

12. Radio signals were transmitted to aircraft with the CIA's "dog doo transmitter." (But remember: if it looks like poop, it usually is poop.)

13. The Executive Director of the International Spy Museum is Peter Earnest. While he has used many cover identities during his years of distinguished service in the CIA, he never once went by the name Jasper.

14. Thomas Boghardt is the historian at the Spy Museum. He’s concerned with the facts, but he enjoys a good spy novel too.

15. Jackie Eyl is Youth Education Manager at the Spy Museum. Like April Shepherd, she has great fashion sense, but unlike April, both of her kids are potty trained.

Gilda’s Guide to The International Spy Museum written in collaboration with Jennifer Allison, author of the Gilda Joyce series.

© 2009 The House on F Street, LLC All Rights Reserved.