Portland Association 1

Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 55 December 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: City Flag Redesign

City Flag Redesign 1 By Ted Kaye We watch eagerly as proponents of November 2015 Flutterings 2 The radio/podcast host Roman improved city navigate the Field Report—New England/Canada 4 Mars, of “99% Invisible” fame, political and public-relations chal- Field Report—Australia 5 delivered a TED Talk last March lenges before them. As Peter Great Flag Resources on the Web 6 which galvanized the world of flag Ansoff, former president of The Flag Quiz 7 design—at least for U.S. cities. NAVA and city-flag-design veter- Portland Flag Miscellany 8 an, often says: “Designing the flag Next Meeting 8 “Why city flags may be the is the easy part”. worst-designed thing you’ve

never noticed” has been viewed However, it’s tremendously gratify- ing to see the five basic principles www.portlandflag.org over 2 million times and inspired dozens of efforts to upgrade of flag design, as presented in municipal flags across the country. GFBF, quoted early and often in flag-development debates, contests, Among them: Albuquerque; Aus- and judging. tin; Billings; Birmingham; Bloom- ington; Bowling Green; Columbia, The effort begun in 1999 at ICV 18 Mo; Columbus, Dallas; Fargo; in has borne fruit! Grand Rapids; Los Angeles; Lowell, Mass.; Manlius, N.Y; We meet the second Thursday of Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Pocatello; odd-numbered months. Please Raleigh; Rochester, Minn.; Salem, mark your 2016 calendars for PFA Ore.; San Francisco; South Bend, meetings at 7:00 PM at the following dates/locations: Ind.; Sunnyvale, Texas; Syracuse; and Tampa. 1/14/16 Jessie Spillers 3/10/16 John Schilke Roman Mars himself is a flag 5/12/16 Patrick Genna enthusiast—he has devoted two 7/14/16 Ted Kaye of his design-related podcasts to 9/8/16 David Anchel flag topics (#6, focused on flag 11/10/16 Scott Mainwaring If in a foreign land, design and #140 , “Vexillonaire”, the flag is companionship, on Portland’s flag), quoting liberal- Thank you to our generous hosts for and country itself, with all ly from Good Flag, Bad Flag. their hospitality to the PFA! its endearments. —Charles Sumner If you wish to compliment the editor, or to contribute in the future, contact Ted Kaye at 503-223-4660 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother.

2 The Tabloid November 2015 Flutterings You Need to Know In our November meeting, hosted by Michael Orelove with pizza at his home in Gresham, 10 PFA members enjoyed a lively evening of flags. As the host, Michael led the introductions and moderated the discussion with aplomb. Ted Kaye showed a large number of flags he’d acquired in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada after attending ICV 26 in Sydney and NAVA 49 in Ottawa. David Anchel related how Elmer Reider, founder of Elmer’s, bought department store Meier & Frank’s entire flag inventory in the early 1960s, and showed a U.S. flag with an original 1951 price tag. He then described the experience of putting the Confederate Battle Flag behind the counter at Elmer’s: the press attention and customer re- sponses. Elmer’s now sources the flag from Alabama Flag & Banner, donating the profits from its sale to Ted Kaye displays the flag of Otago, a region on New Zealand’s South Island. anti-hate groups. David Koski read Jack Handey’s Keryn Anchel has been going hilarious 2008 New Yorker descrip- through the old stock at Elmer’s, tion of his personal flag. and showed several “finds”, includ- ing variant Dominica flags and U.S. Fred Paltridge, a veteran himself, flags made of “Nylannin”—a 75% celebrated Veterans Day with a nylon / 25% wool blend. “Flags of the United States” t-shirt. He’s now working at Division Hardware.

David Koski reads “The Symbols on Keryn Anchel brought examples of David Anchel shared this Dettra flag my Flag (and what they mean)” by several Georgia state flags. with a Sept. 1951 M&F price tag: $2.50. Jack Handey, a New Yorker writer.

December 2015 Portland Flag Association 3

New Zealand’s 40 semi-finalist Michael Orelove shows an all-American designs intrigue Fred Paltridge. Max Liberman correctly identifies the pennant—a gift from Dave Anchel. civil of The Bahamas. Inveterate letter-writer Michael Max Liberman gave a full report Orelove reported how, for a recent on ICV 26 in Sydney and was duly cruise on Holland-America Line, re-elected PFA’s delegate to FIAV he asked in advance for flags of the at ICV 27 in London in 2017. ports of call—and showed a flag of Carl Larson handed out originals Boston given him (see p. 4). He of the 1940s-era “Manual for he handed out copies of the American Flag of the United States of Ameri- Braille Flag (see VT #39) and ca”, published by his grandfather’s described the Gresham city flag he flag firm, B. A. Larson & Compa- acquired when moving here. ny, Lexington, Massachusetts. Patrick Genna generously gave He also shared a 1970 flag chart a away several of his latest thrift- former teacher had given him, shop-acquired flags, including the with 72 flags relating to U.S. histo- Bahamian and a Gads- ry (from The Flag Book of the U.S.). den Flag. He showed off the flag of his home town of St. Louis, Missouri. Scott Mainwaring led a discussion on the proper orientation of flags hung vertically. In honor of Armi- Patrick Genna and his newly-acquired Gadsden Flag. stice Day, he shared images of un- usual WWI-era flags, including the Whipple Flag and the mostly- forgotten practice of placing white borders around national flags to turn them into “peace flags”. He also gave a detailed report on the many flag initiatives flourishing across the U.S. (see p. 1 and http://wp.me/pVZxf-RI). Our next meeting will be at the home of Jessie Spillers on Jan. Carl Larson points out historical flags 14th. Michael will deliver the on a Whitney Smith chart from 1970 as Portland Flag Association flag to Scott Mainwaring demonstrates the two Davids (Koski and Anchel) look on. Jessie; one host to the next. challenges of vertical flag display.

4 The Vexilloid Tabloid Field Report — New England & Canada Cruise By Michael Orelove It’s a fitting backdrop for the Port- Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia flag… When I take a trip, I pack clean land city flag, given that our last The province has over 160 historic underwear, my toothbrush, and mayor was named Sam Adams. lighthouses. Peggy’s Point Light- some flags. I also pick up more house is one of Nova Scotia’s best- flags along the way. In October known lighthouses and may be the Kathleen and I took a 10-day most-photographed in Canada. cruise through New England and Located in the quaint fishing vil- Canada on a Holland America ship. lage of Peggy’s Cove, the light- house was built in 1915.

Aboard the Eurodam: Boston city flag…Holland America presented me with a city flag of Boston (or should I say “Bostonia”?) as we sailed away.

New York: Portland Flag Associa- tion flag…Our flag gets around. Charlottetown, Prince Edward “Give me your tired, your poor…” Island: Prince Edward Island flag… Holland America presented me with the P.E.I.’s provincial flag as we left Charlottetown.

Rockland, Maine: Rockland Yacht Club burgee…When we got off the cruise ship in Rockland I saw the Rockland Yacht Club. Since I don’t have its burgee, Kathleen took my photo so I could send the club an image with a request for an old burgee. Saguenay, : Québec flag… Inside the Arthur Villeneuve house Boston: Portland (Oregon) city flag… museum I spotted a Québec flag The Samuel Adams statue in flying proudly. Boston represents the Revolution- I use the flags that I acquire on ary patriot, clad in the citizen’s these trips, as well as those sent me dress of the period, standing erect, by governments and other entities, with folded arms and a determined when I give flag talks to school and look in his finely-chiseled face. community groups.

December 2015 Portland Flag Association 5 Field Report — Australia By Ted Kaye Attending the 26th International Congress of (ICV 26) provided an opportunity for travel around Australia and see flags!

The flags of Australia, Queensland, and Brisbane adorn the city hall there.

The flagstaff on Sydney’s Observatory Hill provides a decoder to ID the flags.

Ralph Bartlett displays an Australian The original Eureka Flag, Australia’s sporting flag in his ICV presentation. origin flag, is conserved in .

The and Australia flags fly on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The flag of the governor-general of the state of Victoria uses a yellow field.

Flags adorn a Sydney hotel—although the Vietnamese flag is upside-down.

Another hotel flies the Aboriginal flag The 21’x42’ flies on a 266’ An unexplained Raven flag tops the prominently among other nations. pole above Parliament in Canberra. Beechworth Bakery in Ballarat.

6 The Vexilloid Tabloid Great Flag Resources on the Web Mystery Flags inquiry with an image, a brief description, and any other perti- Recently colleagues have contacted nent information. The UFE is us asking for help identifying flags. then posted for vexo comment One such flag appears multiple and discussion, and the results are times in the image/detail at right. often successful. We learned of a new resource serv- A full list of UFEs appears on ing the vexillological community FOTW, with entries marked when vexed with such challenges. “Positive ID”, “Tentative ID”, Flags of the World, the pre- and “Some Speculation”. eminent flag-information website, Since 2002, almost 600 UFE maintains an active section devot- have been submitted; nearly half ed to UFEs (Unidentified Flags or of those have been identified. ): Beyond those, FOTW has links to http://www.crwflags.com/ FOTW encourages anyone other unidentified flags throughout fotw/flags/ufe15c.html stumped by a flag to submit an the site.

Vexillology Wiki — not only displays the 10 finalists from the 2009 effort sponsored by Designs The Oregonian, but 40 other designs, In 2001, NAVA (the Northern including the six below. American Vexillological Associa- tion) asked members and visitors to rate the design qualities of 72 U.S. and Canadian state, province, and territory flags. On a scale of 0 to 10, more than half failed to score above 5. In re- sponse, the creators of “Vexillology Wiki” began collecting proposals for new subnational flags for North America. http://vexillology.wikia.com/ wiki/Vexillology_Wiki The result: a wonderful compila- tion of varied and exciting prospec- tive flags, submitted by a great many vexillographers. Anyone can add a design. How wonderful to see so many all in one place! For example, the entry for Oregon

December 2015 Portland Flag Association 7 What’s that Flag? What Was that Flag? Answers to the last quiz

By David Ferriday By Scott Mainwaring

Can you name these seven flags, These seven flags, of course, each and identify the theme that links have a 5-pointed star on a blue them? field. For more on Japanese flags with a star, see Flags of Hokkai- Answers in the next issue… do Charged with the Shining Polar Star, Miru Takano (ICV 23). City of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan

Congo Free State (1877–1908) and Belgian Congo (1908–1960) City of Houston, Texas, USA

City of Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan Somalia

City of Tanabe, Wakayama, Japan Bonnie Blue Flag (or West Florida)

8 The Vexilloid Tabloid Portland Flag Miscellany

This knit hat appeared recently on @portlandflag, by Megumi Sasaki: “inspired by the Portland flag!” Commenting on the upcoming race for Oregon’s secretary of state, The Oregonian recently published this image of candidate Dennis Richardson standing before a Portland city flag, likely at City Club of Portland.

The website of Portland’s city auditor: http://www.portlandonline.com/ auditor/index.cfm?a=284493 Mayor Charlie Hales launched the provides an excellent and up-to-date inaugural Hip Hop Day with DJs, description of the Portland Flag, MCs, and a band in the City Hall including a reference to the PFA’s role courtyard—the PR featured the city Showing solidarity with in in its redesign. flag and used its colors as well. Portland on 13 November 2015.

January Meeting The next meeting of the Portland Flag Association will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, January 14, 2016 at the home of Jessie Spillers (Legends), 1132 S.W. 19th Ave., Portland, OR 97205. You can take MAX.

See the map at right.

We look forward to seeing those of you who have missed recent meetings and engaging in provoca- tive flag-related discussion.

If you can’t get to the meeting, perhaps you can give the editor something interesting to share with The Vexilloid Tabloid , founded in 1999 by the late John Hood, is published bi-monthly by and for readers. the Portland Flag Association—Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Find back issues at www.portlandflag.org.

December 2015