sign in sign up
<<
Home , Eagle (heraldry), Pride flag

Portland Flag Association Publication 1

Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 18 July 2008

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: The Final Finial Finale

The Final Finial Finale 1 By John Hood depending on rank and location. Flag Related Websites 3 No matter how it is spelled there will be This comes from having to identify a Google site to explain that these officers in boats of different rank Next Meeting Announcement 3 things are a bed post, a church spire Flag Society of Australia Turns 25 3 for reasons of protocol. For exam- July 2008 Flutterings 4 the top of a flag pole, but they will not ple, the battle-ax is used for the na- say what fun it is to rummage for infor- tional col- State Flag Changes 7 mation on them. ors while The Flag Quiz 8 the spread Some time ago Marshall Gold- is atop berg wrote a doggerel about fini- staffs of als for the Maryland Flag. At the officials and time he thought there should be officers en- an article about finials in general, titled to a but in travelling the yellow brick Spearhead Battle-Ax road, he never got back to it. Since the idea did have merit, I did some research and now pre- sent this far from scholarly mono- graph—after all, this is a hobby, not a vocation.

FOTW describes the finials for Spread Eagle Halberd many countries, but there are no salute of 19 or more guns. The hal- pictures—I would like to see the berd is used for lesser flag ranks gopher from Minnesota—and entitled to 11 to 17 guns. Going most of the countries‟ websites down the scale, the ball is used for have no pictures either. captains and those officers of equivalent The seems to have rank, and the the biggest variety, particularly the is for Patriotic societies seem to military. The Army, Air Force commanders. think that the way to educate and Marines use the spearhead school children in a democracy while the Navy and the Coast (Continued on page 2) is to stage bigger and better Guard use several different finials, Ball Star flag-saluting. If you wish to compliment the editor, or to contribute in the future, contact John Hood at —S.I. Hayakawa 503-238-7666 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother. 2 Portland Flag Association Publication Finials than the manufacturers. the onion; France, the 1st Empire (Continued from page 1)

While the Navy uses the spread eagle for the boat ensign when the President is aboard ship, a different eagle is used for the President‟s personal flag in the White House. It is more Roman style and looking Church Classic Catholic to the right. Cross Cross Cross Swedish Onion Sikh I found that the Is- raeli Flag should be shown with the Star of David finial, but nowhere have I seen this actually Star of David done.

Presidential Eagle

The fancy finials are usually only used on indoor or parade flags Napoleonic Eagle since spear points, wings and Eagle and Sikhs, the double-edged tridents can snag and tear an out- sword of the Khanda symbol on door flag. Maple Leaf Royal the flag. Maryland is steadfast about using Canada uses the maple leaf and Great Britain uses the Royal Crest but, I believe, only for parades and formal functions (I‟m sure I‟ll hear from Michael Faul about this!). Kazakhstan and Belarus Would this be appropriate for a have interesting finials, but all I pirate flag? could find for Russia was from the Soviet military. Sweden uses The Eritrean camel, the Cambodian Cross Botonny Cardinal Hanuman Monkey, the Indian the cross botonny but Kentucky is Ashoka Lions and the Hungarian not so adamant about the cardinal were not found. Nor were and nowhere could I find Minne- the Ukrainian trident, the Bhutan sota‟s gopher. Perhaps it only Norbu (jewel) and the Munich comes out on Groundhog Day! monk. If anyone knows of exam- There are the various church ples of these, I would like to see crosses but I don‟t know if anyone them. bothers to tell them apart other Finale Kazakhstan Belarus Soviet

Portland Flag Association Publication 3 October Meeting Some Flag Related Websites Flag Society of Aus-

The next meeting of the Portland NAVA http://www.nava.org tralia turns 25! Flag Association will be at 7 p.m., Our friend Ron Strachen in Dar- Thursday, October 16, 2008, at (United Kingdom) win reminded us that on August Scott Mainwaring‟s house, 7144 SW http://www.flaginstitute.org 20th, The Flag Society of Austra- 29th Ave., telephone (503) 977- Flags of the World http:// lia (a.k.a. Flags Australia) will 3222. See the map below. The www.fotw.net celebrate 25 years of promoting meeting is week later than usual Down Under. We because of the NAVA conference Elmer‟s Flag & Banner http:// commend Ralph Bartlett, Presi- in Austin, TX. www.elmersflag.com dent; Ralph Kelly, Treasurer; We look forward to seeing those of Darwin, Northern Territory Tony Burton, Secretary and edi- you that have been otherwise com- (Australia) http:// tor of Crux Australis and all mitted, and see some different www.nationalflags.com.au those whom we have not met but flags, and hear some provocative have read their articles. They have Flag Society of Australia http:// done a wonderful job of educat- discussion. www.flagsaustralia.com.au ing all of us on the history, griev- Since we have not spent much time Flag Research Center http:// ances and future of the flags of discussing the flag for our group, www.flagresearchcenter.com Australia. During the “Great perhaps people can come prepared Australian Flag Controversy,” the Southern African Vexillological to do that. The other question is, FSA has remained remarkably Assoc. http://www.sa-va.org.za how will the flag be used once it is neutral and has continued to pub- decided upon? Any and all flags, lish a scholarly journal in the thing to share with our readers. books or articles are welcome for midst of Bondi Beach, et al. “show and tell.” As you can see, snippets from anywhere can be used and it gives In addition to Crux Australis, If you can‟t get to the meeting, per- you an opportunity to add to your the FSA has published several haps you can give the editor some- curriculum vitae. great flag charts: Flags of Non- Independent Peoples - 1990, Flags of Aspirant Peoples - 1994, Flags of Paradise - 1996, and Flags of Empire - Flags of Commonwealth - 2001. Per- haps the first two will be up- dated soon, since many of those countries have now achieved in- dependence!

Congratulations again, and keep the flags of Australia flying! 4 Portland Flag Association Publication July 2008 Flutterings You Need to Know A couple of our regulars couldn‟t badges, so they are a continuing to a flag: make the meeting, but we have a repository for old flags. All other www.geocities.com/my_flags/ new member, John Niggley, who flags (state or national) are simply contro.html. Here are some of the has moved to Beaverton from back recycled as cloth. Mike also had better ones: East. He brought some flags that two flags left over from a buy he no one had seen before. His once made from the Tudor Flag daughter‟s Brownie flag was, of Company in England, “Flag course, in shades of brown—an Maker to the Queen.” He had no unusual color for flags. He also had idea what they were, but with a a hand-made flag from Furman little help from Michael Faul of University in South Carolina, The The Flag Institute in England and Smithsonian Institute Flag, a true his contacting The Heraldry Ga- Gay Alaska Olympic Flag (without the USA on zette, we determined they were it), a new flag for Kansas that is the coats of arms of Sir Thomas much improved over the current Felton and Sir John Cornwall. one, and a couple of Swiss flags (having lived there for awhile).

Gay Arizona

Proposed Kansas Flag

Sir Thomas Felton Gay Maryland

Former Smithsonian Flag Ted had an old U.S. flag to replace and asked Mike Hale how he does it. Mike said that he gets a lot of Gay New Glory requests to destroy old flags and There is a neighboring site with there are two ways of doing it: first, suggestions for state “flags in des- there is a crematorium in Gresham Sir John Cornwall perate need of change.” They are that will burn a flag with the de- covered on page 7 of this newslet- ceased, if the family wishes. These These are the challenges any vex- ter. are usually veterans. Second, the illologist loves! Michael said that each year in his Boy Scouts need to properly dis- Michael Orelove found a website pose of a flag for one of their merit that has each state flag converted (Continued on page 5)

Portland Flag Association Publication 5 Flutterings Marshall Goldberg was off on a Astronomically Correct road trip recently (not “The Yel- low Brick Road” this time) and The official song of the State (Continued from page 4) attempted to acquire city flags of Alaska, known as the from the places he visited. Mar- Alaska Flag song, begins with hometown of Juneau, AK, the main shall found that although the flag the following description of street is lined with flags from all the might be flying out front, no one the Alaska Flag: "Eight stars states. He has been able to acquire knew what it meant nor where it of gold on a of blue..." a complete set, including all of came from—sometimes they did- those states that have changed in n‟t even know there was a city The Alaska flag is not astro- the past twelve years. Hence he flag. He did manage to see Santa nomically correct. The was able to show us the three incar- Barbara‟s flag, but the castle may Alaska flag displays the Big nations of Georgia‟s flag: 1956- not have been correct. Dipper and the North Star. Most depictions of the Big 2001, 2001-2003, 2003-present. Dipper show 7 stars. How- Nevada and South Dakota are a ever, the second star in the couple of other flags that have handle of the Big Dipper is a changed in recent memory—are multiple star system. To the there any more? He also showed keen unaided eye, two stars Pascal Lee‟s, Mars Society Flag and can be seen, the brighter 2nd his own flag for Mars that was fea- magnitude Mizar, and a th tured in NAVA News of April-June fainter 4 magnitude nearby star, Alcor. Being able to de- 2004 and here in January 2007. Santa Barbara, CA Other than that, he was only able tect the two as separate is to get postcards or from considered a test of good eye- sight. Ojai, CA; Los Gatos, CA and Ber- lin, MD. Better luck next trip! He also had a pre-sort stamp with Michael Orelove, an amateur as- an odd configuration of stars and tronomer, has added an additional star to his Alaska flag so his flag strips and wondered if it had any will be astronomically correct. special history—no one knew.

Mars Society

Patriotic Banner

Orelove’s Mars Flag Ted Kaye saw that his Stanford Astronomically Correct Flag University Alumni Magazine had As he is prone to do, Michael has a page of précis of books written been modifying existing flags. See by alumni. He decided to submit the sidebar for the story of his as- Good Flag, Bad Flag to the edi- tronomically correct Alaska State tor and, to his amazement, they Flag. (Continued on page 6) Detail 6 Portland Flag Association Publication Flutterings because the west is more ethni- cally Ukrainian than the center or east. But even unofficial flags (Continued from page 5) deserve their place in the sun! devoted half a page to it! That got Ted‟s son Rob, who is going to Scott to thinking he may submit college in Minnesota, sent an arti- something, also. Ted also had his cle he found on the BBC website Last initial in canton paper that was delivered in Berlin at a while back. It was the story 22 ICV published in Lewis and about „Free Tibet‟ flags being Clark Trail Heritage. The article made in China! “Workers said was about the flags of the tribes they thought they were just mak- encountered by the Corps of Dis- ing colourful flags and did not covery two hundred years ago. Of realise their meaning.” Some course he also had some flags to workers saw protesters with the flags on TV and told authorities. show: Los Angeles, Bhutan, Last initial in fly Ukraine, Western Ukraine and one So much for free trade. seen often during the political pro- Scott Mainwaring had a flag made tests of a year ago in Ukraine. for his wife with the Ledbetter , Nancy‟s maiden name.

Last initial in hoist Yes! Yushchenko During the discussion, Ted men- tioned that there was a website that The flag from Western Ukraine was sold a package of special cloth and given to him by work colleagues a Ledbetter Flag pole so a flag with any design or few years ago as being a more com- picture could be printed on a home monly flown flag in their area of Scott is working on a website that computer. The site is: www.create- Liviv. That may be the case, but would allow people to design a-flag.com. Scott also had a kanji this is the only place I have found their own personal flags using im- flag of “love”, the concept rather the flag to appear. The image has ages of International Maritime not made it to FOTW yet, nor does Signal Flags. There was discus- it seem to be on any Ukrainian web sion of where to put the last name site. FOTW mentions it as the initial: in the place of honor, the Ukrainian patriotic flag, apparently upper hoist; the largest area, the fly; reverse the normal arrange- ment, the hoist. He plans an arti- cle on the subject for the next Kanji-Love Tabloid. His flag would look like than “being in”. He showed us a these in the different configura- new book he got. It‟s actually not tions: new, but rather two older books (Continued on page 7)

Western Ukraine (Liviv)

Portland Flag Association Publication 7 Flutterings and Stephan Slater, May 2008 An- represents how guns are nice but ness Publishing Ltd. $29.99. The swords are more of a „heavenly‟ Stephan Slater book was previ- thing...the represents the (Continued from page 6) ously published as The Com- need to communicate, even if it‟s plete Book of Heraldry. Lastly, only squawks…” and so on for two combined into one. It is The as he does most meetings, Scott columns. His ultimate thought was posed the imponderable: “How that he would rather have a clut- can we engage young people in tered flag than one that has no the flag work?” And as usual, we meaning whatsoever. all shook our heads. John also passed a greeting card for John Hood shared the most re- signing, congratulating the Flag So- cent Flag Informs from the Flag ciety of Australia on their 25th an- Research Center and an article his niversary of doing good flag work. son sent him from The New Yorker. Jack Handey, the author, Fred Paltridge recorded an episode describes his flag. It started with of The History Detectives that the word “NO” on a blank back- featured a strange flag from the mid ground and evolved—“The bra -nineteenth century, but we ran out and panties for women‟s rights... of time at this meeting so we will World Encyclopedia of Flags & see it in October. Heraldry by Alfred Znamierowski the angel holding the sword

State Flag Changes

The web site that Michael Orelove found with the controversial flags mentioned in Flutterings is that of John Gamez, a.k.a. “The Flagman”. He appears to be a rabid hockey fan, but he also has several pages dealing with vexillology and is a Delaware—from bad flag to good flag with minimum angst great place to browse—it even has a link to the NAVA web site. At www.geocities.com/my_flags/ states he shows “Flags in desperate need of change.” He doesn't men- tion NAVA‟s state flag survey, but The Flagman does know how to Florida is another simple change Montana shows it’s mountains recognize a poor flag. Here are just a few of his designs that may whet someone‟s appetite to create some new flags. The captions are the editor‟s, but The Flagman describes the symbolism of his new flags in excellent detail. Iowa retains the Tricolore theme Utah is still the Beehive State 8 Portland Flag Association Publication What Was that Flag? Answers to last quiz What’s that Flag? These are some of the lesser known commonwealth to deal with mat- These flags do not represent coun- international organizations: ters relating to the break-up. The tries, but rather cultures. Here are blue field represents peace and people whose homelands transcend the graphic suggests the geographical boundaries. will to form a common house with the sun in the center provid- ing light and warmth.

League of Arab States There are 22 member-states in the Arab League which is meant to promote unity between the Arab- speaking nations. The green and the crescent symbolize Islam, the chain is for unity and the wreath African Union stands for peace and unity. Originally formed as the Organi- zation of African Unity in 1963 and included all the independent African nations. The AU changed its name in 2002 but re- tained the original flag. The green is for the vegetation, the gold for the deserts and the white for hope. Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

ASEAN was formed in 1967 to promote regional stability and co- operation. There are currently ten member nations, signified by the ten rice stalks. The flag has all the colors of the ten nations‟ flags. Pacific Community

Formerly the South Pacific Com- mission, the name was changed (and the flag) in 1999 when many of the members were now in the North Pacific and “Commission” Commonwealth of Independent States seemed too colonial. The 27 stars represent the members connected When the Soviet Union fell in with an arch that suggests a satel- 1991, twelve of the former 15 re- lite dish for bringing isolated is- publics joined together to form this lands together into a community.