The Vexilloid Tabloid #18, July 2008
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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 or 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- eagle 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 United States seems to have rank, and the the biggest variety, particularly the star 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, eagles 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 Crest 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 Turul 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 Flag Institute (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 vexillology 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 Gay Pride 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 canton 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.