Field Report: Central Belize & Garifuna Country (Ted Kaye)
Flags on a Caribbean Cruise (Michael Orelove)
Salmon Nation
And, as always highlights from our last meeting, a roundup of flag news and notes, sightings of the Portland city flag, and the What’s That Flag quiz. (This issue’s quizmaster: Tony Burton, editor of Crux Australis.)
If you have items you would like us to consider for publication in the Tabloid, or would like to be added to the email distribution list so you never miss an issue, please contact editor@portlandflag.org.
And, as always highlights from our last meeting, a roundup of flag news and notes, sightings of the Portland city flag, and the What’s That Flag quiz. (This issue’s quizmaster: John Caitledge.)
If you have items you would like us to consider for publication in the Tabloid, or would like to be added to the email distribution list so you never miss an issue, please contact editor@portlandflag.org.
Do Imports Deface the Dutch Flag? ( Theun Okkerse)
And, as always highlights from our last meeting, a roundup of flag news and notes, sightings of the Portland city flag, and the What’s That Flag quiz. (This issue’s quizmaster: Dale Grimes.)
If you have items you would like us to consider for publication in the Tabloid, or would like to be added to the email distribution list so you never miss an issue, please contact editor@portlandflag.org.
Multiple independent efforts proceed within Mississippi. The most prominent, the proposal by Laurin Stennis, has the support of the largest flag retailer in Jackson and the “Stennis Flag Flyers” group. Design student Chase Quarterman explored “The Mississippi Identity” in the debut issue of NAVA’s revamped quarterly, Vexillum(March 2018) and is proposing his “Mighty Magnolia” flag. Other NAVA members are working to guide state policy. And Judge Carlos Moore made national news in 2017 when he removed the flag from his Clarksdale, Mississippi, courtroom (see Vexillum #2).
Stennis, Moore, and NAVA vexillologist Jack Lowe are featured in this short documentary from HuffPost | Between The Lines.
Other states have taken different approaches to the issue.
In Juneau, Alaska, the site of a 50-state flag display has replaced the Mississippi flag with the supposed 1861 Magnolia Flag, which Jackson vexillologist Clay Moss (disputing Whitney Smith) describes as the “flag that never existed”.
The Magnolia Flag flying in place of the MS state flag in Juneau, AK, Sept. 2018. Photo: Mary Ansoff
Here in Oregon, the state legislature has removed the Mississippi flag from the 50-state flag display on the capitol grounds in Salem, leaving a bare pole.
The bare pole which few the MS flag at the Oregon Capitol, Sept. 2018. Photo: Ted Kaye
Vexiday: The Third World Vexillology Day in Portland (Scott Mainwaring)
De gustibus non est disputandum (Carl Gurtman)
The 2018 Gresham Teddy Bear Parade (Michael Orelove)
And, as always highlights from our last meeting, a roundup of flag news and notes, sightings of the Portland city flag, and the What’s That Flag quiz. (This issue’s quizmaster: Ted Kaye!)
If you have items you would like us to consider for publication in the Tabloid, or would like to be added to the email distribution list so you never miss an issue, please contact editor@portlandflag.org.
The Flags of the World database provides information about the current text-heavy red, white, and blue tricolor flag the city adopted in 2002. Local designer and artist Nita McFarlin won a design contest that year, explaining “I designed the flag with the same colors as France, since LaFayette was French and Fayetteville is named for him. Also, the double t in Fayetteville serves as the foundation for the clock tower. I believe the courthouse, being the oldest in Georgia, is most recognized by the tower and clock.”
Nita McFarlin in 2012
The search for a new flag has generated some controversy, as evidenced in this July 2017 letter to the editor of local newspaper The Citizen by the county historian, Carolyn Cary. She apparently sees an educational purpose to having words on flags: “If someone wants to create a new city flag devoid of any historical elements and any wording, go ahead. But that is not going to teach children and new residents a thing about our history.”
On the other hand, Mayor Ed Johnson has been generally supportive. When Mahlbacher and Carter spoke before the city council earlier that same month about the need for a redesign, The Citizen reported:
Mayor Ed Johnson thanked Carter for his comments, and suggested Carter be on a committee to see if the flag should be updated.
Carter agreed, and Johnson gave him a preview of what his new position might entail.
“Just be prepared for some blowback,” he said.
Controversy and blowback often come with the territory of local efforts to improve existing flag designs.
And, as always highlights from our last meeting, a roundup of flag news and notes, sightings of the Portland city flag, and the What’s That Flag quiz. (This issue’s quizmaster: Tony Burton of the Flag Society of Australia.)
If you have items you would like us to consider for publication in the Tabloid, or would like to be added to the email distribution list so you never miss an issue, please contact editor@portlandflag.org.
SAINT-ALPHONSE-RODRIGUEZ, QUEBEC — In a surprise announcement today, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto proclaimed their mutual withdrawal from NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the merger of their two countries into the Federation of Camexida. “It just got too difficult dealing with the Trump administration, so we’ve decided to leave NAFTA and join forces,” explained Trudeau. “That Trump, he’s just one bad hombre. Loco… Loquísimo!” added Peña Nieto, in an uncharacteristic display of informality.
The two leaders further revealed that to appease the Quebecois, the capital of the new federation would be developed in the small town of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in Quebec (one of the few municipalities in Canada with a Spanish place name) and that Mexico would half-heartedly adopt French as a second official language (due to some lingering resentments around the events of 1861). A new two-sided flag was revealed to represent the new country, with the Mexican eagle side serving as the front of the flag in even-numbered years, the Canadian maple leaf in odd-numbered years.
Camexidian flag – obverse (even-numbered years), reverse (odd-numbered years).Camexidian flag – obverse (odd-numbered years), reverse (even-numbered years)
After their short announcement, the two leaders declined to answer any questions from the stunned audience, and left to have a meal of moose meat tacos and huitlacoche poutine.
