muckefuck | A basin for all nations

A basin for all nations

In Kiran Desai's The inheritance of loss, when one Indian immigrant living in New York City hears of another's plans to return home, he tells him:

"You're making a big mistake. Thirty years in this country, hassle-free except for the bitch-witch, of course, and I have never gone back. Just even see the plumbing," he indicated the sound of the gurgling toilet behind him. "They should put their plumbing on their flag, just like we have the spinning wheel--top-class facility in this country."

I'm not a big fan of objects on flags, but if you were going to take Mr Kakkar's advice and put an image of something on your country's flag, what would it be?

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Oddly enough, the first thing that sprang to mind was a plow. Which doesn't exactly fit the US in the modern age.

Unfortunately, cars and shopping malls and televisions don't look good waving in the breeze.

PA has a plough as a charge on its coat of arms and therefore also its flag. Montana also has a plough, but represented as part of a picture. And strictly speaking, Alaska has a plough too. :)

Ah, that's probably why it sprang to mind -- I used to know most of the state flags, long ago.

(I did a doubletake when you commented, btw. Thanks for Joule.)

Thanks for using it!

What about just using the Walmart and FOX Television logos?

There was a person a few years back who marked flags with letter grades. Weaponry got a demerit, I remember, and Mozambique got doubly marked down for including an AK-47.

I am smiling at the idea of a toilet on a flag.

Ah, yes, Josh Parsons. An entertaining exercise, even when you find yourself disagreeing with him. Desai's line did, of course, immediately remind me of Parsons' description of the flag of Zimbabwe (pictured) : "Features a hawk sitting on a toilet."

The flag of the Canadian Inuit territory of Nunavut is comparatively prosaic, featuring an Inuit direction marker or inukshuk. (Whether it's true that this artifact also allows tribal leaders among the Ende of the American Southwest to grow to enormous size remains only a compelling theory, as far as I know.)

But arms of Nunavut... you will believe a narwhal can stand at attention:

(And, apparently, that an igloo just tried Imperial margarine)

What's that next to the inukshuk? A contact lens? A pit dug for unwary travellers?

And to answer the question, we've got the maple leaf of course, already, but my icon has a barbed crown with a pentacle for some obscure reason. (Nobody knows we're secretly a race of demonic overlords, the "nice" thing is just a facade.)

I've often suspected Canadians of this :)

Back in my angsty teenage days, I would have said "kerosene."

Nowadays? Probably "We the People." The greatness of America springs from a foundation built upon words.

Dude, Japanese toilets (modern ones, not the trench-squat-old-timey ones) are *so* much better than American ones, even.

And my choice for the flag would be your icon. Cookie monster all the way.

When speaking about Spain, some people have already found the solution:
http://youtublog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/toro.jpg

Of course, there was a reaction, using Catalonia's national animal, the donkey: http://mix.fresqui.com/files/images/terra%20lliure%20amb%20el%20burro%20català%20groga.JPG

A loaf of bread or an unhappy face... because no other country makes decent bread and we excel at being permanently dissatisfied.

Dude, you're next door to France - I think they beat you on both counts.

Not really... I've been there. The French only eat white bread, yuck.

No, you did not just put down Russian black bread, no...

White bread and black bread are both okay, but our brown bread's the only one I could eat every day. I haven't been to Russia yet, though.

It's true, the plumbing here rocks.

The chief virtue of my flag is that it reproduces well in black and white. The arms are a kind of elegy for the place: they show the lost industries of mining and fishing, the lost bird, and the gold that was extracted and spent.

If you wanted more truth-in-heraldry then these days you'd probably put some miserable, wet tourists and a London-owned holiday home on it.

I like your explanation of the arms. I am reminded of when I was told by a straightfaced Welshman that the "Ich Dien" motto on Prince Charles's arms is actually "Eich Tin" (==your arse) misspelled.

Since the inescutcheon is the arms of the Duchy... isn't the Duchy itself a London-owned holiday home?

Edited 2008-11-13 16:56 (UTC)

good point! Also a brand of biscuits.

Speaking of Charles, there's that memorable quote in Man For All Seasons: "it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?"
...which quietly fails to acknowledge that the Duchy is generally bundled in the Wales pack. I think "not quite worthy of mention, even when dissing Wales" might be a good, if lengthy, motto.

The mood I am in this morning, my personal flag would be a severed head dripping blood.

But that's just Thursday morning for you.

Mae cerdd 'da fi ar dy gyfer tithau!

Pen a borthaf af fy ochr
Bu ymosodwr rhwng dau lu
Mab Cynfarch balch a'i biau

Pen a borthaf af fy ochr
Pen Urien, yn hael llywiai ei lu
Ac ar ei fron wen, brân ddu

Pen a borthaf o fewn fy nghrys
Pen urien, hael llywiai ei lys
Ac are ei fron wen brain a'i ysa

Penn a borthaf yn fy llaw
Bugail Erchwydd oedd ef
Bron teyrn treilwyd gan ffon

Pen a borthaf ar fy nghlun
'Roedd tarian i'w wlad; 'roedd farch yng nghâd
'Roedd cynhaliaeth ym mrwydr, rhwyd i'w elynion

Pen a borthaf ar fy chwith
Gwell oedd fyw nac yn ei fedd
— hyn oedd noddfa ei henoed

Pen a borthaf of dir Penawg
Pelleuol ei ymgyrch
[Pen] Urien. Pell adroddir ei enwogrwydd

Pen a borthaf ar fy ysgwydd
Ni'm gwaradwyd am ei gymeryd
Gwae fy llaw a drawodd fy arglwydd
Pen a borthaf ar fy mraich
hwn a ddarostwng tir Bryneich
A fu'n gawr nawr yn elor faich
Pen a borthaf yng ngafael
Fy llaw; arglwydd hael, llyw ei wlad
Pennaeth, post Prydain, dygwyd ymaith
Pen a borthaf a'm cynhaliwyd
Ymadawodd, i'm colled
Gwae fy llaw, a wnaeth a llym weithred

Pen a borthaf o riwiedig dir
Are ei enau ewyn
o waed: gwae fydd i Reged o heddiw

Marwol fy mraich, fy mron a gyffroid
Fy nghalon a dorrwyd.
Pen a borthaf yng ngafael

Peth perffaith am ddydd Iau hyll yw hyn!

Hasn't anyone pointed out yet that, while it's a nice anecdote, the wheel in the center of the Indian flag is not a spinning wheel? The flag of 1931 did indeed have a hand spinning wheel on it. The modern flag, however, has the Ashoka Chakra or Dharma Chakra as its central icon.

What about a turkey? Didn't Ben Franklin propose it as the national bird rather than the eagle?

I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on. [Letter to Sarah Franklin, 1784])

Why not a pair of turkey drumsticks?

I learned yesterday that Uncle Sam was allegedly a meat inspector for the revolutionary army, so edible militarism FTW!

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