This Week In Vexillology #160


This Week In Vexillology, we're still in Europe. (Almost done, I swear) but we're also looking at another one of those countries that sort of surprise me- namely the Principality of Liechtenstein. Sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, the country was created in 1719 as part of the Holy Roman Empire. (Weirdly, the newly minted Princes of Liechtenstein didn't actually get around to visiting the place for 100 years. When they finally got around to it in 1818, they left again and didn't come back until 1842. All of which makes me wonder a little bit about Liechtenstein...  or it's Princes for that matter.)

World War One forced the country into a customs and monetary union with Switzerland- but it seems to be the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that really secured their independence as it was felt that since Liechtenstein was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, it was no longer bound to the emerging, newly independent state of Austria. (I think I'm getting this right. It seems a little confusing. They were sort of part of Austria-Hungary, but not? And then they were sort of part of Switzerland, but not?)

Anyway, their flag: pretty basic- and despite last week's little HTML snafu (weirdly the borders I put around the flags showed up in 'compose' mode, but not in 'published' mode. I'm still puzzling it out.) The flag was adopted for national and civil usage on June 24, 1937. The red and blue have been colors of the country since the 18th Century and the crown was added in 1937 to distinguish their flag from the flag of Haiti, after some confusion at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Fun fact: it can be hung vertically or horizontally but the crown always remains upright.

That's the flag of Liechtenstein! Remember, until next time keep your flags flying, FREAK or otherwise!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Didn't Watch The State of The Union

I didn't watch the State of the Union last night for the first time in what seems like a very long time indeed. I didn't watch it out of some form of virtue-signalling protest. I didn't watch it because it started at about eight o'clock at that is prime time for bedtime for the kids. And anyone with kids will tell you: you don't mess with bedtime. Also, I just didn't care. I know in some areas of the flaming dumpster fire that is our political discourse these days that's a hanging offense. "You didn't care? How dare you not care! Aren't you against [insert controversy of the week here]?" or my favorite, "Well, you have the privilege of not caring about this stuff." No, it's not about my privilege. (That's an entirely different conversation.) I just genuinely did not care, because it did not matter. Both ends of the political spectrum live in parallel universes, I decided. They're going to listen to the same speech
Read more

Tintin, Ranked

Image
What can you say about Tintin? He's been around for decades- was one of the most popular comics of the 20th Century. He's spawned a television cartoon ( which I remember watching on Nickelodeon ) and more recently a movie ( two more of which are apparently coming, though it's been awhile since the movie dropped .) He hasn't been free from controversy- Tintin In The Congo is hard to find these days for a reason, the least of which is (what I'm guessing) the somewhat 'problematic' portrayal of Africans in the Belgian Congo when the reality of that chapter of colonial history was dark indeed. For sure, if there's an aspect of these books that makes me cringe somewhat, it's his portrayal of Africans. Herge's portrayal of Latinx individuals and cultures tends to be a bit better, though his portrayal of indigenous folks and Asians is somewhat mixed. He's excellent in The Blue Lotus , somewhat less so with his portrayal indigenous people in Ti
Read more

Psephology Rocks: Holiday Grab Bag Edition

Well, there's lots to talk about post-Election Day, not only in America, but there's a few bits and bobs from around the world worth touching on as well.  We'll start local and work upwards: Local:  Well, I went three for three in my City Council Endorsements- Botchway, Salih took the At-Large Seats and Susan Mims took the District B Seat.  The District B race between incumbent Susan Mims and student Ryan Hall was less of a contest than I think people were anticipating, as Mims won handily 59% to 41%. I had nothing in particular against Hall, per say- but I feel like if Raj Patel who was another student who ran a few cycles back (I want to say 2010?) had serious money and a serious platform behind him and didn't win, then Hall was going to be a long shot. He checked all the right progressive boxes for Iowa City, but he was running against an incumbent who might not be uber-Progressive, but not say, Terry Dickens either. I think Hall would have had a better shot aga
Read more