On Flying Flags

Driving through Raleigh today I noticed something unusual. About half the flags I saw were flying at half-mast.

There was no consistency to it. A whole stretch of businesses might have their flying at the top of the pole, while other businesses might have just the national flag at half-mast with the state and local flags flying above it.

What was causing this, I wondered?

I called my mom. She had noticed the exact same thing.

“I bet it’s because of the Pope,” she said.

That made sense. Except, “But the President would have to announce something. He hasn’t.”

“Maybe people are assuming that he did,” she said.

“The thing is,” I said, “there’s no reason why the Pope’s death means we fly our flags at half-mast. Sure, he was the leader of a religion one billion strong, but we wouldn’t fly our flags at half-mast if Vladimir Putin or Tony Blair dropped dead of massive heart attacks next week.”

“People are strange,” she replied.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

5 thoughts on “On Flying Flags

  1. Brendan, I edited your comment slightly–I changed the URL into a usable hyperlink.

    Self-interest, sure–the URL was so long it broke the layout. 😉

  2. Not at all a problem. Once I saw what the stretching did to your page, I was hoping you would. Talk about ugly . . . 😯

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