[QUOTE=Marley23]
Ah yes, the Baden-Baden “Stop Copying Me!” Accords.
[/QUOTE]
We were too busy fighting the Communists to design a new flag so we just copied USA’s. Just replace the stars with a crescent and one star. Sorted. Malaysia’s Stripes of Glory
[QUOTE=sturmhauke]
Austria’s has the imperial eagle, symbol of, like, imperialness, but it wields a hammer and sickle, symbol of the proletariat. I’m confused. Plus there’s some broken chains for that extra touch of “Hunhhh?”
[/QUOTE]
I was wondering that too. According to wiki, the crown on the birds head is the third item, representing three classes of citizenry. I guess peasants, workers, and bourgeois. Or, farmers, people who like to hammer, and people who enjoy bossing the other two groups around.
I think Austria has the most bad-assed coat of arms. If I were in charge, however, I would replace the hammer with Mozambique’s AK- 47, modern times and all. I would also have the bird wearing the Hungarian crown, only all disrespectful like. You know, backwards and cocked to the side or something.
We [used to] own you Hungary!
[QUOTE=SurrenderDorothy]
I’m sorry…
VAGINA DENTATA???
I want to google it to find out what it is… but I don’t.
oh god, why did I read this thread right before going to bed? I’m going to have vagina dentata nightmares…
[/QUOTE]
It’s very much like Akuna Matata. Just hum the song quietly to yourself and your fears will be allayed.
The arms of the Canadian Heraldic Authority has owlbears! How cool is that?
[QUOTE=sturmhauke]
The arms of the Canadian Heraldic Authority has owlbears! How cool is that?
[/QUOTE]
And they’re getting down.
Also, it doesn’t look to me like the Link and Andorran shields are the same shape -the Link one is relatively rectilinear and the Andorran one is in that unpleasant Baroque scrollwork style. But the shape of the shield is essentially heraldically irrelevant, except for major differences such as the lozenge used for unmarried women, etc.
[QUOTE=sturmhauke]
The arms of the Canadian Heraldic Authority has owlbears! How cool is that?
[/QUOTE]
They’re ravenbears, not owlbears! Next thing we know, you’ll be conflating gryphons with wyverns! 
And can anyone name a Doper who would be a fabulous addition to the Canadian Heraldic Authority? 
Out of sheer curiosity, I looked up some state arms. Vermont, the only state to formally blazon its arms in law (or at least they claim so), uses a tall pine tree with a red cow. Maine has a moose lounging under a (somewhat smaller) pine tree. The arms of the Australian states range from the banal to the intriguing. Northern Territory’s idea of using Aboriginal art on its arms gets thumbs up from me. South Australia’s Australian Piping Shrike displayed on a bezant is probably the most artistically pleasing. But for sheer poignancy, nothing beats the supporters of Tasmania’s arms: two thylacines.
[QUOTE=araminty]
I became highly, highly enamoured by the flag of the Caribbean Commonwealth protectorate, Turks & Caicos, during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne this year. A friend and I spent several hours pondering the illustrations, and came up with the wrong answers, time and again. What do you think?
[/QUOTE]
Do not disturb the sealife, or the aliens will attack you. (That thing on the bottom is obviously an alien, who rotates similarly to a Peahat.
Here’s a list of flags of all of the colonies and dependent territories of the world.
The message of St. Helena’s flag is obviously “Pigeons cause shipwrecks.”
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands gets the award for “coolest animals surrounding the coat of arms”- a moose, an emperor penguin, and what appears to be a walrus.
The message of Bermuda’s flag is obviously “Freaky lion things cause shipwrecks.”
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
Out of sheer curiosity, I looked up some state arms.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, if you want to go into American state seals, that opens up a whole new ballgame.
Alabama is doing nothing to help the stereotype that its residents are ignorant hillbillies with the fact that their seal is a map of the freakin’ state with its neighbors labeled.
Delaware: the state so nice they founded it thrice.
Kansas: A Gulf+Western Company.
Missouri: Stephen Colbert’s least favorite state.
Washington: Um, yeah.
G U A M. How inspirational.
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer]
G U A M. How inspirational.
[/QUOTE]
Artwork by Timmy, age 6.
Navassa Island: Look, we have a lighthouse! Isn’t it exciting? Alternatively: the lamest birthday cake ever.
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
Felix Eboue, Governor of Chad and a black creole from French Guinea
[/QUOTE]
No, as your link states, he was from French Guiana (in South America), not the present-day nation of Guinea, which was part of French West Africa before gaining independence in 1958. Just to add to the confusion, Guinea-Bissau was once Portuguese Guinea, while Spanish Guinea became the nation of Equatorial Guinea. Meanwhile, back in the Western Hemisphere, British Guiana turned into the nation of Guyana, while Dutch Guiana is now known as Suriname. French Guiana is an overseas département of France, with a status similar to that enjoyed by the state of Hawaii as a constituent (although not contiguous with the “mainland”) member of the United States of America.
[QUOTE=sturmhauke]
Navassa Island: Look, we have a lighthouse! Isn’t it exciting? Alternatively: the lamest birthday cake ever.
[/QUOTE]
Put a few batteries in that thing and you’ll have the (female) tourists lining up.
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
And can anyone name a Doper who would be a fabulous addition to the Canadian Heraldic Authority?
[/QUOTE]
I have contemplated it blush…
[QUOTE=mobo85]
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands gets the award for “coolest animals surrounding the coat of arms”- a moose, an emperor penguin, and what appears to be a walrus.
[/QUOTE]
That’s a Macaroni Penguin, not an Emperor.
Does it sing “Yankee Doodle” while eating cheese?
[QUOTE=jjimm]
My fave - the island where my grandmother was from. Dominica*.
The parrots are sisserou, which are native only to the rain forests of the island. There’s a coconut(?) palm, a banana tree, representing the only exports of the country - thoguh if it wanted to be more realistic it should have a fat tourist, since inbound tourism is the actual mainstay of the economy - and what I believe to be Columbus’s ship, since he was reputed to have discovered it.
Best of all though is a big fat froggie (known locally as crapaud), which is a local speciality. It tastes like chicken, of course.
*Note: NOT the Dominican Republic
[/QUOTE]
The flag of Dominica features the parrot, too. It’s a beautiful country. Crapaud is served as “Mountain Chicken” in restaurants. I hiked up to the Boiling Lake there last year.
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
It’s a concise pitch to prospective tourists: Turks and Caicos. Come for the seafood. Stay for the pussy. Play some badminton while you’re here.
[/QUOTE]
No, no, no. It’s “We’ve got conchs, lobsters and Daleks.”
How could I forget my own home state, New Jersey, which celebrates its proud Mafia heritage by depicting the horse head from The Godfather?
