Monday, February 25, 2008

It's a Small World Wide Web

Virtual flags can be displayed incorrectly just like their real world counterparts.

Turbo Squid
is so proud of their upside down Texas flag animated graphics that they are sure you will be willing send them twenty five dollars to use it in your very own digital project!

The United States Flag Company offers, along with their namesake Stars-and-Stripes, a plethora of international, state, and specialty flags. It seems that they even have upside-down flags for sale.



You can tell your idea is good when you find out that lots of other people have already had it.

SPPDFT does not claim a monopoly on the sighting and documentation of upside-down Texas flags. Numerous postings on the subject can be found with a quick Googling. Here's a roundup:

Over at Planet Pooks, a neighbor was photographed flying it wrong, presumably as a distress signal.

Flags Bay confronted an elementary school about their upside down Texas flag.

Randy Stoats Enterprises has a full-color postcard that you can download, print, and share with the special flag offender in your life.

The Vexillarium, a blog devoted to flags, has an amusing story about a Texas/Chile flag mix up.

Here's a nice shot of a flip-flopped flag in front of the iconic University of Texas tower.

Jasper resident Jason Dunn wrote to the editor about his flag frustration.

Carry on the good fight, netizens!


Message boards can be helpful for finding flag offenses, too.

Here, I learned that D&D Performance Enterprises, a maker of fine motorcycle exhaust systems based in Fort Worth, used to have an upside down Texas flag as a corporate logo!

They must have been tipped off, because their current website is topped with a huge (and correct) Texas flag banner, and they sell his-and-hers D&D shirts with a properly oriented flag.

And here- again with the bikers- the French are called out for displaying an upside down flag on international television.

In Beaumont, it's the hockey fans. This discussion ensued when the Wildcatters' mascot Gusher apparently skated out onto the ice with his flag akimbo.



Improper display of the Texas flag is hardly a new phenomenon, and it has always angered patriotic Texans.

We received an email inquiry from Danny Kaiser, who was profiled by John Kelso in the Austin American-Statesman for his vigilante flag-checking. Although I can't get my paws on the full original article, which appeared October 29, 1991, here are the first 91 of 694 words:


Every man has a mission he must accomplish before he dies. Danny Kaiser, a native of Austin, is no different. His quest in life is to get everyone to stop flying the Lone Star flag upside down - something he says happens a lot. Kaiser, 46, is conducting a one-man crusade in Austin, actually, all over Texas, to eliminate this flag faux pas. He's trying to get folks to fly the Texas state flag correctly in front of their office buildings - that is, with the white section on top and....

This 2001 AP article introduces Houston lawyer Charles Spain Jr., whose disgust with misuse of the Texas flag led to the foundation of the Vexillogical Association of the State of Texas.

The SPPDFT salutes you one and all for your devotion to the Texas flag!


Finally, since this YouTube thing seems to be catching on, here is a video clip for your consideration. It goes along pretty well for a while, showing the dangerous beauty of a West Texas rainstorm on the road to Terlingua. How picturesque.

Keep your eyes open at the 3:40-3:47 mark, however. Right after the title "Planet Texas" is displayed center screen, a upside down flag from Bizarro-Texas is shown. Amateur filmmakers!