"Vexillology" is the study of flags, a fascination since ancient times. Here's the know-how to become a vexillologist -- expert -- on the American flag:
• Each of the original 13 American colonies had its own flag. But these flags had pictures of snakes and pine trees, not today's stars and stripes. Founding father Benjamin Franklin flew the idea of one flag for all the colonies.
• History flutters on who designed the first U.S. flag. Many early-day art directors claimed credit.
Satirist Stan Freberg sided with the general favorite, seamstress Betsy Ross, in his musical comedy album, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America (1961). The skit imagines how a singing Gen. George Washington would have critiqued the work:
"A peppermint stripe with royal blue,/ The same as the British colors, too,/ Now, how will we tell whose side is who?"
• Lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote the words of the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," during the War of 1812. The lyrics describe the flag as Key claimed he spied it from 8 miles away, flying over the battered but stubborn Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
Set to an English pub song, Key's composition goes on three verses more than the familiar version that people try to sing at baseball games.
Many a ballpark singer whiffs the pitch of the first line: "Oh, say can you see?" And that's the easy part. Try this from the lesser-known second verse:
What is that which the breeze,
O'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows,
Half conceals, half discloses?
Sources include Songs Sung Red, White and Blue by Ace Collins, and Our American Flag by Mary Firestone.
HomeStyle on 05/24/2014