Sunday, March 7, 2010

Quiz II:1 -- Supplemental

This one goes out to all of you who thought the U.S. State flag quiz this week was toooooo easy, and longed to see the alternative quizzes that the international contingent got to play. And I think I know who you are! Nobody, that's who. But what the hell.

Here are the states of Australia....


And here are the provinces of Canada -- the image will hopefully expand a bit if you click on it.
This is not an official Wednesday Quiz, nor will scores count towards Wednesday Quiz Season Two. Nor should it be played for investment purposes.

11 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

HMMMM Australia was going with a theme & then "SMACK" they changed their mind.

& Where oh where is the green & yellow - wattle themed flag?

DrSchnell said...

Australia seems to have gotten into the "branding" craze - except for those malcontents in "Political Subdivision # 7".

Yankee in England said...

Can I point out the unfairness that would have happened should a non American ask for one of these quizes. There only 8 states and territories in Australia and 13 in Canada. Where as an American you could have had a sampling from 50.

Elaine said...

I will be billing M5000 for my eye check-up as I have serious eye-strain after trying to view the Canadian Provincial flags.

UnwiseOwl said...

/me feels compelled to defend his countries lack of flag originality. The reason that those six are similar is that the 6 states of Australia were British colonies, and thus have all kept a variation on their gubernational flags. The last is for the Northern Territory, which is not a state and thus not entitled to the Union Flag, so they (and the ACT have these rather stylish Australian Pale flags).

Australia has 12 states and territories with flags, rather than 8, but we are a bit lacking, there are only 20 million of us and none of this sessessionist state nonsense.

Oh, and I have NO idea about those Canadian flags, but they are absolutely gorgeous.

Aviatrix said...

Elaine, if you know the flags, only #9 actually needs any squinting, because there are two that look like that: you just have to look close enough to determine whether or not it is bisonated. The others are unique enough that you can ignore the crest detail.

Unwise Owl, thank you for calling our flags pretty. All but the newbie provinces, NL and NU, went with either "slap the crest on a background" or "stretch out the crest elements into a flag," so I've never been particularly proud of them, but the crests do represent their provinces well. Missing are Manitoba (exactly like #9 but with a bison in the crest), BC (a wavy-lined sun setting into the sea with a union jack on top), and Québec, which you've probably all seen (blue and white fleurs de lis).

Aviatrix said...

And Yankee in England, I felt that I was cheating by doing the Canadian version, too, but it compensates in only a small way for the fact that the rest of the season will cover primarily American literature, American artists, American history and American pop culture.

I don't begrudge that: it's Michael's quiz.

Aviatrix said...

Calico Cat, I just realized the "green and yellow" was not an Australian-directed question. That's Saskatchewan's flag. The crest is adorned with sheaves of wheat, and the flower is a prairie lily. The southern half of the province is wheat fields as far as the eye can see, then the north is all forest, lakes and swamp.

Michael5000 said...

@Yank: Except that the Australian flags, as you can see, basically all look the same. And I must say I chose pretty easy U.S. state flags. So.

@Elaine: The eye strain is between you, God, and your health insurance provider. Click on images to enlarge 'em.

@Aviatrix and all other appropriate members of the non-UnitedStatesian community: Thank you for not begrudging the often provincial nature of the Quizzes. It bugs ME a little bit, actually. And I'm stupid about it -- I prepare a whole quiz on U.S. state flags, and ONLY THEN think "Oops!" Since there have been semi-serious Quizzers from time to time not just from Canada and Australia, but also Spain and Germany and, I think, Portugal, you'd think I'd have figured this all out by now....

UnwiseOwl said...

Nah, we don't mind.
I'm sure if Aviatrix or I were to run quizzes they'd be Canadian or Australian in focus.
It's part of your charm, Michael, it places you in a context. Too often the internet brings people together but ignores their cultural heritage, which is a great loss and makes it a less interesting place.
To tell you the truth, the most interesting thing about your blog is all the little slices of life in Portland, the football, the coffee-shop, not the big stuff.
Besides, we get to feel all smug if we get even close to you Statesians in 'US-centric' topics.

UnwiseOwl said...

Hehe Aviatrix. Since Wattle is our national flower, I figured the Cat was talking about some variant Aussie flag...turns out those Canadians have stolen our colours and our emblem. Or maybe we stole them from you.