What’s the Difference Between the Italian and Mexican Flag?

Italian Flag (left) and Mexican Flag (right)
 

Recently, we hung an Italian-flag windsock on our deck as a prop for an upcoming party and realized that the colors of Italian flag looked a lot like the Mexican flag on first glance. (A neighbor dutifully noted the windsock and commented that she was surprised because we were not “windsock” people.)

So what are the differences between the Italian and Mexican flags? The Italian flag is a vertical tricolor (in Italian Il Tricolore) of green, white, and red. The Mexican flag on first glance is the same except the there is a coat of arms in the center white stripe. However, there are a couple of subtle differences. The Italian flag uses lighter shades of green and red and the Italian flag has an aspect ratio (width:height) of 3:2 while the Mexican flag is 7:4.

The Mexican coat of arms in the white band of the flag is an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus with a snake in its beak and talons.

The meaning of the colors for the Italian flag depend on who you ask. One common and poetic interpretation you might hear is that green is the countryside, white is the snowy Alps, and red is the blood spent during wars for Independence. A less poetic but more accurate explanation is that the Italian flag was first created in 1797 during the short-lived Cispadane Republic of Northern Italy. The red and white were already colors of the flag of Milan and green was based on the color of uniforms. The Italian flag was written into the constitution in 1947 as a tricolor: green, white and red in vertical bands of equal size.

The meaning of the colors for the Mexican flag likewise is not fixed, but can be taken to mean roughly: green = hope, white = purity and red = blood of national heroes (as pointed out by several comments below, in particular the comment August 26, 2017 at 5:53 PM).

The flags for Ireland and Côte d’Ivoire look similar to the Italian and Mexican flags, except they use orange instead of red.

Flag of Ireland (left) and Flag of Côte d’Ivoire (right)
 

If you are into more similarities, a few pointed out in the comments, there are also these:

• Monaco / Indonesia flag similarity
• Romania / Chad flag similarity
• Mali / Senegal flag similarity (very similar are Guinea and Cameroon)
• Netherlands / Luxembourg flag similarity
• New Zealand / Australia flag similarity
• Slovenia / Slovakia / Russia flag similarity
• Ecuador / Columbia Venezuela flag similarity

Biking To Work (Sort Of)

So I’m only biking about 8 miles a day, but it’s something. It makes the 2 hour (total) commute a little bit more palatable knowing that for half of it I’m getting a little exercise. I bike from Fremont to Montlake and then take a bus to the east side. I hope it doesn’t rain for the next year.

Most of the trip is on Seattle’s Burke-Gilman trail which was once part of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway.

I Can’t Believe I’m Working (Again)

Week two of a contract position at a large software firm on the east side. Uh, which would that be? So far so good. Good team, good people, interesting work. The weirdest part is seeing faces I recognize from years ago on past assignments. This if followed by the inevitable search through the address book to see what fabulous title they have now and you don’t, then a sigh, and back to work.

TravelMarx Music Recommendations: Watershed and Blame Sally

The first recommendation is K.D. Lang’s Watershed. By the second listen we were hooked. It’s laid back, restrained. The songs are deceptively simple and they are all similar in pace and delivery. This can have the effect of making the songs seem to blur together. For me the effect is dreamy – to each his own.

The second recommendation is Blame Sally’s Blame Sally. On the first play I was hooked. It’s the album I put on at work to pull me through the day. The opening strains of the wistful first track, Birds Fly South, let me know I can get through the rest of the day reasonably sane.

I Can’t Believe I’m Knitting

Knit 2, Purl 2. My new mantra. Hello knitting. We were taught by Noni. I’m making a scarf (how original) and Mark is making a pot holder that is knitted and then shrunk via washing (called felting). Knitting is actually very computer-like. The two knit stitches, knit and purl, are like ones and zeros. You can assemble them in endless patterns. A knit stitch on one side is a purl stitch on the other.

The toughest part about knitting for me is backing up when I made a mistake several stitches ago. Also, I hold my yarn too tight, so my stitches are quite dense.

(My) New York Family Research

I visited two cemeteries to see plots of great grandparents that I never knew, surnames: Vinti and Bruno. The two cemeteries are: St John Cemetery at 90-01 Metropolitan Avenue, Middle Village, New York (location) and Calvary Cemetery, 49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd, Woodside, New York (location). Both were accessible (with a few blocks of walking by subway/train from midtown). I did take a taxi from St. John to Calvary (too far to walk).

For any cemetery visit, stop at the main office first and save yourself time if you don’t know what you are looking for. I didn’t know where to even look so a stop at the office was necessary. I found out that a typical plot (marked with a headstone) that my great grandparents have are stacked 3 high (as in coffins). In both sets of relatives, there remains space since only a husband and wife are buried there. Who inherits the plot? All living descendants. At St John, the very helpful Polly explained the whole thing to me. Makes sense. I also filed for a maintenance request because of rampant hosta plant from a neighboring plot totally obscured my relatives.

The trick at Calvary is to figure out what part of Calvary you need to go to. There is Calvary 1, 2, 3, and 4. Parts 2-4 are close, but 1 (the oldest part) is a bit far from the other two parts. Part 1 is for old, old burials. Most likely you’ll be looking in Parts 2 - 4. The main office for Calvary is in Part 2 anyway. Apparently there are 3+ million people buried there.

One question that entered my mind when looking at the aerial photo of Queens is why are there so many cemeteries? Apparently, the area is called the Cemetery Belt and there is a good reason for it. It is because of the Rural Cemetery Act passed in 1847 in New York which commercialized the burial process.

Results: success on both accounts. Both plots were located and I spent some quality time with my great grandparents on a very hot New York summer afternoon.

New York Public Library – Genealogy Section

 

We are impressed by the New York Public Library 5^th Avenue. It’s the branch with the two famous lions out front. The marble lions are called Patience and Fortitude. Today, during our visit there are two exhibitions going on. The first exhibition is: Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City (May 2 – August 29, 2008). The second is a display of a number of landmark versions of the Declaration of Independence including an autographed manuscript prepared by Thomas Jefferson in the week following the 4^th of July, 1776. His copy had underlined items that he noticed were missing from an early copy he submitted. Both exhibits are free and interesting.

The genealogy section of the New York Public Library is in Room 121. They have a variety of resources and computer access. We got a couple of leads but nothing specific to add to our existing family trees. But, if you are just starting off your genealogy quest, stop by and ask the librarians what you should be looking at. They have a handy handout sheet (below) that lists a number of resources. If even just to sit there and search the database with the free computers, it’s worth a stop in this room.

Final stop: the grand reading room. Magnificent.

 

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg – 5:55

 

The album 5:55 by Charlotte Gainsbourg is one of those albums that I keep wanting to listen to in an obsessive way that’s not always good. It happens every once in a while. It’s odd because when I first listened to this album I thought, oh it’s interesting and then put aside for a few weeks. Then I listened to it a second time and I was hooked. The combination of the music (by Air) and lyrics (by Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon) are perfect for Gainsbourg vocal style – a whisper. The standout tracks for me are 5:55, The Songs We Sing, Little Monsters, Jamais, Night-Time Intermission and Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping (on the bonus CD). The whole album though, holds together as a unit, it's just that I find the mentioned tracks are the ones I'm most often humming. They were the soundtrack for my New York City visit.

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg is the daughter of the famous French musical provocateur Serge Gainsbourg.