Question:

What do the countries represented by these flags all have in common?

Australia

Canada

India

Netherlands

Ukraine

United Kingdom

United States

Answer: Each has sent at least one representative to visit me and my favorite coffee shop since I added my site meter. For Canada, and the US, I'll also post the Provincial and State Flags:

British Columbia

Nova Scotia

Ontario

California

Iowa

Illinois

Michigan

Minnesota

Oregon

Oregon's backside

South Carolina

Tennesse

Texas

Utah

I'm so happy you all came by! I'd offer you each a coffee, but the last time I tried to fax a cupfull, well, let's just say the office staff was a little peeved with me.

What I learned: People who invent flags need to take a couple of graphic design classes. Hint: BOOOORRRRING!!! Maybe with the exception of South Carolina; Just a glance at that one and your mind sort grumbles at you: "Look, I deserve a vacation. THAT looks like a good place to go. Also, I didn't know Oregon's flag had two sides... no, let me rephrase that: I didn't know it had two different sides. Sides that are different from each other... OK! Two pictures, a different one on each side. Which seems to make ours twice as boring as anyone else's. YAY! We're number one!

Oh, and another thing I learned: I really like it when a place puts their name on their flag. Not only does it make it much, much easier to remember what it's the flag OF, it's very reassuring to know that if I'm in, for example, Oregon, and forget where I am, all I have to do is find the nearest flagpole, look at the top of it, and I will find out where I am. Unless, in Oregon's case, I'm looking at its backside.

Again, I really appreciate your visits. Before I added the site counter, I had no idea anyone was reading unless they left a comment- the chance of which was maybe 1 in 30 or 40. I passed a hundred visitors today. According to the stats, most have a visit time of 0 seconds, but I have a hard time believing that. And just to reassure you: I can find out where you're from, what time you visited, what page you came in to, what URL linked you to me, how far away you are, what time zone you're in, how long you stayed, how many pages you looked at (I don't really trust this statistic), what you clicked on to leave, and on and on... but I don't get your name, your e-mail, your location any closer than the nearest significant community, what you look like, what you're wearing, or how long it's been since you had a shower. If I had discovered this information on the site meter, not only would I have given up blogging, I would have sworn off the internet entirely.

Ciao!