Volume 5 Number 2

One of our more unusual phone calls last week was from a fourth grader. She wanted to know if she could arrange an interview with us to find out about making flags.

She and her mother came by that same afternoon and we chatted about what all goes into designing and making flags. Of course it was for a school project, but she really seemed interested and had a lot of intelligent questions.

What a joy to be able to share our knowledge and passion with someone so inquisitive. May we never lose our curiosity in life!

The "other" New Flag

Last issue, we promised to announce the availability of the newest South American flag.

On March 12, 2006, former Flag Day in Venezuela and the 200th anniversary of the flag's design, the Venezuelan Parliament  approved changes to its national flag, including the addition of an eighth star to honor the province of Guayana. A white horse on the national coat of arms that appears on the flag now faces left instead of right. (Read more at Wikipedia®).

Here at , we hope to be replacing all of our Venezuelan products. During the conversion, you may receive the former design. (To keep the changeover costs down, the Venezuelan government is allowing a five-year transition period.) Products we've already converted are our 4x6" table flags and our 3x5' poly flags. Thanks for your patience during this historic transition.

Flag Facts

A few days ago, our three-year-old granddaughter was looking at one of our flag posters and was delighted to see what she called a "doctor flag".

(As usual, try to guess the flag before moving the cursor over the images.)

Of course we also pointed out the following flag to her:

But she wasn't as impressed since this country's colors were inverted to make the symbol for the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863-4.

"Factoids"

Did you know there are nearly 15 million speakers of Nepali, the national language of Nepal? How much Nepali do you know? How many Nepalese do you know?

Speaking of languages (no pun intended), we expect to be exhibiting at the COFLT/WAFLT conference this October 13 & 14. (That's the bi-annual joint conference for Oregon and Washington foreign language teachers.) Perhaps we'll see you there!
 

The Personal Corner

The Best Policy

No, it's not February. We just wanted to use this common image of honesty to get you in a frame of mind, Dear Reader. Here are a couple of examples of the way we do business.

Last week, one of our suppliers sent us a quantity of the wrong product. (It happens.) They're reasonably good selling products; we just hadn't needed to order any. In fact, we had ordered a quantity of different product that cost quite a bit less. On their bill to us, however, the vendor had only charged us for the less expensive items that they hadn't shipped and not for the more expensive ones they had shipped. It would have been easy to have just accepted their error as our good luck, but we called them and explained the situation. They appreciated the opportunity to keep their inventory correct and told us to just keep the more expensive product at the lesser  price. That's the way to do business.

Another instance from last week: A local customer phoned to order a couple of items. We quoted her the price and, as she told us she was 86 years old, blind and didn't get out much, we also quoted her the shipping cost. Later, she called back and said some friends of hers would stop by to pick up her purchase from us. When they arrived to pay, they presented our customer's check which included the shipping charges. Again, it would have been easy to have just accepted her check. Her friends would not have known the difference and she probably wouldn't have either. But we made arrangements with our banker to cash her check for the amount written, less the shipping charges. That's the way to do business.

By the way, have you had occasion to notice that we apply any applicable quantity discount to your order, even if you don't ask for it? That's the way to do business.

Still Hot and Getting Hotter

Since we mentioned our newest patch design last issue (our Rectangle Patch with Name), we've been very nearly swamped with requests. So here's a little list of 30 new designs in this style we've added just this past month for you:

Antigua and Barbuda, Azores, Basque Lands, Bermuda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Djibouti, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Liberia, Malta, Namibia, Niger, Qatar, San Marino, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Virgin Islands, and the European Union.

Whew! That brings the total designs to about 261 or so, including all the States.

10% discount offer/quiz

Take 10% off any purchase made through the end of October 2006 by entering the name of this flag in the "Coupon Code" field of the Checkout Page of your order. Coupon Codes are case sensitive, so please enter this one in all caps.

If you’re phoning or emailing in your order, just mention this offer and we’ll happily calculate your discount.

This offer is exclusive of any other offers and does not include Shipping and Handling charges.

Last Offer/Quiz Answer:
Last issue's flag was that of Marshall Islands.