We Have Always Been At War With Blue

November 20, 2021 4:05 AM

Sacré bleu: French flag changes colour – but no one notices [Grauniad]

Macron secretly changed the French flag’s bright blue to navy [Quartz]

posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

The real question is, if cortex changed the 5 shades of MetaFilter blue to be slightly darker, how many of us would notice? And would it signal a split with the EU?
posted by rikschell at 4:29 AM on November 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

The Cabal has always called from Brussels.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:01 AM on November 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

Is Quartz staffed by 13 year-olds? It is hardly secret if it is flying on a flagpole. (I may be getting old...)
posted by epo at 5:41 AM on November 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

Oh, lovely. I don't know of another flag (maybe USA?) that has changed in meaning so much. While the French republic may mean many things to many people, to this American it will always be a symbol of how complex a project it is to try to make something better.
posted by rebent at 5:56 AM on November 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

The Cabal has always called from Brussels.

Il n'y a pas de cabale.

Que voulez-vous dire, « live mic »
posted by flabdablet at 6:32 AM on November 20, 2021 [5 favorites]

5 shades of MetaFilter blue

worst erotic novel ever
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:32 AM on November 20, 2021 [25 favorites]

Also, that flag is clearly red, black and gold.
posted by flabdablet at 6:34 AM on November 20, 2021 [9 favorites]

This is the least consequential political news I've seen all month and for that I am thankful.

(And everyone knows that 5 shades of MetaFilter blue is just thinly veiled memepool fanfic.)
posted by phooky at 6:39 AM on November 20, 2021 [7 favorites]

Whatever the actual reasons for Macron to make the change, the navy blue version is clearly a much better looking flag.
posted by ssg at 7:17 AM on November 20, 2021 [5 favorites]

Now Douglas Bowman will be leaving France.
posted by stevil at 7:37 AM on November 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

I would imagine flags’ pigment gets bleached by the sun like most things; perhaps the flag makers were controlling for future fading.

Fifteen years ago I was in Luxembourg for the first time and noticed that the national flag is a tricolour with three horizontal bars: red, white, and blue from top to bottom. Of course, this also describes the flag of the Netherlands, but its blue is slightly darker. So I guess if you leave a Dutch flag flying long enough, it becomes a Luxembourgeois flag. This may be a stealthy effort by the smaller country to acquire more territory.

And don’t get me started on Chad and Romania.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:09 AM on November 20, 2021 [10 favorites]

Weren't Chad and Romania on Big Brother last season?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:10 AM on November 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

For a long time I thought the Confederate flag was orange with blue/white stars/stripes
posted by The otter lady at 10:28 PM on November 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

otter lady, me too! For me I think it was the influence of the Dukes of Hazzard, because their car was definitely orange, not red.
posted by rikschell at 5:38 AM on November 21, 2021

I remember once asking a native French friend of mine if people in France actually used 'Sacré bleu' as an exclamation. He said "What? No, that is... that is like how a pirate talks." Which cracked me up, but also draws into view how often I say things like 'huzzah' or 'odd's bodkins' for very little reason.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:20 PM on November 22, 2021 [3 favorites]

David Sedaris really dropped the ball on this.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:58 PM on November 24, 2021