Flags at half-mast are the world’s most diplomatic shrug: a cloth semaphore that says “something bad happened, but we’re still open for business.” Today, the gesture is as global as overpriced airport coffee, stretching from the maple-leaf bureaucracy of Ottawa to the bureaucratic maple syrup of Bern. The reason? Take your pick—there are more bereaved…
Half-Mast Around the Globe: A World Pauses to Pretend It Cares By the time the sun rose in Tokyo, the flags were already drooping at the Imperial Palace like exhausted laundry after a long night shift. Twelve hours later, the same tired fabric sagged above the Brandenburg Gate, while across the Atlantic, the Stars and…
Half Mast Today: A Global Flagellation of Mourning, Marketing, and Mild Inconvenience By Dave’s Locker International Desk Somewhere between dawn and the first lukewarm espresso of the day, flags began their reluctant ascent to half-mast across six continents—an international limbo that looks suspiciously like surrender but is officially filed under “deep respect.” From the granite…
