Recent tragic events have left me wondering, among other things: how does one fly one's flag at half-mast when said flag is permanently affixed to its pole? For example, the flag that my landlord flies off of our front porch is just stapled or glued onto a large wooden dowel. Enter the Mast Doubler: another piece of wooden dowel of the same diameter and length as the flag pole, with a socket at one end. In times of mourning, just slip it on the end of your flag pole, and presto! When the mourning period is over, you can simply remove it, or if you're really obsessive about having a constant-length pole, you can turn it around and put it on the bottom of your flag pole instead.
Available wherever cheap flags are sold.-- lankybits, Apr 25 2007 (??) Proper Flag Mourning Protocol http://www.anyflag.com/Mprotocol.phpNote use of black ribbon [csea, Apr 25 2007] I noticed that schools and some merchants were flying half mast, but there's one car dealership that is not. It's a tall pole, though, so the doubler would have to go on by helicopter.-- normzone, Apr 25 2007 The car dealer must not have been a fan of Kitty Carlisle-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 25 2007 When John F Kennedy was killed in 1963, I recall that my elementary school tied black ribbons at the top of the mast (below the finial) on each flag in the classrooms. I gather that this is the preferred protocol for immobile flags. [link]-- csea, Apr 25 2007 "Half mast" is merely a flag's width down, so a simple pneumatic or hydraulic extender would be quite adequate [+]-- coprocephalous, Apr 25 2007 The Flag Mourning Protocol site also tells u s that "Public buildings of all kinds should express mourning only by the authority of appropriate authorities."
surely the author meant "when authorized by the authority of the appropriate authorities"?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2007 Kind of gives you the creeps, doesn't it?
"No unauthorized mourning"-- normzone, Apr 25 2007 Proper protocol for putting a mobile flag at half-staff requires raising the flag to full height first, then lowering the flag back down to the half-staff position.
This idea starts with the flag at full staff on the normal pole, then changes to half-staff by adding the dowel. But there's probably some prig out there, even more retentive than I am, who will insist that the flag must go to full height on the dowel before going to half-mast back on the usual pole.
But no, that would be silly. [+]-- baconbrain, Apr 26 2007 One could also adapt this method for expressing jubiliation by flying the flag at double mast.-- bungston, Apr 26 2007 random, halfbakery