The excellent blog 4096

A few summers ago, our street threw a block party that drew neighbors I had only waved to from my front steps. Someone brought a grill, someone else brought an old boombox, and across the row of houses, small flags appeared like exclamation points. One was the Stars and Stripes, another showed a rising sun from a Pacific island, a third had a green cedar I later learned was a Lebanese flag. Kids traded snacks and asked what the different flags meant. The adults did what adu