The loons! Oh,Look! I've spotted the loons!

Loons below the fold.

If you are an obsessive follower of everything Crip Dyke you know that just today I put up a story on Wonkette about Minnesota amending their constitution and publishing new, illustrated history books and generally being cool. And, uh, OH YEAH, they gots themselves a new flag!

Here I thought the big ticket item was the ERA enshrining the right not to be discriminated against by your own state government and also, too, have some reproductive rights. And yet it seems like errybody wanted to talk about the flag. Well if you like nerds and flags and lutheran sushi, Minnesota Public Radio has the story for you!

The afternoon at Nelson’s party started with the Minnesota state song, “Hail! Minnesota.”

Costumes were encouraged — anything Minnesota themed. Nelson and his boyfriend, Wesley Noble, dressed as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Adam Smith and Keely Schultz dressed as a Minnesota red pine and the new flag, complete with laser loon earrings.

There is not one bit of the state not crazy for Minnesota flaggy weirdness, and if you don’t know about the Laser Loon design, shame on you! There were many perfectly nice designs submitted during the open call, including “Octavia’s Flag” by Octavia & Chad Colburn:

And the “Minnesota….Moving Forward” flag, designed by Marianne Brenckman:

and something called “The Minnesota Night” flag, which is too obsequiously family oriented to merit a mention except for that yesterday was Mother’s Day:

But no, that is not the Laser Loon flag. The Laser Loon original was designed by Frederick de Ruiter and we are not exactly sure what Fred was going for, but here it is:

The thing about Minnesotans is that they are too awesome to leave it there. Once the Laser Loon concept was introduced, people ran with it. The initial attempts were crude:

But they soon became more refined, if not any friendlier to Wisconsin:

You can buy that one, the original by de Ruiter, and some of the more prosaic designs at Flags For Good and other very vine vexillary shops around the internet. But if you are not inclined to spend actual FrozenLakeDollars on your Laser Loon designs, fear not! You can get Laser Loon on your St Paul library card for free! (The offer says it’s valid for a limited time, but honestly, will the public ever allow them to end this wild ride?)

Don’t believe me? MPR says, “Trust the Crip Dyke,” and also, too has a pic of the new cards:

I was going to follow up on this development but all the librarians were hit by a truck.