Let’s look this problem straight in the eye: The City of Attleboro should get out of the flag-flying business. The three flagpoles at City Hall should be reserved for our national flag, our state flag and our city flag. Period.

The city flew an LGBTQ flag. Now someone, rightly so, wants to fly a Christian flag. Legal beagles say municipalities have some flexibility, but that sounds like a recipe for disgruntlement pie.

Maybe a pentagram flag will fly next, then the Muslim, Jewish and Catholic banners — all, of course, important segments of our city’s social pattern.

But who wants to see a Confederate flag a-waving, or a swastika? Or a GOP or Democratic Party flag?

How about a PETA banner, or a support group for space aliens, or even PIE?

Do we really want our tax money spent paying someone to raise and lower flags, and someone to keep a log about, what the heck, which flag is next?

The city should advise flag folks to fly their flags on their own property, within the law. This municipal flag-waving is, in the end, not taxpayers’ business.

My advice? Just say no. People think, why nobody could possibly be offended by this flag, right? Guess again. And again.

Saturday sermon

“The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind …” — Bob Dylan

I didn’t know that …

The typewriter — and though I cut my teeth on a Royal manual in this business when I first started, and today use an old typewriter keyboard attached to my PC to peck out my stuff — has been around since the late 1800s, right after the Civil War.

In 1866 Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper publisher in Wisconsin, helped invent an automated machine to number coupons and tickets, something that was done by hand before.

Someone suggested why not create letters instead if numbers and the typewriter was born. It went to market in 1874.

And now you know.

Word of the week

MAGATS. Zealots who revel in Trumpmania, eating the flesh of democracy.

So you’re so smart…

Last week I bet you couldn’t tell me in what four states marijuana is fully illegal. My answer: Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina and Wyoming.

Getting Idaho, Wyoming and South Carolina right were Bert H. and PMM. Getting Idaho and Wyoming right was Gail P. One reader guessed Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

About the previous week’s questions about old newspapers found within walls, Tom F. writes: “I have renovated a number of Victorian houses. While I have never found newspapers, I invariably find four or five whiskey bottles between the studs.”

Now, I bet you can’t tell me, without looking it up, what is the fastest growing sport in and around Houston and Dallas, Texas. Deadline is noon Monday.

Columns for Kids

Donations can be sent to The Greater Attleboro Area Council for Children, PO Box 424, North Attleboro, MA 02761. Its website is www.councilforchildren.org. And make sure you note that your donation is for Columns for Kids. Thanks. See you next week.

A Gala just around the corner

By the way, the Council for Children will, through me, be honoring your generosity for the past several years through our Columns for Kids at its gala Oct. 27 at Lake Pearl. Sounds like a fun night. Details are at www.councilforchildren.org/gala