The World Cup: along with the Olympics, it’s one of the rare sporting occasions that finds the US remembering that the rest of the world exists, even if the land of the free rousing itself from its introverted slumber often only serves to reinforce the rest of the world’s stereotypes about it. Of course, not all Americans are like Sir Charles or the TV reporter who made the news earlier this week for proclaiming proudly that she “doesn’t know the first thing about [the USA’s round-of-32 opponent] Bosnia [and Herzegovina], and doesn’t want to know.” So if you’re one of the “good ones”—and/or you’re just a national flag nerd with time to kill—here’s a chance to prove it: a surprisingly addictive daily online puzzle game called Flagdoku, which involves flaunting your knowledge of national flags to the world (well, OK, to a small corner of the internet, but we all have to start somewhere). Flagdoku presents as a three-by-three grid, with each column and row providing one of the two criteria that the flag in a given cell needs to fit. Here’s a semi-completed grid from today’s puzzle to demonstrate, and yes, I’m showing off, too:
© Screenshot Gizmodo The top left box requires a flag from Europe whose first band is blue: France. The middle box wants a flag with vertical bands, with the middle band being white: Ireland fits the bill. And the bottom left wants a flag with only bands (no crests etc), with the last one being red: Russia. You’ll notice that France is highlighted in yellow; that’s because it’s the Flag of the Day, which means that it would be a valid answer for any of the nine boxes.
