| abstract | - In "The Staircase Implementation", an "apartment flag" is mentioned as a small blue flag with a coat of arms on it of a gold lion rampant on a field of azure on it. Flipping it upside down signifies that the apartment is in distress. In "The Roommate Transmogrification", Raj was given a lapel pin version. It is seen in a magnet version on the kitchen refrigerator which Sheldon has turned upside down when there was trouble. Also in the "Fun with Flags" broadcasts, a full-size with gold fringe can be seen behind Sheldon along with the American flag. A desk size version is shown by Sheldon while Leonard is signing the original Roommate Agreement.
* This was the official flag of the city of Leeuwarden in Holland between 1750 and 1947. While the flag has been superceded, the design of a lion rampant or on a field azure is still the city's coat of arms, apearing on the official shield. the name Leeuwarden derives from the Dutch for "(place of the) Keeper of the (Royal) lion - ie, the royal menagerie. Critters and Varmints again...
* A similar - but not identical - flag is used by the commune of Savagnier in the canton of Neuchatel in Switzerland. Differences of detail: the tongue is larger and more pronounced, the talons of the lion are picked out in blood-red, the lion is supporting a small shield bearing a design of red and white chevrons, and the tail has more stylised flounces. In heraldic language: Azure, a lion rampant or Langued and Armed, holding in front paws the escutcheon of Neuchatel.( Or on a pale gules three chevrons Argent).
* On a shield, it is also the coat-of-arms of the Sound family (Knights of the Vale Royal, Cheshire, England).
* Other English and Scottish knights used the golden rampant lion on blue as a part of their banner and coat-of-arms; sir Richard de Poltimore in the 1300's, and the eleventh century Norman knight Guillame de Rhodes, who may have been a linear ancestor. Other knights, the most notable of whom was the Duke of Hereford, used multiples of the golden lion on a blue field; Hereford's shield uses six.
* Britain's mythology of King Arthur attributes this flag and shield design to King Urien of Rhegedd, at first an enemy of Arthur but who became a firm friend and ally. This is a mediaeval addition to the mythos: the kings and knights of Arthurian myth were retrospectively given full high mediaeval trappings including arms and regalia, as it was held to be more fitting. (Mediaeval fan-fic?)
* And as pointed out here, the German Duchy of Nassau incorporates this concept on its shield...
* The Spanish city of Zaragoza sports a similar flag design, but having gules background instead of azure.
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