Flags engender such loyalty and pride, they often become very personal emblems with quirky or quaint nicknames: Old Glory, Union Jack, Maple Leaf — or SOB. That would be (state) “Seal on a Bedsheet,” ...

Maple Leaf — or SOB. That would be (state) “Seal on a Bedsheet,” the derisive moniker with which some have burdened the Illinois state flag, a gleaming white banner emblazoned with the state ...

The SOB wins in a landslide Of nearly 385,000 votes ... a shield in its talons and in its beak, a banner expressing the Prairie State's dual tenets: “State Sovereignty, National Union.” ...