An Example of "Don't Do This"

Well, that'll teach me go just go cruising about the internet by myself.  There I was, just wandering about and looking at stuff and following whatever caught my eye for a little while, and I ran across the following:

Yeah, the "coat of arms" in the seal of the City of Hartford, Connecticut.  You can tell it's Hartford because you have a hart, or stag, crossing a river (presumably, the ford, though an heraldic ford is a different thing altogether), and you know it's Connecticut because of the grapevine in base, three of which appear on the arms and, because the arms appear on the flag, the flag of the State of Connecticut.

And, of course, you can tell that it's located within the bounds of the United States of America because of the eagle (wings displayed) sitting atop the shield.  Really, about the only thing they're missing is the GPS coordinates (41.762736°N 72.674286°W, if you must know).

And what is that stuff that they've done instead of mantling down the sides of the shield?  The upper parts look like Victorian gas brackets, but the lower parts look like branches of some sort. Oak, maybe?

I guess I could just chalk it all up to that old quote by Catherine Aird: “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.”

"Horrible" may be a little strong here; I've certainly seen worse.  But, still, it's not good.