Originally Posted by Blue 
Perhaps for the spirit of the 4th, they should be in a circle!
Or one of these flown by the Contenental Navy and recently by the USN.
Ah, one of my favorites.
I was never much of an ASCII artist, myself, but I did consider trying the Bennington flag.
(That, by the way, Graphic, is where the asterisks come from. It's how people used to type bold and italics back in text-only days. Still works on some programs. )