This evening I attended a scout pack meeting where they retired the colors. This is a ceremony where a flag that has come to the end of its life is disposed of with honor. The process is to cut it into strips and then put the strips on a blazing fire. I learned a few things about the flag code in the process.
One is that a flag ceases to be a flag as soon as it is cut, and so what is placed on the fire isn't a flag any more.
Also, the blue part of the flag is never cut, because it represents the unity of the fifty states, and so should never be cut apart.