Does that star-spangled banner still wave?

There are times, if you're me, when a thought comes into your head and you can't get rid of it until you've sat and thought it through at length. In this case, for no reason whatsoever (except maybe that the Simpsons was on telly), the question occurred to me "How would they arrange the stars on the US flag if they added another state?"

Fifty-one stars is kind of awkward, you see. They like to do it in a pattern that's more or less square, in rows of roughly the same number of stars. The current one goes 6-5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6, from top to bottom, or 5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5 from left to right. It's pretty. But you can't do that with 51 and make it work out evenly - the best you could do is six rows of alternately nine and eight stars, and that would look more rectangular than is really desirable. Well, I wouldn't find it aesthetically pleasing, anyway, and I think my opinion is the most important one to take into account here.

And while I'm looking at old flags, good God that 31-star flag is ugly. Who the heck designed that thing?