lettuce on his chest

[meliss]

"Two men in FSB (Federal Security Service) uniforms barged in.... the taller of the two officials, the one with more lettuce on his chest.."
The only my suggestion for "lettuce" here is "hair", but how could one see the chest of someone in the uniform?
Thank you.

 

[bhaisahab]

"Two men in FSB (Federal Security Service) uniforms barged in.... the taller of the two officials, the one with more lettuce on his chest.."
The only my suggestion for "lettuce" here is "hair", but how could one see the chest of someone in the uniform?
Thank you.

Where are you getting all this material from, melliss?

 

[meliss]

I answered this question many times actually . And once again - here.

 

[Gillnetter]

"Two men in FSB (Federal Security Service) uniforms barged in.... the taller of the two officials, the one with more lettuce on his chest.."
The only my suggestion for "lettuce" here is "hair", but how could one see the chest of someone in the uniform?
Thank you.

The men were in uniform. People in uniform sometimes have medals (a symbol of a deed or some time of service) pinned on the right chest of their uniform. In the US we would call this brass. Think of a character from a comic opera with many medals on his uniform.

 

[bhaisahab]

The men were in uniform. People in uniform sometimes have medals (a symbol of a deed or some time of service) pinned on the right chest of their uniform. In the US we would call this brass. Think of a character from a comic opera with many medals on his uniform.

I've never heard that called "lettuce".

 

[Rover_KE]

I answered this question many times actually . And once again - here.

Meliss, we are not going to buy a book from Amazon to discover the context of the quotations you are asking about.

 

[emsr2d2]

When we ask for context and source, we don't just want the title and author of a book. What we want is an answer something like "I am currently reading a book about two policemen who meet when they are trying to solve a murder case. They have just left a bar when one of them says "Oh shoot. I've left my keys. I'll be back in a minute". What I want to know is why the man says "Oh shoot" - is he suggesting that the other policeman should kill someone with his gun?"

If you posted "A man says "Oh shoot". What does that mean?" and we said "Where are you getting this from?", it would be no help if you answered "From Cujo by Stephen King".

Do you now understand why we need context?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I've never heard that called "lettuce".

I have heard of lettuce referring to the braid and oak leaf clusters on uniforms. An assortment of brightly colored ribbons on the chest is sometimes called fruit salad.

 

[Barb_D]

I agree- I've heard fruit salad to refer to the medals, but never lettuce.

 

[probus]

The men were in uniform. People in uniform sometimes have medals (a symbol of a deed or some time of service) pinned on the right chest of their uniform. In the US we would call this brass. Think of a character from a comic opera with many medals on his uniform.

If the decorations are your own, awarded to you, you wear them on the left side of your chest. If you are wearing someone else's medals, for example an ancestor's, then you wear them on the right side.

 

[Barb_D]

If the decorations are your own, awarded to you, you wear them on the left side of your chest. If you are wearing someone else's medals, for example an ancestor's, then you wear them on the right side.

I've never heard of this tradition of wearing an ancestor's medals. Interesting.

 

[probus]

I don't think it is a tradition. I have some of my ancestors' medals, but have never considered wearing them. I was just struck by gil's assertion that one wears them on the right, since I knew one wears one's own medals on the left. So I did some research.

 

[meliss]

When we ask for context and source, we don't just want the title and author of a book. What we want is an answer something like "I am currently reading a book about two policemen who meet when they are trying to solve a murder case. They have just left a bar when one of them says "Oh shoot. I've left my keys. I'll be back in a minute". What I want to know is why the man says "Oh shoot" - is he suggesting that the other policeman should kill someone with his gun?"

If you posted "A man says "Oh shoot". What does that mean?" and we said "Where are you getting this from?", it would be no help if you answered "From Cujo by Stephen King".

Do you now understand why we need context?

I wasn't actually asked for context - "Where are you getting all this material from, melliss?" - was I?

 

[5jj]

I don't think it is a tradition. I have some of my ancestors' medals, but have never considered wearing them. I was just struck by gil's assertion that one wears them on the right, since I knew one wears one's own medals on the left. So I did some research.

It is normally only widow(er)s and offspring who do this, and then only on such occasions as Remembrance Sunday or the funerals of former service colleagues of the deceased spouse/parent.