the poppy

[timmy b]

watch any nhl game from usually the last week in october until november 11 and all coaches for a canadian team, all on-air sportscasters, newscasters, politicians, etc. from canada and virtually all have a poppy in their lapel.

actually the same in the u.k. soccer managers, politicians, news readers, etc. also have a poppy in their lapels (though a different version than the canadian ones).

here in the u.s., such a tradition doesn't exist.

wonder why??

tb

[-Helix-]

Because we aren't Canadian or British?

[timmy b]

yeah, but it looks so nice and is such a GREAT tribute to those have fallen and given their all.

don cherry never looks better than when he has a poppy in his lapel.

give it up for the canucks and brits!!

tb

[FiddySicks]

Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a poppy and WTF is a lapel?

[DEAD!]

Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a poppy and WTF is a lapel?

A poppy is a flower used to make heroin....any other questions?

[Discrim]

you've worn a suit coat sometime in your life, right? the lapel is one of those two top folds on the front (iirc). a poppy is a type of flower, see quadi's post.

now ya know

[CC97]

Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a poppy?

Anyone may feel free to display this as their avatar -- I stole it from quad

[zer0dotcom]

Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a poppy?

thats looks better Chris, I like the green better than the new black.

For those who don't know about it, Canadians wear a poppy on their shirts leading up to and including November 11th as a sign of rememberance for the veterans of World War I. it's a reference to the In Flander's Fields poem. Flander's is a site in Europe where fallens oldiers are buried, and poppies grow on the markers there.

[FiddySicks]

you've worn a suit coat sometime in your life, right? the lapel is one of those two top folds on the front (iirc). a poppy is a type of flower, see quadi's post.

now ya know

Ahhh. Thanks for broadening my sophistication.

[DEAD!]

Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a poppy?

Anyone may feel free to display this as their avatar -- I stole it from quad

YOU THIEF!! Well, better that then my factually incorrect signature that I had before

[winghaz]

Poppies are sold by veterans groups in the U.S. before Memorial Day, the last Monday in May. It's just that it's a Memorial Day thing here, not a Veterans Day thing.

I still buy a poppy or two whenever I can find people selling them.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Poppies are sold by veterans groups in the U.S. before Memorial Day, the last Monday in May. It's just that it's a Memorial Day thing here, not a Veterans Day thing.

I still buy a poppy or two whenever I can find people selling them.

Yes, they do.

I'm a member of the VFW's Men's Auxillary, so I always have a poppy (the fake one) tied around my rear view mirror, and around Memorial Day I wear one.

[pcgd]

here in the u.s., such a tradition doesn't exist.

wonder why??

tb

Guess you never went out much on memorial day.

Like has been said, its a Canadian/British Tradition in November. Its an American tradition for Memorial Day. Americans use the flag to recognize the fallen more than anything else. Just different traditions, nobody disrepsects or respects their Veterans more or less.

[winghaz]

Speaking of Veterans Day, on the Capitol Grounds in Bismarck, N.D., stands the Veterans Memorial. In there is a copper globe. There is a small, round window near the top of the building, and every year at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, the light shines through that window, right on the state of North Dakota on that globe.

It's extremely cool ... when it isn't cloudy.

[JQK]

I often fear that most Americans have no knowledge of The Great War.

It's good to see people stil pay homage to those who have given their lives for freedom and democracy.

If you can, watch "The Lost Battalion". A fantastic WWI pic.

[VitaminD]

My wife and I were in Montreal last weekend for a convention, and there were veterans on the streets selling the manmade poppies. I bought one - there are a lot of people we owe a lot of thanks to, not just those who served our own country.

[winghaz]

If you can, watch "The Lost Battalion". A fantastic WWI pic.

That really is a fantastic movie.

And about WWI -- remember, the U.S. was in the war for only a year and a half. We didn't go through the things others did in that war.

WWII, though, is another story.

[CC97]

If you can, watch "The Lost Battalion". A fantastic WWI pic.

That really is a fantastic movie.

And about WWI -- remember, the U.S. was in the war for only a year and a half. We didn't go through the things others did in that war.

WWII, though, is another story.

Wow you guys joined both wars late? How things have changed!

I never knew the US was only in for 1½ years in WWI , when did they join it and why?

[redsfan39]

If you can, watch "The Lost Battalion". A fantastic WWI pic.

That really is a fantastic movie.

And about WWI -- remember, the U.S. was in the war for only a year and a half. We didn't go through the things others did in that war.

WWII, though, is another story.

Wow you guys joined both wars late? How things have changed!

I never knew the US was only in for 1½ years in WWI , when did they join it and why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_1#R...esponsibilities

Entry of the United States

President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in the official relations with Germany, 3 February 1917

Enlarge

President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in the official relations with Germany, 3 February 1917

A long stretch of American isolationism left the United States reluctant to involve itself with what was popularly conceived as a European dispute.

Early in 1917 Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This, combined with public indignation over the Zimmermann telegram, led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. President Woodrow Wilson requested that the U.S. Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917 (see: Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany on Wikisource). The Senate approved the war resolution 82-6, the House with 373-50. Wilson hoped a separate peace could be achieved with Austria-Hungary, however when it kept its loyalty to Germany, the US declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917.

Although the American contribution to the war was important, particularly in terms of the threat posed by increased US presence in Europe, the United States was never formally a member of the Entente, but an "Associated Power". Significant numbers of American troops only arrived in Europe in the summer of 1918.

The United States Army and the National Guard had mobilized in 1916 to pursue the Mexican "bandit" Pancho Villa, which helped speed up the mobilization. The United States Navy was able to send a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, a number of destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and several divisions of submarines to the Azores and Bantry Bay, Ireland to help guard convoys. However, it would be some time before the United States forces would be able to contribute significant manpower to the Western and Italian fronts.

The British and French insisted that the United States emphasize sending infantry to reinforce the line. Throughout the war, the American forces were short of their own artillery, aviation, and engineering units. However, General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force commander, resisted breaking up American units and using them as reinforcements for British Empire and French units, as suggested by the Allies. Pershing also maintained the use of frontal assaults, which had been discarded by that time by British Empire and French commanders. As a result the American Expeditionary Force suffered a very high rate of casualties in its operations in the summer and fall of 1918.

[Saintsfan]

Certainly in the UK the poppy has come to represent fallen soldiers from any conflict. At the Remembrance Day parades in London on Sunday there are likely to be veterans from all the conflicts the UK ghas been involved in since World war 1.

And the tradition does indeed come from Flanders Fields. Because of the bad condition of the ground after the war the Poppy was the only thing that would grow, so the fields in the region were just fields of red.