Other eccentricities Caragiale adopted included wearing a "princely gown" of his own design, developing unusual speech patterns, as well as a noted love for decorations—official honors which he tried to obtain for himself on several occasions, culminating in the "Légion d'honneur" award. He took special pride in noting that, after 14 months of governmental service, he had received the Romanian Order of the Crown and the other medals. His major regret in this respect was not having received Finland's Order of the White Rose, having earlier claimed that he had refused the Serbian Kingdom's Order of St. Sava when it was offered to him with a rank lower than he had asked. Ion Vianu argues that, intimately aware of his genealogical claims being questionable, the writer sought to compensate by finding his way into meritocratic environments.