 | Either Dean Martin or Turkmenbashi with a liberal application of Grecian Formula. I'm not sure which... | Turkmenistan's leader on Sunday congratulated citizens of the ex-Soviet republic on the Turkmen Melon Day he established to honour the favourite fruit of the sun-drenched Central Asian nation.
"Happy Melon Day, my fellow citizens!"
"And a happy Melon Day to you, too, O Turkmenbashi!" | The nation currently grows 500 varieties of melon, including the Czar Melon, grown to honour President Saparmurat Niyazov, and the Golden Age, meant to symbolise prosperity under the president, the Agriculture Ministry said. "Let the life of every Turkman be as beautiful as our melons," Niyazov said in a statement.
"Let's party hearty! Let the feast begin!"
"What're we having?"
"Melons." | "There is nothing like that in any country of the world," the state-run Neutral Turkmenistan daily said in a headline.
No ther country has a month named "Mom," either. | Niyazov has led the former Soviet republic, a largely desert nation rich in natural gas, since 1985 as Communist Party chief. He was elected president in 1992 in the wake of the Soviet collapse, and has since gone completely bonkers created a personality cult around himself. |