I can't believe no one is writing about the untimely death of Saparmurat Niyazov, father of all Turkmen, aka the Turkmenbashi.
Before we start the 100 days of official mourning and writing about what this means for U.S.-Russian jockeying for power over Turkmenistan's gas reserves, let us bow our heads and remember some of his golden words...
Farmers, agricultural scientists, agricultural workers and the people of independent neutral Turkmenistan... I would like to whole-heartedly congratulate you on the remarkable national holiday – Turkmen Melon Day. I would like to wish each of you good health, long and wonderful like Turkmen melons life. Turkmen melon – a pure streamlet flowing out of the Turkmen source of profusion, Turkmen melon – the fruit whose flavour is compared with nothing else in the world as it absorbed the warmth of our generous land, it is painted by the golden rays of the Turkmen sun, it matured under the clear Turkmen sky and is imbued with the pure air of the Turkmen desert. That is why it so juicy, so sweet, so incomparably delicious and flavoured!
I can't go on.