Every country has its own brand of Wheel of Fortune. Thus far I have seen Russian Wheel of Fortune called Land of Dreams and Turkish Wheel of Fortune which goes by the same name as the American version.

The most obvious deviations from the Wheel of Fortune to which I am most accustomed:

- Russian Wheel of Fortune involves children in Russian military uniforms, which might be boy scout ensembles

- There is also a tremendous amount of chanting and un-gratifying synchronized clapping in the Russian edition

- Turkish Wheel of Fortune has their Vanna White equivalent uniformed in a garish wedding gown

- While Turk Vanna White, the wedding cake topper ensembled letter turner, is not slaving away rotating portions of the alphabet she entertains the audience and home-viewers by dancing to the commercial break music, being that Turkey is a conservative country she does not remove any clothing during the dancing interludes. However, she is often accompanied in this dancing display by the show’s host.

I feel that the television game show hosts in Turkey work harder for their money than the American game show hosts, who clearly have a cushy position considering the lack of commercial break entertainment provided by the television hosts of America.

Remembrance of Moldova: As an American, accustomed to the unorganized applause which is typical to the States, I must observe that synchronized clapping is really crazy the first time you experience it. The volume attained by the synced clap is just as great as the volume of US applause; the only difference is that everyone is clapping together in a coordinated fashion. Nevertheless, I imagine that synchronized clapping would be less rewarding for the receiver of the phalangical praise.

At the discount grocery store, which is reminiscent of Sam’s Club in a cramped New York City basement, candy bars are sold for 20 cents a piece. (The normal candy bar price is between 50 cents and one dollar) Sometimes I feel embarrassed when I go into the discount grocery because I always buy like 10 cheap candy bars and nothing else. But thanks to the Turkish partiality for sweets, I am absolved in the check-out line because there is always at least one other person who is there solely to buy a plethora of cheap candy bars.
The moral of this story: when in Turkey, never feel self-conscious about your penchant for over-consumption of sweets; because no matter what obscene amount of dessert foods you desire the person next to you is probably there for the exact same thing.
Case in point: I have seen two men at Mado Ice-Cream Parlor shamelessly eating huge bowls of sutlac, rice-pudding, while drinking large strawberry milkshakes.