At Least It's Not a Monument to Stalin

The southern Russian city of Zheleznovodsk, proud of its reputation for administering mineral-spring colonics to the digestively challenged, plopped $42,000 on a bronze, 800-pound enema sculpture, reports the Associated Press:

"'There is no kitsch or obscenity, it is a successful work of art,' (Mashuk-Akva Term spa director) Alexander Kharchenko told The Associated Press. 'An enema is almost a symbol of our region.'

...A banner declaring: 'Let's beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas' — an allusion to a line from 'The Twelve Chairs,' a famous Soviet film comedy — was posted on one of the spa's walls."