Si Samuth and Ron are widely accepted to have been killed off in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge. Sothea, for her part, ‘disappeared’ in 1978, presumably another victim of the regime.

From Sin Si Samuth

From Ros Sereysothea

From Pan Ron

“Airplane travel is the quintessential phobia, and it causes suffering for millions. More than half of fliers report some level of anxiety before boarding a plane, and 5% of the population refuses to fly at all. The fear, however, is not supported by data. A passenger’s chance of dying on a plane is roughly 2000% lower than the chance of dying in a car on any given trip. The accident rate on airplanes is lower than two deaths per billion passenger-miles flown. In fact, for most airlines, more people die from heart attacks and other medical emergencies in flight than die when their airplane crashes. Transportation by air is undeniably safe.

But those are mere facts. As we reach our cruising altitude, none of them matter to Mr. Kandarski.”

(Dustin Curtis is bloody brilliant.)

**No link to sample Marine World design cause is now some Six Flags nonsense and they’re erased all virtual traces to its former iteration, but Marine World’s brand identity boasted some very wavy designs, in various shades of blue.

Aaron Cohen reading at Book Soup

In any case, seeing Mr. Cohen speak reminded me to remind you to support, if you can, a non-profit in Cambodia called the Cambodian Children’s Painting Project. It’s run by a heroic young Spanish-American fellow (and a friend of mine) by the name of Felix Brooks-Church, and serves young Cambodian kids who spend their days selling trinkets on the beach.

Naturally, small children selling stuff to tourists in a rough and tumble beach town has its dangers- which I’ll leave to your imagination (or this website). CCPP takes the kids off the beaches and gives them a safe place every day, teaching them art and language classes. Then, CCPP sells the paintings the kids make in art class to the tourists and backpackers coming through for $4 a pop, giving the kids money to help support their poverty-stricken families while gaining an education. Pretty brilliant, and worth a donation, dontcha think?

So: The website for Cambodian Children’s Painting Project is here, and they can use your help.

And, if you wanna meet some of the kids, here’s a video I made when I was there…

Check out the VIDEO HERE. This was produced by Mark Rinehart, Alex Simmons for Current Music.

(By the way: Phnom Penh is a lot more fun with 3 Canadian girls, though I realize that I’ve become unaccustomed to sleeping in squalor.)