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epitome of incomprehensibility
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I used to joke about small, faraway countries with my brother when we were younger. That is, I'd do the joking and he'd sniff at it.
My mother cited Timbuktu as a faraway place; I was more inclined to mention Moldova or Cambodia. In particular, I'd use the phrase "Vice President of Cambodia" as an example of a purportedly important but obscure person. I'd say things like, "Who do I look like, the Vice President of Cambodia?" to my brother.
My brother's longtime hobby was the social-science side of geography, especially facts about particular nations. Two nearby libraries fed this interest, as they stocked fact books about almost every country in the children's section.
As recently as several years ago, I'd go with him to the library and he'd make a beeline to the kids' non-fiction section while I'd go over to the novels. Sometimes I'd find it embarrassing that he went to the kids' section, since he looked too tall to be there. (He could pass for 16 at 20, but it was the tallness that stood out. I suppose he's about 5'8 - not tall for people in general, just compared to the rest of the family.)
Then, even more ridiculously, I'd feel superior because I'd be borrowing Important Literary Books that I often didn't finish. Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake by Carol Loeb Schloss? Didn't finish. Not that it doesn't look interesting - it's about James Joyce's daughter: her work as a dancer, connections to other artsy people, and the mental illness that cut her career short. It's just that I'm not organized.
He'd get a 40-page book about Bhutan or Wales or Cote d'Ivoire - and finish it. He did a high-school project on Laos. A couple of kids teased him about the country's obscurity - and because its name, apparently, sounded like "lice" (silly, much?)
As for Southeast Asia, a few people from his school came from the Philippines or had Filipino parents. Laos might not be important to them, but it would've been, for a while, a little less far away.
Which brings me back to Cambodia. Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy with a prime minister and parliament (like the UK and Canada). It does not, therefore, have a vice president.
In conclusion: Small nations are real. Short people are real. Medium-height people are real. The Vice President of Cambodia is not.
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