I live in a realm of World Cup frenzy. People around me are completely nuts for the sport of soccer (although they insist on calling it 'football'), and now that the World Cup has kicked off in Germany, just about everyone I know has become one with whichever comfy cushion most easily facilitates the squirming convulsions that come with spectating the "beautiful game' and is refusing to budge more than a few centimeters from their TVs.

And talk about a sport bringing out the fierce in normally mild-mannered folk! My friend Gay, normally so veddy, veddy propah, has been known to swear like a sailor with a smashed thumb when confronted by a referee call she finds less than perfect. And the jumping up and down that can happen when international soccer takes a turn for the dramatic has been know to injure innocent bystanders.

With all this in mind, and with my abiding interest in all things Cambodian, I was so interested to read this report about Cambodian monks getting the thumbs up to watch the World Cup, but calmly.

With the tournament kicking off in Germany on Friday and being broadcast live on Cambodian television, Buddhist monks have been officially permitted to watch the games, but rules have been introduced to regulate their emotions, The Cambodia Daily reported.

Supreme Patriarch Non Nget, chief of monks in Phnom Penh, was quoted as saying that monks can watch the televised tournament but they must do so silently.

"Screaming and cheering with an angry face or happy feeling are the acts of street kids," he said. "Laughing, cheering or making noise inside the pagoda violate Buddha's rules."

Though watching matches in silence and solemnity on TV is allowed, Non Nget said that betting on the games would not be tolerated. "If I found any monk betting money on a football match...I might fire him from the pagoda," he warned.

Now, I do know that monks can have great control. There are some Tibetan Monks that have even trained their voices to produce more than one controllable note at a time, which really takes some dedicated practice, so it's possible that those in Cambodia could watch a soccer match and not go through the violent mood swings, physical contortions, bipolar brain chemistry fritz, quadricept-building thrusts and larynx-shattering screams most fans experience.

I certainly have no problem being not only calm, but close to catatonic during matches, and I suspect some monks would happily join me in quiet meditation for the last thirty minutes of a game.

I've already warned Gay that she could be "fired from the pagoda" if she gets too rowdy. She did not look at all concerned. I'll be keeping the kids well away from her during matches.