Push
 

January 2009

Fear of a Thai Planet

01/30/09

Fear of a Thai Planet

We’re currently staying in a Chiang Mai hotel called the Riverview. The charm of any locale that calls itself “Riverview” is directly proportional, of course, to the charm of the river it views, and this one—a Liquid-Plumr backup called the Ping—is so green it makes the Chicago River look like the Caribbean. A quibble, though. We’re well positioned to take in Chiang Mai, the second-largest city in Thailand, and enjoying the...

Posted at 01:08 PM in Push | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Spice Channel

01/16/09

The Spice Channel

Bangkok’s reputation as one big, nocturnal XXX sex show full of tattooed pole dancers and post-op ladyboys beckoning with flesh and degradation? It’s obviously still out there, but we’re too blinded by diapers and Elmo books to see it. Besides, we go to bed at 8.  Tonight, though, we kept Hannah up late and met some friends for dinner at one of Bangkok’s many night markets. I wondered if I would if I would see some...

Posted at 12:27 PM in Push | Permalink | Comments (0)
I Wanna Be Sedated

01/09/09

I Wanna Be Sedated

"All the sidewalks in Bangkok are cracked," I recall thinking just before I stepped in a hole near the National Museum and heard my right ankle snap like a Village beatnik circa 1954. As I hopped around in agony on my one good foot, my daughter began clapping, assuming this was some funny impromptu dance for her entertainment. It may as well have been. Once the pain subsided enough for my wife to examine my ankle, we realized I hadn't broken it, just twisted it unnaturally, and everyone but me lost interest...

Posted at 12:23 PM in Push | Permalink | Comments (1)

About Push

The continuing adventures of The Closer, aka Chicago's deputy dining editor and humor columnist Jeff Ruby. After chronicling his wife's pregnancy and eventual delivery on a Hyde Park floor in gory detail, Ruby fast-forwards a year to his paternity leave, during which his threesome inexplicably decided to travel 10,000 miles away. Again, Push is more slog than blog, since the events aren't happening in real time, but rather a flashback to three people fumbling their way from the jungles of Vietnam to a strange island off the Great Barrier Reef seemingly populated only by Japanese schoolgirls to the sickest bathroom in Thailand. And again, nothing is omitted.

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