|
Home
: News and Events : Joe-isms
Joe-isms
Throughout his courageous battle with cancer, Joe never ceased to impress his friends and co-workers with his extraordinary sense of humor and strength of spirit. Here are a few of our favorite quotations:
“If all else fails, I'm thinking of one of two options -- play the Franco card (keep me frozen and trot me out for meetings with biggies) or a modest version of Lenin's tomb in our new space (construction is just underway, so there is still time to reconfigure the reception area).”
“After Friday's endoscopy that foreshadowed yesterday's results, Marsha and I went to see ‘Spamalot.’ Leaving the Colonial Theatre, I felt that whistling "Look on the Bright Side of Life" seemed appropriate.”
“My doc at the BI, Keith Stuart, head of GI oncology, said that tumors that could be identified and measured in tests in May, June and July have diminished somewhat. He said there was ‘shrinkage’ everywhere. I assume that Dr. Stuart, reserved and stolid Torontonian that he is, was not making a Seinfeldian reference.”
“…light Italian reds may be the answer to my query about what red wines go best with chemo. After watching a few FIFA minutes of the weasely Italian team in action (?) against Germany and France (during commercials in baseball games) -- taking faux flops that would embarrass even NBA players -- I feel compelled to eschew all Italian wines for the next four years, if I live that long. I think I'll take up with young Zinfandels -- enological equivalent of Young Frankenstein.”
“I've decided since you all are working so hard covering for me that I'll volunteer to take on a role that Frank Melville pioneered for those of us who grew up with the Trust -- that of clipping service. In my enforced and steroid-induced leisure, I have time to find snippets of news, facts and quotes that may have escaped you but which may bring further illumination to your quotidian routine.”
“There are no baseline data on the impact/effects of the drug combo I'll be given because it has only been tried once before on someone with gastric cancer (I think the other guy died!). The good thing is that I must take steroids to counteract the side effects of the more experimental of the two drugs I'll be taking -- I'll thus be high and also probably able to hit 70 homeruns this summer.”
“During the due diligence process of the past thirty days (it's only been that long), I decided to engage all the docs I've seen in political talk, usually by responding to the standard query about allergic reactions by answering, Bush. If they laughed or started talking about the repressive nature of the present thugs in power, I knew I'd be willing to hand over my future to them, which I have now done. It is, of course, a highly unscientific approach.”
|