Sly

I have some lymphoma-related stuff -- exciting research -- to share, and I will soon, but I just found out that today is Sylvester Stallone's 63rd birthday, so I need to give a quick shout out to him, because he's awesome. The original Rocky remains my favorite movie of all time, and I've loved so many more of his other movies, good and so-bad-it's-good, over the years.

This will be, like, three straight non-cancer blog posts, so I'll try to relate some Stallone stuff to lymphoma, just to "keep it real."

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Of course, the best thing about Stallone, lymphoma-wise, is that he introduced the world to Mr. T, lymphoma survivor, featured in Lympho Bob's Nodes of Gold. Here's a clip of Mr. T in Rocky III, set to "Eye of the Tiger."

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I have to say how much I appreciate my wife's patience with me when it comes to Rocky. She will (though a little reluctantly) act out scenes with me from the Rocky series. One of my favorites is in this clip, which I like to act out when Isabel and I are standing on a beach. Go ahead to about 2:15, when Adrian lists all of things they have that that can be replaced, and asks Rocky for the truth, and he tells her, "I'm afraid! For the first time in my life I'm afraid!" We act that one out a lot. It's some great acting, and some even better tight shorts and tube socks. Stick around for the training montage (though Isabel and I don't act that out).

I act out this one even more often, usually when Isabel is taking a nap and I need to wake her up. In the scene, which happens the night before his first fight, Rocky sits on the bed as Adrian sleeps. Rocky admits to her that he knows he can't beat Apollo Creed. He gives a little speech about it. At that point, Isabel is usually awake enough to join in, and says Adrian's line, "So what are you going to do?" Rocky lies down (and so do I) and explains that he just wants to go the distance. (Can't find the whole scene, which is a sdhame -- just this small piece of it.)

I suppose those aren't exactly lymphoma-related, but they're nice life lessons, and really, isn't that what we have to thank Stallone for?

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Of course, those of you who are Facebook friends of mine know that I use this photo of Stallone from Rocky Balboa as my image.

I use it partly because I don't want my students to see my pitcure on Facebook and use it in ways they shouldn't (I've heard too many stories of that happening), but also because most days I feel like a 60 year old palooka. Especially after a run, it seems.

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Finally, Stallone's career is so up-and-down (Oscar nominee, then named Worst Actor of the Century by the Razzies, then wins acting awards for Cop Land, then makes a movie like Rambo 4 -- that it's kind of like the waxing and waning of Follicular NHL.

OK, that cancer connection is stretch, but still -- you know you love Stallone, and there's at least one movie in this body of work that you'll watch, guiltily, on a rainy Saturday afternoon when you find it whille flipping through channels when there's nothing else to do. What finer tribute is there?